Santa Fe’s original microbrewery celebrating 21st anniversary
Santa Fe’s original microbrewery is celebrating its 21st anniversary with a new taproom serving up an eclectic menu and concert offerings
Are you 21? This is the question you’re faced with when you visit the Second Street Brewery website, and you must answer in the affirmative, because in the U.S., 21 is the magic age at which you are deemed mature enough to experience alcoholic beverages. This year, finally, Second Street Brewery, Santa Fe’s original microbrewery and pub, is old enough to drink its own product.
Second Street Brewery marked its big 21st birthday by stretching its legs and getting a big shiny new place of its own on the quasi-south side, the Rufina Taproom. The company has two locations already (the original one on Second Street and one at the Railyard downtown), but the Rufina Taproom, which opened in August, houses its new expanded production line and a 20-barrel brewing facility that will churn out an expanded suite of beers. The Rufina location has 24 taps, and right now has 14 of its own beers on tap, as well as two New Mexico guest taps.
“We’re doing a 21-beer program for 2018 to celebrate our 21st anniversary,” says Rufina Taproom front-of-house manager Mariah Cameron Scee, “digging out 21 recipes from the archives, on average two per month, and brewing in small batches.” This month, for example, the Rufina Taproom has an “IPA 1000” made with vintage hop strains.” There also will be kettle soured beer, and Rauschbier (smoked beer) as part of the 21st-anniversary program.
“We’re doing some barleywines, some aged beers that haven’t been done in a while, recipes that some of the regulars haven’t done in a long time,” adds Scee. The Rufina production facility also will churn out Second Street’s first beer in cans, another milestone for the big two-one. It plans to release just one beer to begin with, and then expand for distribution throughout the state.
According to Scee, the choice to open on Rufina in what is casually called the Siler industrial corridor had as much to do with the availability of warehouse space (10,000 square feet allows for a lot of legstretching) as well as the desire to be part of a fastgrowing neighborhood anchored by Meow Wolf.
The Rufina location has an industrial-rustic vibe about it, less restaurant and more party barn, which is by design. While the other two Second Street locations traditionally have featured local musicians at dinnertime, the Rufina Taproom was designed as an event venue, intended to house concerts three to four times a month, currently being curated by local musician and record producer Eliza Lutz.
“The music program here is totally different,” Scee says. “It’s music that Santa Fe wouldn’t be seeing necessarily otherwise, spanning a pretty wide range of genres. The New Year’s Eve show [was] three local punk bands, we’re doing the Metal Mondays that was at The Underground, and some Americana, some indie pop stuff. It’s all happening after dinner. … We did a great job with the sound, put a permanent stage in here, and there’s a green room being built in the back.”
But the Rufina Taproom is a restaurant as well, albeit a more casual one than the Railyard location or even the more laid-back original location. The Rufina Taproom is more of a sandwiches-and-small plates concept, with a Cajun vibe — company head chef Milton Villarubia is originally from New Orleans.
The menu is not identical to the other locations, making up for the lack of large dinner plates with an expanded suite of sandwiches, which range from $9 to $13. You can get a Cuban sandwich with ham and local Barrio Brinery pickles, or a muffaletta with ham, salami, mortadella and cheese, or a classic blackened catfish po’boy with remoulade sauce. The appetizer/small plates/sides menu features corn maque choux, a kind of mixed vegetable succotash, and the menu will feature a gumbo of the day every day.
Unique to the Rufina location are the “Crispy Asian chicken meatballs,” panko-breaded ground chicken balls served with peanut sauce that also serve as the filling for the Rufina-only “Po-mi” sandwich, which they describe as “the lovechild of a Po’ Boy and a Bánh Mi.”
Also, while the other locations have featured house-made sausages from time to time, particularly at Oktoberfest, sausages are on the menu year-round at Rufina. It has a bratwurst and a “Bollywurst” (pork sausage with east Indian spices, yellow mustard seeds and red wine), which you can get as a sandwich. Or
try the “Rufina Dogo,” which is essentially a hot dog wrapped in bacon. And in addition to the gumbo, the taproom serves a ramen bowl called the “Ramanana,” a vegetarian noodle bowl with adovada-spiced tofu and house-made miso broth.
The kitchen is open late, perfect for hungry music fans (doors for concerts open at 8, and the kitchen is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day), though you can get chips and salsa and guacamole until midnight.
Of course, this is not to say that some of Second Street Brewery’s rabid fans, in testing out the new location, won’t ask for a few indulgences. Any restaurant open 21 years is bound to have a few things that regulars cannot live without.
“People ask about the favorites from the other locations — it’s the fish and chips mostly, and the nachos,” Scee says. “We are adding the nachos on the menu revision.”
Plus, the Rufina Taproom, like any good 21-yearold, will be celebrating its birthday all year with a little bit of boozing.
“On the 21st of every month, we’re doing a happy hour all day,” Scee says, “with 1996 prices: $3.50 a pint.”