Santa Fe’s oldest restaurant (circa 1918), the Plaza Cafe is so popular that long waits to be seated are commonplace. Compound that with the hassle of trying to find a parking spot that isn’t a marathon’s length to walk to and from the Cafe then having to navigate through throngs of awestruck tourists and it’s a restaurant we don’t visit as often as we’d like. Our visits might become even more infrequent thanks to the 2003 launch of the Plaza Cafe’s sister restaurant (albeit a sister that’s 84 years younger) on Santa Fe’s south side.
The Plaza Cafe Southside, situated in San Isidro Plaza on Zafarano Drive, is a welcome respite from the challenges inherent with trying to dine in the teeming tourist traversed Plaza area. It’s one of an increasing number of excellent restaurants situated well outside Santa Fe’s well beaten, well eatin’ Plaza area. It’s also one of several very good restaurants within easy walking distance of the Regal Cinemas 14. It’s the Plaza Cafe Southside’s second home. For its first six years, the Cafe occupied cozy, but cramped confines within a motel off Cerrillos.
The Plaza Cafe Southside is the brainchild of Leonard Razatos who “wanted to bring a little of the old Santa Fe to the new Santa Fe.” A “new” Santa Fe can certainly describe the burgeoning south side which has shown tremendous growth over the past decade. “Old” Santa Fe begins and ends with the famous Santa Fe Plaza, fittingly home to the Plaza Cafe, the city’s oldest restaurant. In 1947, Greek immigrant Dionysi “Danny” Razatos, purchased the restaurant and together with his wife and six children has fed Santa Fe ever since. Leonard upholds the family tradition within the trappings of a modern edifice which might not work well in the architectural restricted plaza area.
Where the Cafe’s first digs were cramped and cozy, its new home is capacious and comfortable. Despite the modernity of high ceilings, industrial-style ductwork and steel girders, the Cafe retains the appearance of an old-fashioned diner. Undulating neon festoons the service area where an industrious wait staff delivers and picks up orders. Suspended from the ceiling is a colorful four-sided mural depicting the culture of Santa Fe, not so much in an idyllic fashion, but in a mode which might best describe the things that make it the “City Different.” The bar soffit mural painted by local artist Robb Rael depicts the Zozobra, skeletal images from el Dia de los Muertos, pueblo-style architectural homes and more, all in the artist’s unique interpretive style. It, too, is festooned by 1950s style neon.
The first thing you notice when you walk in to the Plaza Cafe Southside is a dessert case that’s wider than it is tall. Behind glass are some of the most sumptuous, calorie-laden confections ever crafted. It’s a wonder there aren’t tongue trails on the glass because behind it, just waiting for hungry diners, are the Plaza Cafe’s famous cajeta apple pecan pie, served in huge slabs with or without ice cream. There’s also the fabulous coconut cream pie (in a macaroon shell), pastel tres leches and other mouth-watering desserts.
Step into the restaurant on a lazy Sunday morning and it’s a good bet you’ll be cheerfully greeted by Karen Webb, one of the city’s most famous and beloved hostesses. Karen gained a modicum of fame on the terrific documentary American Waitresses: New Mexico, a feature film that examines the lives, attitudes, perceptions and experiences of waitresses. Karen came across as the very effusive and warm soul she is. A mainstay at the Plaza Cafe Southside, she greets guests with an endearing “darling” or “baby,” eliciting hearty hugs from many of them. She’s a true ambassador for the Cafe, pointing out the historical photographs on the wall and inviting guests to make themselves at home. When I asked if I could photograph her, she joked with another guest about “posing for a nudie.”
Their classic American diner showcases traditional cooking methods and time-honored ingredients that would make many a New Mexican abuelita proud indeed. In addition to excellent New Mexican and Mexican food, the restaurant features a few Greek entrees as well as American diner favorites and blue-plate specials. The menu is a veritable compendium of home-style diner cuisine New Mexico style with something for everyone. Some time-honored recipes have been “improved upon” with inventive ingredients in exciting combinations. Other recipes haven’t been “tampered” with and might remind you of the home cooking you got at home as a child.
Peruse the menu and quality-conscious diners will certainly appreciate reading “A Few Things We’re Proud of.” “We use local New Mexico heritage ranch, grass-fed, antibiotic-free beef. We use only cage-free eggs. We bake all our pastries and desserts from scratch daily using only the highest quality ingredients. All our breads are from scratch using only the highest quality ingredients. Our corn and flour tortillas are from a local tortillera and are free of preservatives and artificial ingredients.” How can you not love that if you care about quality?
The Southside Cafe shares most of the same menu with its sister restaurant. There are a few notable exceptions, one being the absence of the elder sibling’s roasted garlic and carnitas quesadillas, an appetizer for which you’d brave the teeming throngs. Similar to the Plaza Cafe, the Southside Cafe features oversized plastic menus emblazoned with a round image of the heavily trafficked Santa Fe plaza at the height of bustling activity. The menu is several pages long and reads like a great novel; it’s very hard to put down and even harder to make a decision as to what to order.
That menu includes several “aguas frescas,” the refreshing at any time beverages becoming increasingly popular in New Mexico. The Cafe has its own interesting twists on traditional aguas frescas. That includes a prickly pear lemonade made with tangy prickly pear puree and even prickly pear horchata, an exotic blend of almond, cinnamon and rice water with tangy prickly pear puree. The latter is an interesting departure from what can be a cloying beverage and will amaze you at how well two unique flavors meld together. For those cold mornings in which your belly needs some anti-freeze, the Ibarra Mexican hot chocolate has your number. It’s a strong hot chocolate with a rich flavor.
The appetizer section features New Mexican, Mexican, Greek and American options. If in the mood for something Greek, hummus and pita are available. The hummus, a puree of tahini, lemon, garlic, onion and garbanzo beans is oh so garlicky delicious. This terrific appetizer is served with warm pita bread. Typical of the surprising inventiveness of the menu is the fried calamari with jalapeños, tender calamari dusted with flour, flash-fried and garnished with salt, pepper and jalapeños then served with a habanero dipping sauce that’s positively piquant.
28 July 2007: If a more traditional Mexican appetizer is what you’re after, the Cafe’s housemade blue, yellow and red corn tortilla chips and three salsas (Chipotle, tomatillo and pico de gallo) is a terrific triumvirate. All three salsas are sensational and all have capsaicin enriched potency (translation: they bite back). The Chipotle salsa has a wonderfully smoky taste and is perhaps the most piquant of the three. It may also be the most addicting and will probably be the first one you finish. Guacamole and chips are also available as is a mountainous plate of nachos (tortilla chips, beans, chipotle salsa, chile con queso, chorizo, jalapeños, lettuce and tomato).
28 July 2007: The “Specials” section includes several items in which the chef’s artistic interpretations crossed into the realm of non-traditional mixing of cultures. That would apply to the Cilantro Salmon with Tomato-Habañero lasagna. The salmon filet is entree sized in and of itself. It’s a flame-grilled six-ounce slab of salmon marinated in garlic, cilantro and olive oil. It is fork-tender and surprisingly moist as well as imbued with discernable smokiness courtesy of the grill. See the word “Habañero” attached to any entree and you’re bound to think incendiary, pain-inducing, eye-watering, mouth-scalding, too hot to handle, torturous pepper.
At the Cafe, the Tomato-Habañero Lasagna is surprisingly scaled down heat-wise. In fact, the hotter-than-Hell pepper’s most discernable quality is the fruitiness with which it imbues the lasagna. It complements the acidic tomatoes and rich ricotta cheese very well. This is an excellent lasagna. As with other Italian inspired entrees at the Cafe, the tomato sauce is applied lightly so that it ameliorates, not dominates, the flavor profile. The sauce has a flavor quite like fresh tomatoes seasoned with garlic and basil. It’s an excellent sauce for lasagna or any other Italian pasta.
28 July 2007: What best defines comfort food? Many surveys will tell you it’s meatloaf and that just happens to be the Cafe’s specialty. Appropriately, it used to be found on the menu’s Blue Plate section; now it’s the special of the day on Tuesdays. This isn’t your mama’s meatloaf, unless you’re from New Mexico. This is New Mexico meatloaf stuffed with vegetables (sweet corn nibblets stand out), cheese and green chile. Unlike the meatloaf at many a diner, the Cafe’s version doesn’t have that annoying crust you have to cut through to get to the moist part. This is one of the most moist meatloaves you’ll find anywhere…and the green chile, vegetable and cheese combination imbues it with qualities that render it sublime. The meatloaf is served with mashed potatoes and gravy as well as sautéed broccoli and carrots.
23 January 2011: From the blue-plate special comes a spaghetti and meatballs entree which might have you saying “That’s amore!” with every bite. It’s the Plaza Cafe’s spaghetti with meatballs served with a tomato-marjoram sauce, bacon and Parmesan cheese. Bacon, as everyone knows, makes everything better and the Cafe’s menu boasts of “Santa Fe’s best bacon.” You won’t find bacon in every bite, but oh those spoonfuls blessed with bacon are special. The tomato-marjoram sauce is light and thin, emphasizing the flavor of tomatoes and not some thick tomato paste. Marjoram, by the way, is a member of the oregano-mint family. It’s similar to oregano, but somewhat milder. The spaghetti noodles are perfectly al dente.
23 January 2011: Yet another blue plate special which takes off where ordinary fish and chips leave off is a spicy rendition made from beer-battered cod served with a habanero tartar sauce and jalapeño malt vinegar. It’s the type of fish and chips the irascible Captain Quint from the movie Jaws would eat while daring the scholarly Matt Hooper to follow suit. Just as the two tried to out-macho one another by showing off their “battle” scars, it’s easy to imagine the two dousing their beer-battered cod filets in the jalapeño malt vinegar then chasing them down with the habanero tartar sauce all the while daring the other to spice it up even more.
To be honest, neither the jalapeño malt vinegar nor the habanero tartar sauce are that piquant, but it makes for a good story to tell. It also makes for a very good, very different fish and chips dish. The cod filets are light and flaky with a beer-batter that’s light enough to allow the superb malt vinegar to impregnate the filets with a terrific tartness. The “chips” are red chile fries, actually just fries lightly dusted with red chile. They’re great fries. Instead of some insipid salad cream, the slaw is made with an apple cider vinegar-like sauce that makes the slaw lip-pursing tangy.
28 July 2007: For just a pittance, you can add a dinner salad to any entree. As is the case with every item on the menu, this isn’t a blasé and boring salad. It’s mixed greens, strips of jicama, julienne carrots, wedges of tomato, garbanzo beans and more. Ask for the citrus vinaigrette to enliven the salad even further. If a satisfying salad is what you crave for your entree, consider the menu’s six salads which include a Greek Chicken Souvlaki salad and an inspired Middle Eastern salad (mixed greens, roasted beets and carrots, red cabbage, toasted almonds, cumin seeds, hummus, falafel, pita bread served with a cumin-lemon vinaigrette).
It may be entirely possible that breakfast, served day and night, is even better than lunch and dinner. The menu lists five early morning themes–eggs & omelets, pancakes & French toast, breakfast specialties, bakeshop offerings and platos nativos–and it will be a challenge to figure out what eye-opening entree to have. One certainty is the thick-cut, sugar-cured bacon which surely must be the best bacon in Santa Fe. It’s a must have.
5 August 2007: The platos nativos (native plates) section features traditional New Mexican entrees such as blue corn enchiladas. Layers of blue corn tortillas, Cheddar cheese and eggs are slathered with the Plaza Cafe’s dark red chile and served with hashed browns and beans. Because the red and green chile are equally wonderful, ask for your enchiladas “Christmas” style and each mouthful will be a treat. Neither chile is mild. Red and green chile are available at medium-hot or extra hot and if you’re not certain as to your tolerance level, ask for a sample or order your chile on the side. The menu’s disclaimer reads “We cannot be responsible for chile that is too hot.”
14 August 2016: For some strange reason, my Kim prefers her breakfast burritos “deconstructed,” that is with the tortilla on the side. She prefers folding bits of tortilla into “New Mexican spoons” and loading them up with the burrito’s constituents in the proportions and combinations she wants. Usually that means I inherit at least half the frijoles. Whether served the way New Mexico’s chile gods intended or deconstructed, the Plaza Cafe’s breakfast burritos are the bomb! Credit much of that to the piquancy and deliciousness of the chile. The green chile, in particular, not only bites back but has a fruitiness that’ll open your eyes (and nasal passages).
A word about the hashed browns–they’re amazing! Most hashed browns look and taste like confetti, but not at the Plaza Cafe. These shredded tubers are prepared with onion and are just slightly crispy. Best of all, they actually taste like potatoes and not some paper derivative. You won’t leave any on your plate. The beans are also terrific. They’re the type of means your abuelita might have prepared years ago.
14 August 2016: Breakfast tacos are oft-attempted, but rarely imbued with the eye-opening deliciousness you crave first thing in the morning. Plaza Cafe Southside’s version are the best, by far, we’ve ever had. Picture two soft corn tortillas engorged with scrambled eggs and calabasitas with your choice of meat (Santa Fe’s best bacon, of course) or veggie sausage as well as avocado, cheese, cilantro, onion, chipotle salsa and a side of pinto beans and hash browns. Individual ingredients coalesce into a mouth-watering whole with several flavor stand-outs. Among them are the al dente calabasitas, as fresh and delicious as you’ll find anywhere. The chipotle salsa is so good we requested a second ramekin which we spooned directly into our eagerly awaiting mouths. The accompanying frijoles, blanketed by molten white Cheddar, and hash browns are wonderful.
14 August 2016: For some reason my Kim prefers her breakfast burritos “deconstructed,” that is with the tortilla on the side. She folds pieces of tortilla into “New Mexican spoons” into which she piles on the other ingredients in the proportions and combinations she wants (meaning fewer frijoles). Whether in the form New Mexico’s culinary gods intended or deconstructed, the Plaza Cafe’s breakfast burrito is a paragon of deliciousness. Credit much of that to an incendiary chile that’s not only piquant, but oh, so flavorful. It’s impossible for me to chide her for her non-traditional approach to burritos because I usually inherit most of the beans on her plate.
5 August 2007: If your sweet tooth is acting up in the morning, the lemon ricotta pancakes will take care of it. Topped with fresh blueberries, these magnificent orbs are so sweet you might not even need syrup. An equal pronouncement of tanginess and sweetness make these pancakes dessert-like and absolutely delicious. The pancakes are available in quantities of one or two per order. The Plaza’s pancake line-up also includes made-from-scratch buttermilk pancakes and blue corn pancakes with orange butter and cinnamon syrup. It’s a terrific triumvirate.
14 August 2016: Perhaps better than the pancakes, amazing as they are, are the restaurant’s signature French toast made from a thick-cut crunchy coated (with Kellog’s Corn Flakes) Challah bread. Challah bread, a traditional Hebrew bread makes the best French toast, especially when sliced thick. It has a pillowy-soft texture and an rich, egg enhanced flavor. Challah bread also absorbs syrup (or honey, if you prefer). The French toast are served in half (pictured below) or full-sized portions.
14 August 2016: No matter how good your entrees might be, you absolutely must save room for desserts. Make that a lot of room. The desserts are humongous! The green chile apple pie with a Cheddar crust, for example, is a huge slab of pie with about seven layers of stacked apples. The Cheddar crust bottom and the crunchy top crust provide textural and flavor contrasts. Ask for the pie to be served warm and for a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on the side, an unbeatable combination.
The other apple pie dish, the one made famous at the original Plaza cafe, is topped with cajeta, a Mexican caramel made from goat’s and cow’s milk. It’s fully addictive, a far better caramel than the squeeze bottle variety. The pie, of course, is delicious with sweet-tart apples. A la mode is the best way to experience it because the Plaza Cafe uses a premium vanilla ice cream in which flecks of vanilla bean are prominent.
The Plaza Cafe Southside Cafe is so good it should be considered a dining destination in its own right, not a consolation prize for not wanting to face the challenges of eating at the Plaza. A reasonable bill of fare, excellent food, accommodating service and almost as important, easy parking make this an excellent choice at any time.
Plaza Cafe Southside
3466 Zafarano Drive (San Isidro Plaza)
Santa Fe, New Mexico
(505) 424-0755
Web Site | Facebook Page
LATEST VISIT: 14 August 2016
# OF VISITS: 4
RATING: 23
COST: $$
BEST BET: Salsa & Chips, New Mexico Meatloaf, Cilantro Salmon with Tomato-Habañero Lasagna, Prickly Pear Horchata, Mexican Hot Chocolate, Blue Corn Enchiladas, Lemon Ricotta Pancakes, Challah French Toast, Spaghetti and Meatballs, Spicy Fish & Chips, Breakfast Tacos, Chipotle Salsa, “Deconstructed” Breakfast Burrito
RE: “The green chile, in particular, not only bites back but has a fruitiness that’ll open your eyes (and nasal passages).”
A fruitiness???? In discussing places recently, an acquaintance noted she found the red chile in a Santa Fe place (Tomasitas, I think) had a “muddy” quality to it. I recently noted that a visit to Cocina Azul found their green salsa was especially flavorful while the red had more bite/tang. (I strongly believe that in order to be “the best” green chile, it must have a flavor first, bite second…LOL)
Stuff like that including finding roasted chile from Rosales Produce of Lemitar on 4th NW quite satisfactory, do you have an educational exposition of chile within one of your reviews RE: Was the muddy red chile just an artifact of how the red pods were blended up? Does northern NM red and green chile differ from Hatch’s and, if so, how. Is it best to get your sack for peeling early or later in the roasting season? Might there possibly be unfavorable gaseous emission off the plastic bags in which we let freshly roasted green steam a couple of hours before we peel? Which is better….peeling and then freezing or freezing unpeeled? (IMHO…peeling then freezing offers an Op for families who might not meet up so often anymore, to gather up and strengthen familial ties for whatever that is worth, as time has gotten lost in today’s busier world of reading our electronics, Commenting on Blogs, taking kids to soccer/YAFL (which has been added to little league, gymnastics and ballet/piano of days of old.) Hopefully, some might care to chirp in on their opines!
Some of the best chile I thought I had was from the “backyard jardin” of my late wife’s father. To be fair, I do not know if he added any especial medicina to the soil when he tilled it. Also, he did not use water from the ditch (where La Llorona lurked). Given Five Points in the South Valley is close to the water table, he had himself a well. He’d set up a KISS system of canales he could open/close when irrigating. The best green chile was from risking lateness (before a frost) when a pod “turns” a mix of a special enchanting orange/red coloring added to the green.
Given some of us will be gathering family/friends to peel soon, do you have an opine re peeling? I hate gloving. Simply use a bowl with vinegar to rinse fingers once in awhile. N.B. always wash hands before recycling beer. Do not “devein/deseed” unless you want to lose heat. To maximize (or be tidy) RE freezer storage, do not stuff baggies to the max, but to a point they can lay flatly stacked in the freezer.
When sharing pinon/mitote with vecinos over the back yard fence, always be vague about whether you’ll be peeling or not. If you brag how Macho and traditional you are and will be peeling for your year long stash and they are non-peelers, they’ll be trying to bum off you all year!
Salud!
Mediocre Margarita. Made with the cheapest tequila. I don’t like sugar added to margaritas and
so told them to leave off the “agave nectar”. It allowed me to taste the cheap ingredients. I ordered a “bowl of red”. Terrible weak red sauce. beans, overcooked pork (advertised as carne adobada). I asked the waitress for a sopapilla (dinner time) and was told that they “don’t do those anymore”. The desserts did look good and the waitstaff was friendly and efficient. Note, this is a different owner (brother of) than the Plaza Cafe.
Just for your informatiion the plaza location of the Plaza Cafe is closed for remodeling
While traveling thru Santa Fe, I happened upon a “new” and very “nuevo” restaurant called Plaza Cafe Southside. I’d eaten at the Plaza Cafe downtown many years before, and didn’t connect the two until I studied the decor and photos. It was mid-day, we’d missed the lunch crowd by an hour or more. Leonardo Razatos personally greeted and seated our party of five adults.
I grew up within aroma-distance of the Frito-Lay plant in Irving TX (Yep, another Texan that think they know eevvverything about Mexican fare). I pay particularly close attention to chilis, sauces and gravies. I tried the Frito Pie. The chili was world-class. I sampled the delicious enchiladas from my sister’s plate, my brother’s flat-iron steak was exquisitly prepared, Mom’s club sandwich excellent, complemented by sweet potato fries and my girlfriend’s burger was more meal than you’d expect for lunch.
The desserts were the highlight of the meal. The cocoanut cream pie in a macaroon crust certainly deserves it’s world famous tag. The flan too needs to be elevated to that status. I tried the chocolate pecan pie, it was sinfully rich, the chocolate paid “tribute” to it’s mesoamerican homage. The key lime pie was genuinely excellent.
The atmosphere was open, airy, inviting, the newness hadn’t even been scratched and was a world apart from the loud, busy downtown plaza we’d just shopped. The prices were very reasonable, the service excellent even considering the time of day and our host, without being flashy, showed he’d grown up in a family of sincere, professional restauratuers.