Sunday morning Suzette wanted her usual Breakfast Burrito
and Bloody Mary. We had PPI ingredients that
included ½ of a baked sweet potato, a small bag of cooked pork and her lovely tomatillo sauce,
so that was the basis of the burrito.
The flavor of the sauteed sweet potato and pork doused with the flavorful lightly picante
tomatillo sauce was a delicious combination.
After we made our first ride of the year ten miles on the new bike trail to Rio Bravo
on our tandem, I made myself a tapa of a toasted slice of whole grain bread with
Mexican white mozzarella style cheese and three slices of Genoa salami and a small
glass of Barbera de Asti red wine.
Then at 4:00 p.m. Willy and we were off to Santa Fe to join
Joe Bova and his wife Linda, Amy and Vhal, and Amy's old friend Nancy Scott and her
husband, Marty Newhouse who had just arrived from Boston. Marty is a lawyer at a Boston firm who was taking a break to travel with Nancy, who came to Sant Fe to do research at the O'Keefe Museum for an article she was writing for publication in England. I had made reservations at La Taberna for dinner at 5:30 p.m. Unfortunately, when we arrived at La Taberna,
we discovered that Miguel the maître de with whom I had made the reservation on
Wednesday had not conveyed it to the Taberna or the Taberna maître de chose not
to hold the reservation for our nine seats at the community table so Vhal ran
over to the Bull Ring across the patio and they said they could seat us and so
we went to the Bull Ring. Perhaps the failure
of my reservation was my fault for failing to use a credit card to secure the reservation
with a potential $10.00 per person penalty for failing to show up; something I
shall consider more carefully next time.
I had not been to the Bull Ring since it moved to Roger
Ressler’s old Ogilvie’s location in the courtyard area between Palace and Marcy and Washington and
Lincoln streets around ten or fifteen years ago. Suzette and I sat beside Joe and Linda. I found Joe to be fascinating. A potter by education and vocation, who was
about my age and had grown up in Houston, studied ceramics at UNM, then taught
ceramics at LSU for twenty years and then served as director of the
art department at Ohio University before retiring to Santa Fe in 2004. Joe
opened up his smart phone and showed us several ceramic sculpture pieces that were free
standing or wall mounted. Linda works at
the Georgia O’Keefe Museum as a grant writer.
When Marty and Nancy showed up, we were given menus and they
were interesting. I immdeiately remembered why I had
not been to the Bull Ring in such a long time.
It is mainly a steak house that serves very predictable food. The menu was dominated by grilled meats and
high prices. The cheapest steak was a
petite filet for $39.00. Everything was
a la carte. So if you wanted a baked
potato ($5.00) and a Caesar salad ($8.95) your meal was over $50.00 and the
cheapest bottle of wine I saw on the wine list was $34.00 for a restaurant production
bottle of Rosenblum Zinfandel, which I ordered.
The Rosenblum California zinfandels are really good and this bottle was
no exception, even though it had a slightly murky monople taste that is not present in their more lively single vineyard offerings.
I ordered a bowl of the soup of the day, Clam Chowder ($6.95)
and a Caesar Salad with anchovies ($8.95).
Actually I loved the soup. It was
made in the Northwest style I found in Seattle with a milk base with large pieces
of potato and lots of fresh clams. Suzette
ordered a cup of the soup ($4.95) and a vegetable side dish of grilled tomatoes. Willy ordered the cheapest entrée, a plate of
roasted chicken which was served without any vegetables ($27.00). Most of the others saw the design of the menu and adopted a strategy
similar to me and Suzette, ordering salads and appetizers. The salads
with meat, such as the lovely summer salad with a blackened salmon filet that Joe
ordered was $18.95. Appetizers were
mostly around $10.00 each. Linda ordered
the calamari and she said the large plate of fried calamari was excellent,
garnished with its drizzle of a tomato dressing. With the automatic 20% gratuity for parties of
over 8, Willy, Suzette and my dinner with the bottle of wine was around $120.00. Although the preparation was adequate, my
take on the Bull Ring is that it is too expensive for too little food with no
creativity. I guess the reason it
appeals to politicians is taht it has a great bar and because
the politicians are usually are from rural settings and The Bull Ring's plain food of steak, potatoes and
fresh vegetables is the type of food they grew up on.
So, by 7:15 we had finished dinner and walked the two blocks
to the Convention Center to hear Bill Maher do a 1 ½ hour comedy rant on the
current politics in America.
Then home to bed by 11:00 p.m.
Bon Appétit
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