Our Biggest Fan
Jenny's View
Dear Friends,
I recently asked Wesley where he was born, and he said “La Fonda.” It’s true that his parents were married here, and Wesley has been coming to visit us all his life … which admittedly isn’t that long. Still, he loves the hotel so much that he draws pictures of it, proudly wears his La Fonda T-shirt everywhere, walks the property to make sure everything is running smoothly, and has appointed himself the hotel ambassador.
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Wesley |
Wesley |
Dining at La Plazuela? Wesley recommends the French toast, which is always great. He also likes Becky, Celeste, Nancy, Patrick, and the team in the sales office. Wesley saw snow for the first time at La Fonda, and had his first taste of chocolate at Señor Murphy downstairs.
| Wesley and his Mom
| Wesley and his Grandma
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The reason Wesley visits us so often is because his grandpa has been doing business with the hotel since 2008. Wesley always brings his grandma and grandpa to visit, and sometimes his mom and dad, too. This summer we decided to recognize Wesley by giving him an official nametag designating him as a member of team La Fonda (which he wears everywhere).
Wesley proudly showing off his nametag
So, was Wesley really born here, or just reborn? Your guess is as good as mine, but next time you’re visiting La Fonda and looking for a good breakfast, ask if Wesley, our management trainee, is in town. I bet he'll tell you, "Get the French toast in La Plazuela."
We (heart) La Fonda,
Jennifer Lea Kimball
Detours at La Fonda
Thursday, September 28 and Friday the 29th, Detours will be presenting a one-of-a-kind collection of hand wrought ingot jewelry by renowned local artist, “Buffalo” from 1-4. Sierra Lusk will be here representing Buffalo’s work as well as bringing a selection from her own cache of vintage Native American jewelry. Please stop by and see the new Buffalo jewelry.
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Recipe For Adventure
Pan Roasted Venison Loin - Serves 8
Recently Chef Lane has been featuring mid-week dinner specials in La Plazuela. Being an avid hunter, he has a fondness for venison which makes a fantastic fall dish. The great thing about venison is that it has very little fat and is actually quite good for you. Chef Lane serves a creamy, wild mushroom risotto with this dish and spaghetti squash.
We hope you get a chance to try this special during one of your visits to La Fonda.
| INGREDIENTS For the venison 3 pounds venison loin cut into 3 ounce medallions, this will give you 16. 1 ounce olive oil To taste, kosher salt and black pepper For the demi-glace 1 Tablespoon shallots, minced 4 ounces whole butter 3 each chile ancho, toasted and seeded, rough chopped 2 pints blueberries 24 ounces veal demi-glace (May be purchased online or at your local specialty stores such as Whole Foods, Sur La Table or William Sonoma To taste, kosher salt and black pepper |  |  |
| METHOD:
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Live at La Fonda
| Combining R&B and rock covers with their own originals, the five members of Night Train throw in everything from Chicago blues to Texas to West Coast Swing, all of which gets the crowd to its feet. These days Steve Piersol, who has led Night Train for more than a quarter century, has George Montoya on bass, Josh English on drums, Bobbie Fleming on keyboards, and shares guitar with Tim Valentine.
“We’re the longest lasting band other than Bill Hearne,” he says of the band’s tenure at La Fonda. “It’s a pretty fun gig—nice to be able to meet people from all over. We used to get three or four couples who came in from out of town for New Year’s Eve.” Piersol, who also repairs guitars at his shop High Desert Guitars on Second Street, says the band likes the new stage in the renovated La Fiesta Lounge. “It sounds better, at least for the band. The old stage made the music sound really, really loud and then would disappear halfway through the bar. Now it seems to distribute better.” Come kick up your heels, whether it’s two-step or boogie, when Night Train brightens up the midweek blues, Sept. 20-21 and Oct. 18-19. |
It's a Good Time To...
| With some guest-chef luncheons already sold out, the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta (Sept. 27-Oct. 1) is honey to gourmet locavores, offering opportunities to sip, taste, watch and learn, all culminating in the Grand Tasting at the Santa Fe Opera (Sept. 30). Don’t wait too long to book your reservation for La Fonda’s wine dinner featuring Cakebread Winery held in La Terraza and the patio. Call 505-995-2316 to confirm your reservation now. The annual Gruet Golf Classic features six wines paired with ten restaurants for serious distraction at every third hole (Oct. 1). The Gran Fondo Bike Ride is another perennial favorite (Oct. 1), with celebrity cyclists and chefs rolling alongside, gourmet food stops en route, and champagne at the finish. If you miss that, another chance to eat and run (or rather, ride) comes at the Santa Fe Gourmet Classic, a noncompetitive 62-mile roll punctuated by tasty treats and a mid-ride gourmet lunch (Oct. 7) |
| Wine & Chile Fiesta | Gran Fondo Bike Ride |
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If all this is too cultured, come taste the other species of New Mexico gourmet at the annual Green Chile Cheeseburger Smackdown. Chefs battle it out at the Santa Fe Railyard, with the crowd tasting and voting on the results (Sept. 8). The following day, join the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market Institute for its annual Fall Fiesta (Sept. 9), with a chefs’ dinner, music, dancing and auction.
| Green Chile Cheeseburger Smackdown
| Fall Fiesta
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Attention Fredheads! If you missed the last Fred Harvey weekend, the sixth annual is set for Oct. 20-22, with presentations and lectures at the New Mexico History Museum and Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, tours of the Castaneda and Montezuma hotels, and a fundraising banquet for the museum here at La Fonda on Friday night. Check out Stephen Fried’s Facebook event page for updated information.
| Fredhead
| Tour Guides from La Posada
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Shops at La Fonda
Photogenesis:
Photogenesis has been a gallery in La Fonda since 1988 and has been known for its varied inventory that features both famous photographers of the 20th century who have passed away as well as the best of contemporary artists.
With Zozobra taking place in Santa Fe on September 1st, it seemed to be appropriate to share this image of Zozobra by Ernest Knee. It features the very first Zozobra in 1940 with its creator and designer, Will Shuster, standing next to his huge creation designed to burn and discard all of the cares and woes of his audience. Stop in the shop next time you are at La Fonda or click here to see more images.
Street Feet:
Street Feet will be receiving over 100 new styles of boots this month. Boots with sneaker soles to waterproof boots that will keep you warm in sub zero weather! You’ll love our alpaca wraps imported from Peru, hand loomed bamboo shawls from Guatemala, and our extensive selection of colors in cotton/cashmere ponchos. Street Feet has always been known for great women’s footwear and we are now carrying a select group of men’s shoes and boots from Pikolinos. Visit Street Feet online or stop in La Fonda and visit their shop to see all the new arrivals.
| Street Feet Boots
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Out & About
Fall sees a cluster of art studio tours taking place in the high country, the perfect excuse for a drive that is sure to pass a winery or two. Start with Pecos and the new Pojoaque River tours (Sept. 16-17), then High Road to Taos (Sept. 16-17, 23-24), Abiquiu (Oct. 7-9), and Galisteo (Oct. 14-15). And while you’re outside, head over to Railyard Park for the 2017 installation of The Fence, a juried photo exhibition that shows simultaneously in six cities. This year take in the vision of 56 photographers, unfurled across 700 feet of bike trail and at Guadalupe and Cerrillos (through Nov. 4).
| Abiquiu
| Galisteo Studio Tour
| The Fence
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The 7th annual AHA Progressive Arts Fair highlights emerging and experimental art, with food trucks, music, and a few surprises at the Railyard (Sept. 17). More traditional artists show their stuff at the annual Canyon Road “paint out,” where sculptors join painters to create en plein air, or, for the non-French speaking, the act of painting outdoors (Oct. 20-21).
The annual Santa Fe Fiestas (Sept. 1-10) celebrate Hispanic heritage all week on the Plaza, officially beginning with the burning of Zozobra (Sept. 1). There are parades, solemn and silly (including the popular Pet Parade on Sept. 9), mariachi shows, and the Gran Baile at the Convention Center that same night.
| Canyon Road "Paint Out"
| Zozobra
| Pet Parade
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It’s still high season at El Rancho de las Golondrinas living-history museum, which takes advantage of clear harvest days to hold the Fiesta de los Niños (Sept. 2-3), the 10th annual Santa Fe Renaissance Fair (Sept. 16-17) and Harvest Festival (Sept. 30-Oct. 1). The ranch is also the site for UnifyFest (Sept. 1-3), a New Age gathering over Labor Day weekend, and a Halloween event featuring historic ghosts, Spirits of New Mexico Past (Oct. 28).
| Santa Fe Renaissance Fair
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Santa Fe also holds its Pride parade this month (Sept. 15-17). ). And, did you know that Northern New Mexico has well-organized volunteer search-and-rescue teams who work with dogs and horses? Come meet them at the 4th annual RescueFest, a free community event at Second Street Brewery (Sept. 23)
| Pride Parade
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Fall weather is ideal for outdoor sports, so come test your high-elevation endurance at the Santa Fe Ultra, with 13-mile, 50K, and 50-mile trail runs in the Santa Fe National Forest (Sept. 2), or the Santa Fe Thunder marathon, half marathon, and 5K (Sept. 17). Try the Ski Bueno Classic Disc Golf Tournament at Ski Santa Fe (Sept. 9-10), or just play a breathless round of disc golf from Labor Day through Oct. 15. The ski resort opens its Super Quad chair, coffee bar and café on weekends and holidays in September and during Balloon Fiesta, if you just long to breathe fresh air and fly high.
Speaking of flying high, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (Oct. 7-15) is making plane and hotel reservations tighter than Indian Market for early October, so book your flight now. Car-trippers rejoice: tickets are still easily obtained for the daily Mass Ascension, in which hundreds of balloons launch at once, and evening Balloon Glows on Thursdays through Sundays, followed by a fireworks show.
| Ski Bueno Classic Disc Golf Tournament
| Balloon Glow
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Cosplayers, listen up! The Mine Shaft Tavern in Madrid hosts the Steampunk Spectacular 6, a daylong festival with a Wizard of Oz theme. Join the adventure with Dorothy and your favorite characters, a steam-powered tinman, an automatonic lion, and the brass-goggled straw man as they embark upon a quest to find the mysterious Wizard of Oz. If you’ve never heard of cosplay, then you probably won’t be attending Santa Fe Comic Con (Oct. 20-22) to mingle with actors, comic book artists, and other fans in costume.
| Steampunk Spectacular 6
| Santa Fe Comic Con
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Billed as the world’s premier juried portfolio review, the Review Santa Fe Photo Festival (Oct. 26-29) invites amateur and professional photographers to descend upon dozens of professional gallerists, publishers, and curators for frank assessments, workshops, lectures, and networking.
La Fonda is hosting a fundraising gala for The Girls Inc., an evening of food and silent auction (Sept. 14). The annual Barkin’ Ball may be the only fundraiser where you can bring your pooch, to benefit the Santa Fe Animal Shelter (Oct. 20). People in recovery are invited to join the 4th annual Rally for Recovery at Railyard Park (Sept. 23).
| Girl's Inc.
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Music
| The Santa Fe Symphony opens its 34th season with Van Cliburn winner Yekwon Sunwoo playing Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 at the Lensic (Sept. 17). Virtuoso violinist Alexi Kenney plays Haydn, Dvorak, Shostakovich, and Berlioz (Oct. 15), followed by a special concert recital with pianist Renana Gutman (Oct. 22). Meanwhile, Santa Fe Pro Musica opens its 36th season with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg conducting Webern, Shostakovich, and Piazzola at the Lensic (Sept. 23 & 24), with an optional artist dinner on Sunday.
Performance Santa Fe is well into its 81st season, with Dover Quartet bassist Edgar Meyer at the Lensic (Sept. 28), followed by venerable New Orleans players Irma Thomas, the Blind Boys of Alabama, and the Preservation Hall Legacy Quintet (Oct. 10). Then it’s Scottish Gaelic multi-instrumentalist Julie Fowlis (Oct. 18). Virtuoso cellist Matt Haimovitz will play one of his unconventional “Bach & Brews” shows at Sol Santa Fe (Sept. 15), and a more traditional concert Sept. 16 at the Scottish Rite Center. Performance Santa Fe holds its benefit Stardust Gala on Oct. 7, with a Big Band theme.
The Lensic is hosting some big names of its own: the Pete Escovedo Orchestra with Sheila E (Sept. 29), classic singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III (Oct. 5), and the five Julliard-trained piano-playing siblings known as The 5 Browns (Oct. 27). Grammy-winning world music artist Robert Mirabal of Taos Pueblo performs with the string quartet Ethel in a concert inspired by water (Oct. 3). And Beats Antique brings its percussive tribal fusion music and performance to the Lensic for the first time (Oct. 16).
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Contemporary bands continue to play at the Opera house through fall, from the Mariachi Extravaganza during Fiestas (Sept. 2) to Noise for NOW (Sept. 9), a benefit featuring Bon Iver, TV on the Radio, Tune-Yards, Lower Dens, and Heather Trost (Sept. 9). Bonnie Raitt makes a tour appearance Sept. 16, followed by Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’ (Sept. 17), Fleet Foxes (Sept. 25), Wilco (Sept. 26), and The Shins (Oct. 4).
| Bonnie Raitt
| The Shins
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Joe Purdy plays the Bridge at Santa Fe Brewing (Sept. 24), Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill play Gig Performance Space (Oct. 3), and Meow Wolf continues its feverish booking of cutting-edge acts, including The Sticky (Sept. 2), Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas (Sept. 7), Baracutanga from Brazil (Sept. 8), Jay Som (Sept. 9), Future Islands (Sept. 15), Cigarettes After Sex (Sept. 17), Kevin Morby (Sept. 18), Zola Jesus (Sept. 23), Electric Guest (Sept. 26), !!! (Sept. 28) and Scuba (Sept. 29). In October it’s Widowspeak (Oct. 1), Jaymes Young (Oct. 3), Ty Segall (Oct. 6), Perfume Genius (Oct. 8), Radical Face (Oct. 11), MAX (Oct. 18), Alvvays (Oct. 20), Yheti (Oct. 21), JR JR (Oct. 22), and Ted Leo (Oct. 30).
| Joe Purdy
| Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill
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Film & Performance
The Santa Fe Playhouse continues The Fiesta Melodrama, an annual lampooning of local events and culture, through Sept. 10. Meanwhile, National Theatre Live in HD broadcasts Yerma (Oct. 4) starring Billie Piper in her award-winning role in Simon Stone’s radical production, and Met Live in HD brings Bellini’s Norma (Oct. 7) and Die Zauberflote/The Magic Flute (Oct. 14) from New York to the Lensic.
| Norma
| Die Zauberflote/The Magic Flute
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Wine-themed films will screen at Violet Crown Cinemas for Wine & Chile Fiesta (Sept. 24-25), preceded by a reception each night, and the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival (Oct. 18-22) is gearing up for another year as the state’s largest film fest.
Aspen Santa Fe Ballet wraps up its summer season with a world premiere from Brazilian choreographer Fernando Melo (Sept. 2).
| Wine Themed Films at Violet Crown
| Fernando Melo & Aspen Ballet
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At the Museums
The New Mexico History Museum is inviting historians to discuss early Spanish settlement for Fiestas (Sept. 6), while the regular speaker series has David Caffey speaking on “the Santa Fe Ring” (Sept. 6) and former Railroad Bureau chief Fred Friedman on Native American railroad workers (Oct. 4). Also at the museum, this month’s family workshop is making colorful tiles (Sept. 17); next month it’s macramé (Oct. 15). As part of the exhibition Voices of the Counterculture in the Southwest, photographer David Grant Noble recounts his time in Vietnam (Sept. 9); digital storytelling workshops explore how people turned on, tuned in, and dropped out (Sept. 22); and former “Taos Hippie” Iris Keltz shares stories from the Taos communes (Oct. 14). Free kundalini yoga instruction is offered in the Meem Community Room (Sept. 21, Oct. 19), and the museum leads a behind-the-scenes tour of Acoma Pueblo and its Sky City Cultural Complex with architect Barbara Felix (Oct. 3), who led our own hotel renovation.
| Santa Fe Ring
| Acoma Pueblo
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There may still be time to jump on Breakfast with the Curators of the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture (Sept. 1) for a special tour of the exhibit Stepping Out: 10,000 Years of Walking the West. Upcoming tours offered by the New Mexico Office of Archaeological Studies include a rigorous hike up the Comanche Gap (Sept. 17) and an exploration of Dinetah archeology (Oct. 6-8), a topic to be introduced at a talk this month. Archaeology buffs can get to know the organization’s work at a Center for New Mexico Archaeology open house (Oct. 21).
| Comanche Gap
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The Santa Fe Botanical Garden is offering a tour of the “secret city” of Los Alamos (Sept. 19), along with workshops on making outdoor mosaics (Sept. 23-24) or masks for Halloween/Day of the Dead (Oct. 21). The popular Harvest Dinners have you dining in small groups at private homes throughout Santa Fe (Sept. 23, 30).
| Outdoor Mosaics at Botanical Gardens
| Harvest Dinners
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On Sept. 24, all five museums on Museum Hill offer free admission: The Wheelwright, Indian Arts and Culture, International Folk Art, Spanish Colonial Art, and the Santa Fe Botanical Garden. And after months under wraps, SITE Santa Fe will unveil its extensive renovation Oct. 5-8.
The annual Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts will be announced at the New Mexico Museum of Art’s St. Francis Auditorium (Sept. 15), preceded by a reception for awardees. (Note that the museum will be closed after this for restoration.) And at the Capitol Rotunda Gallery, an exhibit of contemporary book art, Portable Magic: The Art of the Book, opens with a reception and some of the 71 artists represented in the 112 pieces selected.
Finally, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum holds workshops on collected objects (Sept. 12) and modern drawing (Sept. 28), and a talk on the artist William Merritt Chase (Sept. 21).
Speakers
Journalist Glenn Greenwald returns to the Lannan Foundation speaker series in conversation with Tom Engelhardt in what is sure to be a popular discussion of current affairs, at the Lensic (Sept. 27). The first female president of Finland, Tarja Halonen, speaks with 2016 presidential candidate Halla Tómasdóttir on “How to Lead from Principles in a Changing World” at the New Mexico History Museum (Sept. 18). And artist Michael Namingha, from the next generation of the prominent family of Native artists, speaks about his current body of work at the Santa Fe Botanical Garden (Sept. 10).
| Glenn Greenwald
| Tarja Halonen
| Halla Tómasdóttir
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The New Mexico Office of Archaeological Studies offers a series of lunchtime brown bag talks at the Center for New Mexico Archaeology in south Santa Fe. Coming up are “Early Pueblo Occupation of the Dinetah Region” (Sept. 5), “Cooking Jar Technology in the Ancient Southwest (Sept. 19), and “Dia de los Muertos: Pre-Columbian Past to Present” (Oct. 24).
La Fonda and Santa Fe In the News
 | Santa Fe Reporter: La Fonda Wins Best Lodging for Out-of-Towners 6 years in a row! READ MORE San Diego Magazine: 26 Ways to Explore Santa Fe READ MORE Cowgirl Magazine Santa Fe Sojourn featuring some of Rocki Gorman’s beautiful clothing and jewelry photographed at La Fonda READ MORE Prime Living: Summertime in Santa Fe READ MORE Bay Area Reporter: Santa Fe has long welcomed LGBTs READ MORE DallasVoice.com: A mecca of progressivity in the Southwest, New Mexico is an oasis of beauty, culture and acceptance. READ MORE |