By Johnny Vee

Nov 22, 2024

A chef’s résumé is a great place to start when deciding what restaurant you want to visit next. I’m always amazed at the fact that we have more than 200 eateries in our town of approximately 90,000 full-time residents. That certainly keeps local and visiting foodies busy trying all the culinary goodies our city has to offer. Add to that the food trucks and pop-up events and it is no wonder Santa Fe is such a culinary destination.

A new cultural phenomenon has joined the fray in how information reaches your brain, connects to your palate, and nudges you toward a certain dining establishment. These “social influencers,” as they are called, are often hired by businesses to flood social media with images as well as (allegedly) unbiased and nonprofessional reviews of dishes, experiences, and overall opinions of said establishments.

A few of our newer restaurants are pros at this form of marketing and are successful, to a certain extent, at leading the public to their tables. However, I am more prone to take the word of a hospitality professional rather than a stealth blogger of undetermined connection to a joint. Even restaurant reviewers hopefully have a more learned take on what makes a worthy dining experience (wink wink).

Word of mouth still has powerful clout in swaying the masses in an eatery’s direction but can also push you in the other direction and sway you away from spending your dollars there. I was happy to learn about the arrival of a new chef at one of Santa Fe’s oldest steakhouses, Palace Prime. The word of mouth I heard was that I should run there immediately, so I took heed.

The Palace’s long and colorful history includes stints as a saloon and purported bordello where upstairs rooms offered local cowboys a more interesting form of sustenance than a beer and a steak. In my 20 years as a food writer, I have chronicled the downtown classic at least half a dozen times, detailing the menus of at least as many chefs who have occupied the kitchen.

Santa Feans will recognize Palace Prime’s impressive list of past culinary contributors, including Eric Distefano, Rocky Durham, Charles Dale, Fernando Ruiz, and Joseph Wrede. During that time, the Palace veered toward and away from its classic steakhouse history, often attempting to kick-start a slowdown with new concepts and menus. At one time, the main dining room even boasted a bucking bull for inebriated revelers to ride, while another time the cozy banquettes sported mini TV screens that showed Italian gladiator films where some of the scantily clad fighters mimicked some of the moves cowboys were attempting upstairs a century before.

Fast forward to today’s new guy at the stoves who has an extensive résumé working in some of the world’s most celebrated restaurants and with equally famous chefs. Chef Angel Franco took over this summer and has revamped the menu to lean away from the carnivore-centric to a more intercontinental one featuring some beef but also pasta, seafood, poultry, and vegetarian dishes. As I planned my visit with three friends — who often accompany me on my review dining — I was delighted to see the change in format.

The décor has always been a defining feature, going all the way back to the crushed red velvet wall paper, leftover from its saloon days. The bar has always offered a great place to roll into for a drink; it’s dimly lit enough to conceal its patrons and whatever they might be up to .

The dining room is surrounded by big and welcoming booths (the gladiators are gone), giving it a clubby, chophouse feel. The bar and dining room environments were always very different, but the redo includes a portal blown through the bar wall into the dining room, opening up the space. An inner circle of banquettes was added, a touch I love; who doesn’t feel classy sliding into a banquette as if you were a celebrity at Sardi’s?

We met Chef Franco, who gave us a quick career overview. Born in Puerto Rico and schooled in NYC, his tenure in the industry includes professional stopovers in France, Spain, and Denmark and in the cities of Copenhagen at the world-famous Noma, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., where he worked for uber chef José Andrés. After an initial visit to Santa Fe in 2019 from the East Coast, Franco and his wife, Roxanne, knew they wanted to be here. When COVID hit, it took longer to move here full time.

His employment introduction to Santa Fe was at the newly reopened Bishop’s Lodge, where he filled in after the opening chef left. That led to cooking gigs for Auberge Hotels and a meeting with Charles Dale, a partner in Palace Prime. In June, Franco finally hit the stoves and started adding his own touches.

The menu is perfect for sharing and offers options for all types of diners. We were lucky to be seated at a large round table — so many dishes looked tempting and we needed space to sprawl. (Ask for table 31, which straddles the bar and dining room and is good for people watching.)

Franco’s time at the world-class Noma is evident. There, the dishes are described merely by their short list of ingredients; it is the chef’s wizardry that pulls them all together. Franco makes magic happen on many of the things we enjoyed.

Martinis and Manhattans seemed a fitting start, given the surroundings and proximity to the bar. General Manager Austin Flick recommended a bottle of La Spinetta Timorasso Italian white to my wine enthusiast friend; its full body and depth were perfect to stand up to the parade of flavors from the dishes that followed. My friend loved it and happily shared it.

Three items from the raw bar portion of the menu kicked off our dinner and contained a surprise touch that alerted us to the chef’s talent. The pristinely fresh hamachi crudo is fork tender, and the addition of pistachio nubs and sliced olives give it a nice texture and crunch not normally associated with raw fish. Tender chunks of raw tuna are tossed with avocado and dressed with a zippy Maggi seasoning marinade and an unexpected quinoa scatter; more welcomed texture bite. The razor-thin slices of beef on the carpaccio render it delicate, and it’s gussied up with Parmesan, capers, caviar, and bright sherry dressing.

Wanting to sample as many mains as our belt loops would allow, we ordered the delish Mojo Shrimp, fired up with chile raja strips and potent black garlic, and the simply brined, sous vide and braised chicken quarters finished in a tart sherry vinegar reduction (my favorite). We also tried the housemade tagliatelle, served with a slow-stewed tomato sauce and delicious Merguez lamb sausages with a smoky bite and dotted with dollops of crème fraîche.

Main courses are embellished with sides from the creative “complements” section of the menu and include fiery harissa-glazed and roasted Vagabond Farmers carrots, an absolute table favorite. Both the cheesy cheddar Parmesan polenta and the tahini roasted cauliflower could make for a tasty complete vegetarian meal. Just don’t miss the plump milk bread rolls served with a green onion-lemon-anchovy butter or the whipped ricotta with garlicky sautéed mushrooms ready for dipping slabs of grilled rustic bread into. Are you hungry yet?

The happy hour bar menu, available from 5 to 6:30 p.m., offers some of these items as well as sandwiches, a burger, seared shishito peppers, and more. Although we were already bursting, we managed to knock out a yummy tres leches budino that’s part pudding, part trifle, as well as a stellar chocolate mousse cake gilded with salted caramel ice cream. Thank God it’s sweater weather!

Service was excellent, and I enjoy it when a server’s a familiar face in the industry. I also recommend letting Flick guide your dining choices and sommelier Kristina Hayden Bustamante, who recently joined the team, advise your wine selections; they both know their stuff.

We are blessed that our little town continually manages to lure chefs of great culinary standing to our shores. Although Palace Prime is a granddaddy of Santa Fe restaurant lineage, the rethinking and adjustment of its niche keeps it vital and worth checking out.