Coyote Cafe - Santa Fe, NM - February 2010

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This is going to be a very short entry. We are food lovers and it is probably one of our biggest joys in life. We live for food. We love finding new places and restaurants and rarely do we go back to the same place twice unless it's amzing...so many other places to eat!) Well, "the books" had an entry called, "SANTE FE's SOUTHWEST CUISINE," and since SANTA FE is only 60 miles away we made the trek to Santa Fe for a night of good food and relaxing in front of a fire (Santa Fe is freezing in February).

COYOTE CAFE was on the list. It is a very well known restaurant, with our very own celebrity chef, Eric DiStephano, creating southwestern inspired cuisine. We were definitely in for a treat. We started off with a Ceasar Salad. As the picture shows you this is not your average Ceasar salad - presentation wise. It was good though. The wine was good, the elk was good, the lamb was amazing and dessert was sweet and delicious. It was a great meal, great ambiance, and good service. One of the BEST meals we've had!!

We decided to spend the night at LAS PALOMAS INN. We were rather sceptial since it was pretty cheap and cheap accomodation and Santa Fe is not usually mentioned in the same sentence. We were pleasantly surprised. It's Southwest style adobe casitas, with a cozy rustic feel and appearance with an awesome bed - do not forget to request an adobe with a fireplace. We were really looking forward to this since what is better than sitting in front of a fireplace after an awesome meal. Well - they give you plenty of fire wood, but generally you need to start the fire with some smaller stuff and that "smaller stuff" was not available - especially considering it's been raining all week and that it was 30 degrees outisde. I started looking for some dry spots outside and found some small pieces of wood and paper and 2 hours later we had a fire - too bad that Nik was sound asleep by this time (oh well).

The next day we had brunch at Harry's Roadhouse. It's a popular local place, not too far from the Tourquoise Trail. It appeared on The Food Network's "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives," and a place to celebrity watch (Gene Hackman is a regular.) We've heard only good things about this place, but unfortunately it was not a great experience for us (bad service, cold food, not what we ordered, etc.). We went with some friends and they happened to be pretty good friends with the owner so somehow it got out that we just had a terrible experience so a week later we had certificates to a free meal compliments of Harry himself. He apologized over and over for our experience. We never made it back (even though we wanted to) because a little something-something came up/ happened. Maybe you'll find out in the next blog why we never made it back. Coyote Cafe was worth it. A little pricey, but you pay for what you eat and the food was worth every penny.

Well one thing to cross off - Santa Fe's Southwest Cuisine. 84 down and 3,238 to go.

Green and Red Chili's

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Photos

Coyote Cafe
Dessert - yam

Cowboy Cafe
Colorado Lamb!!

Coyote Cafe
Ceasar Salad?