YOUTHFUL TREND
Thirty-something self-taught foodsters revitalizing Santa Fe scene
Afew years ago, a common saying around town went something like this: “Santa Fe eats its young.” Squeezed by an impossible housing market, a lack of well-paying jobs and nightlife, and a city that often felt dominated by retirees, much of the under-40 crowd seemed to move to Santa Fe and leave shortly thereafter — or, if they were born and raised here, leave to seek greener pastures out of state.
But if the restaurant industry is any indication of a demographic shift, a new set of self-taught foodsters, all in their 30s, is changing the local landscape. They’re rolling with the COVID-19 punches, sourcing ingredients as close to home as possible, and innovating how we order and eat. Here are three to watch — and support.
TENDER FIRE KITCHEN: This 4-month-old sourdough pizza pop-up at El Rey Court stems from owner-operator Ben Crosky’s desire to do something new with his life. The result? No big deal, just the best pizza in Santa Fe.
In March, Crosky drove to Oregon to bring back a secondhand, wood-fired pizza oven covered in dreamy blue mosaic tiles. The portable oven is as artful as the pies it produces on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings in El Rey’s parking lot. Crosky, who has been making sourdough for less than a year, crafts a tangy, smoky crust that expertly walks a tightrope between elasticity and crunch. His ingredients are impeccable: stone-ground wheat and sausage from Gosar Ranch, herbs and veggies from Paradox Farm and Annie’s Herbs, and finishing drizzles of chile-infused honey or sprinkles of Maldon salt.
With the first bite of Tender Fire’s classic margherita ($15), I was transported to the five years I spent in Brooklyn. Back then, I’d ride my bike to Di Fara Pizza to watch famed pizzaiolo Domenico DeMarco meticulously customize pies, then load them into an ancient wood-burning oven. Each one of Tender Fire’s 9-inch pizzas takes less than 90 seconds to bake, but they are days in the making. Customers order and pay online several days in advance — a new weekly menu goes up on Tuesdays and tends to sell out by Wednesday. In the meantime, Crosky ferments the sourdough.
Back to the margherita: the San Marzano tomato sauce has a zingy flavor as distinctive as the dough it’s layered over. It’s blanketed in creamy mozzarella, a touch of pecorino and basil leaves. A soppressata pizza ($17) is dotted with zesty salami rounds that are caramelized by high heat, then filled with dollops of hot honey and sprinkled with flaky salt.
A white nettle pizza ($17) spotlights the zip of those lacy greens, which are soaked in cream and joined by subtle green garlic, red pepper flakes, and a milky lake of fontina and mozzarella. For dessert, try the Sweetie Pie ($18), a regular pepperoni pizza candied up with dates and mascarpone.
COQUETTE: “A cake in a Mason jar?” my dad asked skeptically. I served him a mound of Caitlin Olsen’s chocolate cake Cockaigne with buttercream frosting and Heidi’s Farm raspberries ($15 for a jar that served three) and he shut up pretty quick.
Olsen pioneered Coquette, her cake-in-a-jar bakery, on the beaches of Montauk, New York, last year. The selftaught baker figured people picnicking on the beach needed a no-mess dessert. In March, she moved back to Santa Fe and started right up in a commercial kitchen. Customers order nine cakes for free delivery or pickup, online or by phone. Olsen layers them right into the jar, then decorates them with fanciful gauze, glitter and ribbon.
She says her cakes are big with the dinner party crowd, but she also makes traditional cheesecakes and wedding cakes. I fell in love with her tres leches cake with coconut and fresh mango chunks ($15); the jar seemed the perfect vehicle to showcase its spongy, creamy stratum.
BREAD SHOP: Jacob Brenner’s bakery is the only one of these businesses that predate the pandemic — but not by much. The Santa Fe-born baker opened his Lena Street outpost at the end of January.
Like Tender Fire’s Crosky, Brenner began making sourdough bread as a hobby. But after a line-cook stint at Paloma, he stepped boldly into the void with Bread Shop. The response was immediate, with Brenner’s handcrafted and naturally leavened loaves and focaccia regularly selling out by early afternoon. Since the pandemic, Bread Shop does most of its sales through online pre-order, with many items gone several days in advance.
The sourdough boule ($9) is Bread Shop’s cornerstone.
Brenner makes baguettes, too, as well as a sandwich loaf with oats and millet, and a three-seed rye bread with flax, sunflower and pumpkin seeds. But the bestseller seems to be focaccia, which comes in 4- by 6-inch moist, airpocketed slices, either plain ($3.75), brushed with crushed tomatoes ($4.25), topped with apricots and honey ($2.75), or encrusted with green olives, chile oil and salt ($4.25).