New Guadalupe Street eatery puts fun spin on taco flavors
High-end but affordable, Paloma fills Mexican food gap in downtown Santa Fe
The word is “supergroup.” When musicians who are already talented in their own right combine their powers, the result, when it works, is an epic Avengers-like uberteam like ABBA or Cream. And when food professionals merge their skills, you get Santa Fe’s new date night go-to, birthday party slam-dunk, where should we eat no-brainer restaurant: Paloma.
The team behind Paloma is owner/manager Marja Martin, chef Nathan Mayes and barmeister Joe Haggard. Martin is a longtime Santa Fe caterer (she is the “Marja” of Marja’s Custom Catering) and is the prime mover of Paloma, which opened last week at 409 Guadalupe St., that prime piece of real estate halfway between the Railyard and the Plaza.
“I decided to do this after 20 years in catering, and I would not have chosen to do this had I not met these two gentlemen,” Martin says. “I had a catering company … here in Santa Fe for 20 years. It was very busy, big client base, a lot of out-of-town brides, destination wedding stuff. They are so inspiring and so talented. I had the right team. That’s what inspired us to do this.”
Anyone who dined at the building known on city plans as 409 Guadalupe St. will find it much changed. Follow the enigmatic metal cutout sign of a dove
(paloma means dove, in case you don’t have Google translate on you) and enter Martin’s brave new world of light, air and bright colors. Gone is the strange zebra mural of yesterday, replaced with a fully renovated brick-faced bar, folk art, quirky light fixtures and slowly rotating fans that give the place an air of a central American expatriate hangout, breezy but dressed up, elegant but never fussy. This is a place you can put on your date night clothes and eat tacos.
“And the building wanted to be a Mexican restaurant,” says Martin. “We asked the building, what do you want to be? And that’s what it said.”
Chef/culinary wunderkind Mayes has slung a spatula all over town, from the Betterday to Arroyo Vino to Eloisa, mastering the gamut of breakfast burritos to classical French cuisine. Mayes comes from a restaurant family in Austin, Texas, and Mexican food hits right to his core.
“It’s one of my favorite dining experiences — being able to sit around a table with your friends, share food, taste spices, add spices to your food, kind of customize your stuff as much as you want,” says Mayes.
Accordingly, all of Paloma’s tacos come with a salsa sampler, including a roasted red, a green and a pico de gallo, as well as bottled habanero and spicy pickles so you can add some personalized “bam” to each bite.
Mayes’ dedication to unfussiness hasn’t stopped him from indulging in some of the tricks of bespoke cooking that high-end chefs love. Mayes churns out absolutely everything from scratch, including their tortillas, which go from corn kernel to taco wrap entirely within the confines of Paloma’s kitchen. Mayes is also dedicated to using local meats and produce as much as possible (since from Paloma you could throw a margarita and hit the Farmers Market), as well as mixing in some classical French technique, creating a flavor profile that is as much Mayes as it is Mexican.
“I consider our food to be Mexican-inspired food,” says Mayes. “Some of it is very traditional, some is very nontraditional. I think that Mexican food is similar to soul food in that it’s so satisfying for so many people, and everyone has their own idea of what Mexican food is. This is kind of my interpretation of what I like the most about these things.”
The lamb barbacoa is a good example. Using local lamb in place of the usual beef, Mayes cooks the meat according to traditional techniques: slowly, with smoke, wrapping it in banana leaves and allowing it to cook long enough to almost shred on its own. A little cucumber-lime Mexican crema with preserved lemon makes it a Paloma original. You can also get duck carnitas, with duck legs in place of pork, cured and crisped in duck fat instead of lard, or the vegetarian-yet-sublime cauliflower frito tacos with marcona almonds, golden raisins and Spanish olives.
“The goal was to take classical Mexican taco flavor profiles and put a fun spin on it,” says Mayes.
Paloma also isn’t afraid of a good food trend when it sees one, particularly when it has its roots in Mexican traditional cuisine: the small plates side of the menu includes tacos tuétanos, bone marrow tacos, for which the marrow is to be scooped out of the bone and served with warm tortillas and a little bit of lime. You can also get elotes (whole corn on the cob with cotija cheese and lime). You’re welcome.
And of course, all those tacos will leave you parched, which is where the third member of the supergroup, barslayer/cocktail alchemist/notable manbun Haggard has your back. Along with a suite of unpretentious Mexican beers (you can get a Sol for $3, if you like) you can peruse the lovingly curated wine list or opt for one of Haggard’s craft cocktails or a high-end mezcal. Haggard, a longtime Santa Fean and St. John’s College graduate, has mixed drinks and poured taps all over town, from pouring Belgians at Duel Brewing to running Eloisa’s craft cocktail bar. The drinks at Paloma are intended to fit in with the food — to be unfussy while still showing up with class.
“I want there to be some display of craft cocktail technique — I expect my bar staff to be able to put together a classic cocktail — but I want the drinks to come out fast, be unpretentious, full of flavor and inexpensive,” says Haggard (cocktails are about $9 to $11). “We’re not doing frozen margaritas yet, but we thought about it,” he adds. Until that day, you can try the refreshing Flor Chingona (vodka, lemon, tarragon, elderflower) or the Diablo (mezcal, lime, cassia and ginger soda).
The raison d’etre of Paloma, besides being successful and delicious and all that, was to fill a niche in the Santa Fe culinary landscape that is, currently, vacant. There is, really, very little in the way of Mexican (Mexican, mind you, not New Mexican) food in town, especially downtown, that falls in the medium price point between the ultra high-end Sazón or Eloisa and a taco truck. The price point at Paloma hits a reasonable middle ground between cheap and high-end: Tacos are generous and you get two for $10, small plates are the same, and the larger dishes max out at $22 for a whole sea bass Veracruz, a Mexican specialty served Mayes-style, grilled with poached tomato, green olives, pickled lemon and fried capers.
“The most frequent comment we’ve gotten is ‘Santa Fe needs this,’ ” says Haggard. “Mexican food allows for that. It’s harder to do with classic French cuisine. Mexican food is simple, bright loud flavors and you can get that without breaking the bank.”
“[Nate and I] are both from Texas, and we’re presenting the food we crave, that we had in Texas and California, that is not really well-presented here except at a high-end level like Sazón,” says Martin. “It’s for locals, a price point that’s friendly to locals, and accessible to tourists. It’s the food I crave and that I want all the time. I’m a very frequent taco truck patron, but I wanted it in an environment where I could sit and enjoy it.”