Jenny's View

Friends,

You already know that La Fonda on the Plaza wins awards. Whether for our environmental consciousness or our marketing campaigns that highlight our spirit of authenticity or, yes, even our tableside guacamole.

We’re already brainstorming ways to win the top award in that particular category (we took second place). Here’s what the Reporter said: “If countless travelers come through your doors, you'd better do guacamole right. La Plazuela does guacamole right.”

As the commercials say, “But wait! There’s more!” We're also in the top three in several other categories: Best Business Downtown (for our appeal to tourists and locals) and Best Tour Business (for our art and history free docent tours). La Fiesta Lounge was voted as one of the Best Hotel Bars for “some of the best and longest-running nights of music in town, and the people-watching is absolutely divine.” And Detours came in as one of the Best Gift Stores in Santa Fe for its unique, local and interesting selection of items.

And here’s the best part. La Fonda has once again snagged the very top spot as Best Lodging in the city! That didn’t happen by accident, and all the credit goes to our dedicated, customer-focused employees who work hard each and every day to make sure our guests and visitors have a world-class experience.

La Fonda also got recognition in a national publication from a Santa Fe resident about to receive the very first Oscar awarded to a Native American. Wes Studi had this to say about us in the latest issue of Cowboys & Indians Magazine:

"One of the special parts of La Fonda is their (Bell) tower, where we will sometimes go at the end of the day to enjoy the sunset and a cocktail and perhaps appetizers. I like the historic aspect of the hotel — it has been around almost as long as Santa Fe.”

Thanks for the shout out, Wes. And while we haven’t been around quite as long as Santa Fe, we are approaching our 100^th anniversary in 2022. We are Santa Fe’s most historic hotel and we are determined to keep on winning awards!

Thanks to everyone who voted for us in the Santa Fe Reporter’s annual Best of Santa Fe! We couldn’t do it without you, our loyal friends.

Jenny

Detours at La Fonda

A Santa Fe Merchant Since 1922

Announcing an addition to Detours’ roster of local artisans. Please join us on (First) Friday, September 6^th from 5-7 to meet Lisa Kohl and view her collection of GIRLS, Girls, girls… or anytime throughout the month of September for this one woman show.

After majoring in Graphic Arts at San Diego State University, Lisa studied with Donna Westerman and joined the Los Angeles Printmaker Society. She has been an award winner in several juried shows in San Diego, has exhibited at The San Diego Art Department and at Glimpse Gallery. Her focus is on women’s portraits and florals. Her style of painting is primitive. Utilizing layers of acrylic, her paintings are visually simplistic in form and color. Her work captures the endless forms of female beauty.

A Close Up Of A Colorful Wall

Explore our online gift collection and ship direct to your door!

La Fonda hotel is located on the Santa Fe plaza

Live at La Fonda

Jim Westbay

No stranger to solo performance, Jim Westbay had made his way across the world’s stages – everywhere from the Beijing Convention Center, the Palais de Culture, a temple for the arts in Abidjan, Ivory Coast or opening for Al Green at the Blues and Brews Festival in Telluride. His original tunes and covers have delighted audiences worldwide.

Westbay has become known as ‘the guy with a 2.5 vocal range crooning in Italian with his acoustic guitar.’ He was professionally trained by his mother, an international opera singer who has graced the stages of the Met, the Vienna Opera, and the Aspen and Eastman Schools of Music. Have no fear, though, he'll be singing an eclectic yet familiar repertoire influenced by the Beatles, old American soul music, pop and R&B for appreciative audiences at La Fonda.

We’re thrilled to welcome him to La Fiesta Lounge, where the locals gather, September 29th.

It’s a Good Time To…

You’ll have recovered enough from Labor Day (right?) to get out again for September’s First Friday (Sept. 6). Head to Detours, La Fonda’s gift shop, because when you make a purchase, you’ll receive the code to unlock the La Fiesta Lounge secret menu of $5 pre-Prohibition cocktails. Detours is open until 7 pm on every First Friday for you to shop, as are other galleries, boutiques and attractions all within a short walk of La Fonda. Don’t forget the password!

Burger anyone? Yes, please! Especially when it’s The Green Chile Cheeseburger Smackdown (Sept. 7), an afternoon of tasting and voting for the best combo of meat, cheese and chile in the Land of Enchantment. Who will be crowned the Reigning Chomp? Who will take the coveted People’s Choice Award? Does it matter? You had us at meat, cheese and chile!

Run off all those calories at the Race Different (Sept. 15), the Santa Fe Thunder Half Marathon. For the not-quite-in-shape, there are 5K and fitness events, too. Join the fun for a good cause - raise funds for the work of Global Running Culture, an all-volunteer non-profit organization that promotes healthy lifestyles.

Santa Fe Wine and Chile is the biggest food and wine event of the year (Sept. 22-29), a week of tastings, seminars, wine dinners, chef demos, a golf tourney, bike tour and film fiesta and a whole lotta vino. La Fonda’s La Plazuela has paired with Silver Oak Winery for a wine dinner (Sept. 25), and will be at the Grand Tasting to showcase Chef Lane’s inventive menu (Sept. 28). This year’s 29^th annual event features the unique culinary artistry found in Santa Fe, complemented by wine from around the country - 75 local restaurants and 90 national wineries!

Love the Santa Fe Opera’s costumes? Want one for yourself to wear around the house? You can – during their annual costume and prop sale (Sept. 14). And mark your calendars for the Farmers’ Market Fall Fiesta, celebrating local food, culture and community (Oct. 4) at the Railyard Market Pavilion.

Tom Taylor

Belts, Buckles, Bags

Discover Tom Taylor's exclusive line of custom handbags. Check out their Signature collection, all designed and hand sewn by their own leather artisan. With an eye toward fashion with function, these one-of-a-kind bags are a huge hit! Stop into their La Fonda store or visit them online at Tom Taylor to see these gorgeous new selections. And be sure to subscribe to their newsletter!

A Close Up Of A Bag

A Red Handbag

A Piece Of Luggage

Shop Now

Sense

Sense - Now Open at La Fonda!

Sense Clothing® designed in the USA is headquartered in downtown Santa Fe, NM in the historic La Fonda Hotel on the Plaza. Sense launched their first collection in Spring 2005, consisting of ultra-soft fabrics and modern colors. Sense is all about the "multi-functional" wardrobe which makes our collection the perfect travel line, uniting the elements of Spa and Travel for today's active women.

Guests at La Fonda receive 25% off any Sense item.

111 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87501 in La Fonda

Call: 505-988-5534

Shop Now

Film & Performance

Santa Fe Art Institute presents a pre-release film screening of the new Prince documentary, Mr. Nelson: On the North Side, and a performance by Belling the Cat of Santa Fe, who recorded the film’s soundtrack, featuring prominent musicians Brian Hardgroove, Jono Manson, John Kurzweg, and Stephen Peace (Sept. 6). Mr. Nelson: On the North Side is the story never before told. In a mixed-race neighborhood during the Civil Rights movement, Prince found security, musical opportunities and encouragement at a local community center called The Way. This influence, coupled with the culture and music of the era, gave Prince his passion for music and performance.

The Lensic hosts Silver Bullet Productions’ staged reading of Sovereignty, a play by Mary Kathryn Nagle (Cherokee), one of Native America's most prominent playwrights (Sept. 7). This moving drama, set in the 1830s and today, portrays the Ridge family in events leading to the Cherokee Trail of Tears.

The best way to experience poetry is by hearing it. Even better is to hear it recited — and then explored through the lenses of history and personal anecdote — by one of the most talented actors at work today. British actor and director Julian Sands comes to Santa Fe courtesy of Performance Santa Fe to present Keats, Shelley, Ghosts and Lovers (Sept. 20).

Great Art on Screen at the Lensic colors with Tintoretto: A Rebel in Venice (Sept. 29) and continues its NT Live in HD series with One Man, Two Guvnors (Sept. 30), featuring a Tony Award-winning performance from the host of The Late Late Show, James Corden.

Love GOT (despite the controversial final season)? The critically acclaimed Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience brings the music of Emmy® Award-winning Game of Thrones composer Ramin Djawadi to stunning new life across North America. Relive the greatest musical pieces and footage from all eight seasons in a live concert experience at the Santa Fe Opera (Sept. 30).

Live theater in Santa Fe kicks off its fall season with Theatre Walk 2019, an afternoon of strolling between performances presented every half hour by more than 20 theater companies at multiple venues in the Rufina Arts District (Sept. 14). And don’t miss the 99^th annual Fiesta Melodrama that lampoons local politicians at the Santa Fe Playhouse (thru Sept. 15) with biting, topical humor.

At Teatro Paraguas, experience Word Over All: Walt Whitman and Pablo Neruda (thru Sept. 8), This year's revival of a 2015 production coincides with and celebrates Walt Whitman's 200^th birthday. Whitman and Neruda never met (Neruda was born twelve years after Whitman's death), yet Whitman had a profound influence on Neruda, and there is a strong kinship between their work. Both poets can be personal and political, tender and biting, carnal and ethereal, celebrating our common humanity, and seeking to uplift those traditionally neglected by society.

Explore the reign of the English sovereign plays at The Swan Theater (thru Sept. 7). Stick with The Swan for False Witness, The Trial of Humanity’s Conscience (Sept. 12- 15), a penetrating insight that reflects past injustices and the contemporary relevance of religious intolerances, racism, immigration, global dictatorships, and fears of rising fascism.

Santa Fe Playhouse invites us to The Happiest Song Plays Last, a modern drama written by Quiara Alegria Hudes (Oct. 3-20). At the dawn of the Arab Spring in an ancient Jordanian town, an Iraq War veteran struggles to overcome the traumas of combat by taking on an entirely new and unexpected career: an action-film hero. At the same time, halfway around the world in a cozy North Philadelphia kitchen, his cousin takes on a heroic new role of her own: providing hot meals and an open door for the needy.