The Pantry to open third SF restaurant
Pantry Rio set to open downtown in October
SANTA FE — First there was the Pantry.
Then a year ago came the Pantry Dos. And soon there will be a third Pantry restaurant in Santa Fe, this one downtown at the northeast corner of Galisteo and West Alameda. But it won’t be called Pantry Tres. “We’re calling it Pantry Rio, because it’s by the river,” said Stan Singley, co-owner of the Pantry enterprise along with Max Myers, whose father George founded the original Pantry restaurant on Cerrillos Road in 1948.
Located at 229 Galisteo across West Alameda from the Santa Fe River, the Pantry Rio will occupy the space formerly occupied by the French restaurant L’Olivier, which closed last month.
Singley said when L’Olivier announced on Facebook that it was closing, he and Myers were intrigued about the possibility of taking up that location. It’s just a few blocks away from the city’s historic Plaza and walking distance from downtown hotels and government buildings.
“Our Pantry on Cerrillos Road does a lot of tourist business,” he said. “Knowing that — and that they all seem to come from downtown — we thought this would be a good location. And quite honestly, it will take pressure off that one.”
The iconic Pantry restaurant on Cerrillos has long been popular with tourists and locals alike. It, too, will undergo changes, Singley said.
“We learned a lot from COVID,” he said, adding that the temporary patio set up for outdoor dining during the pandemic will likely be renovated into a permanent patio.
“It’ll look a lot like this one,” he said of the flagstone patio that wraps around two sides of the Pantry Rio.
The 1,700-square-foot patio at the Pantry Rio doubles the available dining space, as the building itself is 1,760 square feet, including the kitchen.
The building has gone through several incarnations, beginning as a gas station. It’s also been a curio store and rug shop before being converted into a restaurant. At least three different restaurants have occupied the space. L’Olivier had been there since 2013.
The Pantry Rio will start by serving just a breakfast and lunch. But Singley said plans are to later open for dinner.
“I think dinner will be a huge business,” he said, adding that the restaurant is licensed to serve beer and wine.
The Pantry Dos, opened last year in Oshara Village near Santa Fe Community College, already offers a dinner menu along with breakfast and lunch.
Singley said the Pantry Rio is shooting for an Oct. 1 opening, but that will depend on whether they can finish a few renovations by then.