El Rey Court debuts its chic hotel cocktail bar
Chic La Reina bar open for business as El Rey Court upgrade advances
El Rey Court sits in the middle of an otherwise charmless stretch of mid-Cerrillos Road like a rosebush that blew in from someplace else, took root and thrived against the odds. While its vintage sign is not the only Route 66-esque kitsch on the block, El Rey, with its deceptively sprawling lot of quaint cottages and romantic, old-growth shrubbery, stands out as a different species of small hotel.
The hotel has recently changed hands, purchased by a Texas-based company called Bullwhip Capital Partners. Jay and Alison Carroll, who live in Joshua Tree, Calif., are both design professionals (who also have a small-batch extra virgin olive oil business). They initially were brought in by the new owners to do the branding and creative direction of the renovations, which will give the place a subtle upgrade while maintaining its unique patina.
“One of the main guys [at Bullwhip Capital Partners], Jeff Burns, is an old friend,” says Jay Carroll. “I believe he had a flight canceled out of the local airport eight years ago, and he ended up staying [at El Rey] one night and fell in love with the property. He kept in touch with the old owner until he was ready to sell.”
After a year spent in Santa Fe, living at El Rey, the Carrolls are now partners in the endeavor. “We fell in love with it, too,” Jay Carroll says. The renovations of the rooms and pool are proceeding slowly, sure to ramp up as the summer progresses. In the meantime, El Rey has quietly opened a new bar, the aptly named La Reina, in what was formerly its breakfast room.
La Reina does not, in description, sound like it jibes with the twee, shabby-chic cottage exterior of the property. Inside it looks like a watering hole on Star Wars’ Tatooine, both minimalist and primal. The bright white adobe interior walls make you feel like you’re inside a subterranean cave carved out of soap or sandstone, and the only decorations are stark, primordial line drawings by graphic designer John Zabawa that evoke the caves at Lascaux more than they do Canyon Road. But this is the charm of La Reina — its old adobe walls and luscious gardens (harkening back to a time when it used to rain here) are authentically Santa Fe without any of the tired tropes that usually signify Santa Fe Style.
“The property has such good bones; it was about taking away some things that were there and simplifying the spaces,” Jay Carroll says. “There was such good light in that room, with this beautiful big skylight, and we’re celebrating historic architecture with the nichos and the kiva.”
The bar itself (and it is a full bar) is helmed by Laurel Hunziker, who has built a small menu of craft Annie Brothers samples La Reina’s Los Cerrillos cocktail, left, while Leslie Gonzales tries the eponymous La Reina freshly prepared by Hunziker.
cocktails around agave spirits. The signature house drink is La Reina, a summery, hard liquor-based, sangria-like concoction of agua de jamaica (hibiscus tea), Casamigos Reposado tequila, Ilegal Mezcal and Ancho Reyes, a spicy, poblano chile-based Mexican liqueur, garnished with powdered cinnamon. There’s also the King’s Margarita, of course, and Los Cerrillos, which is essentially a mezcalbased Manhattan. The Ranch Water is meant as an homage to the new Texas-based owners, a cooler of blanco tequila, Topo Chico sparkling water and lime. And the Piña Picante, Jay Carroll’s favorite, is a fruity amalgamation of jalapeño-infused tequila, mezcal and pineapple, with a smoked chile-salt rim.
All these drinks have a certain warm-weather quality to them, perfect for, say, poolside sipping, which will become a possibility when El Rey opens its old Hollywood-style swimming pool this summer, complete with pool bar. And while sneaking into hotel swimming pools is a bit of an unwritten Santa Fe pastime, there’s no need at El Rey. The hotel will offer a pool club that locals can join — and not for the first time.
“I found this small archive that the last owner had left behind,” Jay Carroll says. “In the ’70s and ’80s there actually was a pool club that locals could join and get a pass.”
La Reina doesn’t have a kitchen, but it does have an ever-expanding lineup of bar snacks, like blue corn popcorn and chile pistachios. While a more robust food program is potentially in the offing, no fiesta or pool fiesta is complete without munchies. With that in mind, La Reina will invite various food trucks to fill the gap on weekends. Back Road Pizza already is committed to showing up every Friday evening as of April 20; the Saturday lineup is to be determined.
La Reina is open from 5 to 11 p.m. (or later, if it’s hopping) Thursday through Sunday. Its location, far from the central knot of downtown Santa Fe, might make it one of Santa Fe’s hidden gems for thirsty locals as well as hotel guests.
“We hope to be a place where locals come,” Jay Carroll says. “Thursdays we have locals’ promotions. If you show a New Mexico ID, we take 10 percent off your tab.”