Restaurant Review: La Posada de Santa Fe Resort and Spa

Rooms with a ‘Boo!’

By: Laurel Gladden
Published online: Friday, October 26, 2012
Appeared in: Pasateimpo

Julia Staab, the wife of wealthy Santa Fe merchant Abraham Staab, wanders the halls at La Posada de Santa Fe Resort and Spa. Legend has it that Mrs. Staab used the main building — which now houses the formal restaurant, Fuego; the Patio Restaurant; and the Staab House Lounge — to entertain friends and her husband’s clients. If there were an appropriate place for a well-to-do lady’s spirit to wander, this would be it. It exudes tasteful Victorian elegance. Much of the glass, woodwork, and even hinges are original, and many of the finishings and furnishings feel true to the period.

Fuego has a modern, elegant Southwestern ambience: soaring ceilings with sturdy beams, elegantly upholstered armchairs, piped-in ambient music of the Gypsy Kings ilk, and a disconcerting mirrored wall (who wants to watch herself eat?). The food is well considered and, in some cases, well prepared, but it’s a little unsettling — not to mention difficult to discern the quality of service — when you have the dining room entirely to yourself, as we did one evening.

The sopa de limón is a well-balanced citrusy tomato soup given welcome texture by the addition of crunchy corn, carrot, celery, and tortilla “hay.” Our plato para parejas was uneven; this “sampler plate” of sorts includes a chile relleno (the pepper charred to the point of being inedible), a coconut prawn (overly sweet), and a barbacoa “beggar’s purse” (an addictive, richly seasoned, savory pile of incredibly tender beef in a banana leaf with an arbol-cilantro gastrique). The tender duck breast is sauced with a rich, complex, but not too spicy mole. The bacon-cheddar posole nearly overshadowed the meaty Colorado lamb loin with which it shared the plate.

The Staab House Lounge, named “Santa Fe’s coziest bar” by Travel + Leisure magazine, according to the La Posada website, is a series of charming rooms that feels a little like a fancy Old West saloon. The Patio Restaurant, which opens to, well, the patio, has an airy, breezy flow and cool indirect light. Before the last temperate days of the fall have flown, spend some time on the patio — one of the best, most idyllic outdoor spaces in town. Overall, the ambience can range from quiet and relaxing to raucously boisterous, depending on the crowd and time of day. Regardless, service is typically attentive and quick. Wherever you sit, beer, a lengthy wine list, and signature cocktails are available (the melon mojitos and cucumber Collins are refreshing, if a tad cloudy and vegetal- looking; the Cable Car is strong but too sweet).

In the casual spaces, the food fares better. The polenta fries, like a variation on nachos, consists of fried polenta “bars” topped with rich, tender, savory carnitas; stewy green chile; cheese; salsa; guacamole; and sour cream. When the polenta is crispy and firm and toppings aren’t overapplied, this dish knocks it out of the park. Otherwise, it can be a gloppy (albeit still delicious) mess. The kitchen’s being stingy when it comes to the misnamed “firecracker” crab cakes. Their bright red hue resembled the color of some wildly flavored Doritos and suggested heat that simply wasn’t there. Of the three quesadillas in the “trio,” only the meltingly tender and moist duck was worth bothering with.

The Kobe-style burger (cheese and green chile are part of the package) has a bold beef flavor; it challenged even those with the healthiest of appetites at our table. The well-cooked New York steak, with its chunky mashed potatoes and toothsome asparagus, is a fine meat-and-potatoes dish, in case that’s what you’re craving. The generous serving of lamb rests on very herby Israeli couscous with vegetables. The grilled-strawberry salad is light and fresh, the prickly pear- agave dressing providing a unique lilt.

Though I’ve certainly heard the well-worn hardwood floors at La Posada creaking, I’ve never seen Julia’s specter. The one ghost I have seen there, however, is the ghost of a good dessert. Despite the regional appeal of the margarita custard, our server repeatedly recommended against it. We opted for the palate-cleansing sorbet “trinity,” fruity, vibrantly hued scoops of lemon, mango, and raspberry. The menu declares they are house-made, and our server affirmed this fact, but they tasted suspiciously like a well-known national brand to me. The chocolate cake was a generous hunk, but while moist, it was bland and had a peculiar chemical aftertaste.

The only real winner was the chocolate mousse, which tantalized with its hint of cinnamon and spice. This is the sort of thing you can’t stop eating even though you’re way past full. The menu calls the dessert Nana’s Mexican Chocolate Mousse. I don’t know if the recipe came from someone’s actual grandmother, but if it did, that’s a lady — ghost or not — I wish were really wandering the halls of La Posada. I’d like to cross her path.