earthly elegance
TERRA
Located just 15 minutes from the heart of Santa Fe by highway — 30 minutes or so if you meander along the slower-moving, lushly green canopy that frames Bishop’s Lodge Road as it passes through the village of Tesuque — the 57-acre Four Seasons Resort Rancho Encantado offers casually elegant fine dining in a serene setting.
Some of the artwork at The Bar, Rancho Encantado’s more casual dining space, has changed over the decade the resort has been open — the last six years under Four Seasons management. But the specialty cocktails still riff on Southwestern memes — like the Atomic Manhattan, a nod to what’s playing at the nearby Santa Fe Opera, and a darkly delicious HighAltitude Sangria built around a Sangiovese base from Dixon’s Vivác Winery and sweetened with Cointreau and pineapple-cherry juice.
We were happy to find that Larry the barman, who has been with the property for a decade, is still there, still delivering wryly friendly service and well-crafted drinks. His Aperol spritz, an aperitif that has only recently become popular in the U.S., was a perfect balance of the citrusy-bitter liqueur and bubbly prosecco, topped with just a splash of club soda.
The Santa Fe Local Flair column of the bar menu — tacos, tortilla soup, enchiladas, and posole — makes up half the menu, but we chose to explore the other options. Bar food can often be judged by its signature burger — and the Terra Burger, perfectly cooked to medium rare, as ordered, delivered a lively medley of flavors and textures. Crisp strips of candied red-chile bacon, smoked gouda, and house-smoked green chile, all held together with a roasted garlicavocado spread, rendered the slices of onion, tomato, and butter lettuce on the plate unnecessary. The side of onion rings (fries are also available) was messy but equally delicious. A tall draft of Bosque Brewing Amber Ale was the perfect partner to it all.
I rarely order fish in landlocked New Mexico, raw fish not at all, but I spotted ahi tuna poke on the bar’s starter menu and decided to take a chance — largely because executive chef Kai Autenrieth arrived in Santa Fe from the company’s West Indies property, by way of South America, Australia, and the Caribbean. I was sure he would know his way around seafood, and my trust was rewarded: the buttery ruby-red ahi, bright green avocado, finely diced scallions, red onion, and yellow mango, the whole generously coated with eel sauce — a salty-sweet blend of soy, sake, and sugar, no unagi in sight! — was an umami explosion.
Dessert was the only letdown of the day. Most of the Sweet Endings Sharing Bites — an assortment of lemon tartlets, fried maple-bacon doughnuts, and cakelike chocolate financiers — were dry and bland. The dark-chocolate-glazed, ice cream-filled profiteroles saved the plate.
Terra, Encantado’s more formal dining room, is a serene, uncrowded space — think Bauhaus style filtered through the California sensibility of the original management. It’s odd, at first glance, to note that all the chairs at tables along the window wall have their backs to the room — until you realize the unusual
A Colorado lamb rack topped with a savory, salty piñon crust arrived rare, as ordered, bathed in its own fat; roasted asparagus spears and the blue-cheese foam filling a sculpted potato added more smoky goodness to the dish.
placement allows diners to view the often spectacular sunsets visible off the west-facing deck. A Saturday night visit in high season brought two surprises: an almost empty dining room and a well-priced prix-fixe opera dinner. The three-course prix-fixe — available only on evenings when the opera is in performance — includes a choice of three starters, four entrees, and a single dessert. Although meat, particularly beef, is the true star of the dinner offerings, both the fixed price and full menu include several vegetarian choices — on this day, it was green gazpacho, blue corn tamales, and roasted oyster mushrooms.
We chose the crab cake and slow-braised beef short ribs from the prix-fixe menu. The crab cake, topped with a crisp apple and fennel slaw and enriched with wide swaths of tomato jam and a garlicky poblano aioli, was just the way we like it: more crab than cake. The ribs arrived atop a generous mound of greenchile mashed potatoes sided with perfectly cooked green beans and more of that smoky tomato jam. The dessert of the night was a rich New Mexico-inspired coffee pot de crème topped with a fine-grained chocolate-dipped biscotto. Although the custard was a bit firmer than is usual, the rich chocolate did not disappoint.
We asked our server for wine recommendations and her selections paired perfectly with our meals: a sturdy Côtes du Rhône rosé balanced nicely with the summer night and the opera menu selections; the Iconoclast Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley brought soft tannins and dark fruit to the beef and lamb that followed.
The adovado-rubbed beef carpacchio starter from the à la carte menu delivered a few parchment-thin slices of sweet, raw beef topped with fine threads of frizzled potatoes, all sitting aside a tangle of bitter watercress, sweet roasted tomatoes; crisp, salty fried capers; and a foamy scoop of mustardy sorbet — all the flavors and textures playing nicely together. A Colorado lamb rack topped with a savory, salty piñon crust arrived rare, as ordered, bathed in its own fat; roasted asparagus spears and the blue-cheese foam filling a sculpted potato added more smoky goodness to the dish.
Terra’s original take on Black Forest cake topped all the desserts we sampled. A witty construction of moist cake, chocolate ganache, and cream topped with three faux cherries and a curve of dark chocolate bark, it was as delicious as it was visually striking. Larry recommended it during our first visit. We should have listened to him.
As the light faded and the room dimmed, the firelight at the front of the room began reflecting off an array of glasses at a large table occupied by an extended family, the golden moment interrupted by a small, barefoot child gleefully running from the front to the back of the dining room, her mother in close pursuit. It was a perfect ending to a graceful evening unsullied by a whiff of pretense.