January 30, 2015 Breakfast Old Taos Guesthouse Green Chile Omelet, Lunch Lambert’s, The Art of Wine, Dinner Stella’s

January 30, 2015 Breakfast Old Taos Guesthouse Green Chile Omelet, Lunch Lambert’s, The Art of Wine, Dinner Stella’s

I guess when there is not a lot of physical activity we substitute a lot of sitting activity like eating or reading or talking.  Today Taos was mostly shut down by almost continuous snowing. 

We started by bathing in the hot tub at 7:30 a.m. and at 8:00 went to the dining room at old Taos Guesthouse for breakfast.  Bob made us each a lovely omelet with green chili, bell pepper and mushrooms on a lovely charger with a bowl of fresh fruit and a banana walnut muffin.   We drank hot tea from a selection of teas.

After reading the Pasatiempo and Tiempo we decided to try to see the Taos Community Art Association members opening at 10:00.  Unfortunately, it was closed and so was much of downtown.  

We drove to the Old Courthouse on the north side of the square and were able to see the WPA photos and a portion of the Victor Higgins murals.

Then we drove to Bent Street and visited Robert Parsons’ Gallery, where we saw a Duane Van Veckten painting for $4,500.00, which re-kindled Suzette’s interest in buying one. 

We then walked to the old Apple Tree Restaurant, which is now Lambert’s and waited about ten minutes for Doug and Crystal.  The menu had several things that looked good, but I found that the two that I liked best, the Madeira Onion Soup and the Potato Leek Soup had lots of black pepper in them.  I ordered a Wild Mushroom Risotto and it also had lots of black pepper, so since I was the only person ordering a second dish/appetizer, I divided it into four portions and shared it with Suzette, Doug and Crystal.  The risotto was good and the pepper was cooked in a bit so I endured it with some satisfaction.  Doug and Crystal shared a Marinated Beet Salad and an order of lamb fajitas.  Both of their dishes were excellent.  Suzette ordered a pulled pork sandwich with a side salad of the Marinated Beet Salad that was also excellent.  When the waitress returned with a small bowl of leek and potato soup and I tasted a strong flavor of pepper, I changed my order to the Marinated Beet Salad.  After the Risotto and half of a half of Suzette’s Pork Sandwich and the huge breakfast, I could only eat 1/2 of the beet salad so I asked the waitress to pack it up with a cheddar cheese cracker/biscuit that the maître d’ offered us when she recalled that she has seen us at the Reserve wine tasting and I told her that it was the most creative dish at the Reserve Tasting.

We said goodbye to Crystal and Doug around 1:30 because they were going to the Tuscany wine seminar and then driving back to Albuquerque.  We went to Mission Gallery and talked to Reva Rosenquist and I showed her my art collection for an hour because Suzette wanted to learn about Duane Van Veckten.  Reva has, with her husband, when he was alive, has owned the Mission
Gallery for 54 years and has shown most of the Taos artists of note, like Dasburg and Robert Ray.  I have bought works by Dean Porter and Wesley Rushnell from her.  She is a living encyclopedia of the history of Taos artists and Taos of the last half of the 20^th century.  For example, she told us the sad news of the last month of medical mistakes that led to the death of Stephen Parks and the marital and real estate affairs surrounding the Van Vecktens and the Kachina Lodge and how the family estate came t be liquidated recently, which Suzette wanted to hear about.

Reva confirmed that the Dasburg drawing I had bought was probably done in the period of 1929 to 1933 when Dasburg was living in Santa Fe with a lady named Nancy Lane and had owned a gallery that Hispanic and other types of art with Walter Mertz?  She said it was a good drawing and asked me what I paid for it and when I told her she said that was a good price.  She also liked the Cady Wells and said she liked his earlier work better than his work after WWII.

We lingered until after 3:00 and then returned to the Old Taos Guesthouse.  While Suzette got ready I dozed for a bit and at 4:15 we left for the Harwood Museum for the Art of Wine event.  We tried a few of the wines and they were not very good, so we talked to Robert Parsons and his wife, who told us a lot of information about the event, which she helped start three years ago.  We did not see anything we wanted or needed, so a little before 6:00 we left.  The appetizers served by the Culinary Arts Division of Taos High School were really good this year.  They included wonderful spinach and pesto rolled in phyllo dough and baked, crostini smeared with tomato paste and garnished with a piece of mozzarella and a dab of pesto, cheese balls wrapped around a grape, gravad lax on toast, grilled bacon wrapped around a fig and wonderful soft creamy truffles. 

We had discussed going to Mondo Italiano, but Suzette wanted to try a different Italian restaurant, so we googled Stella’s and found out it was in the complex at the beginning of Ledoux St. just a block from where we parked at the Placita, next to the Plaza.  We drove a block to a parking lot next to the restaurant and walked across the street to it.

The décor was old Taos, white walls with a wooden ceiling and subdued lighting, unlike the strip center atmosphere of Mondo Italiano.  The restaurant had what seemed to be a wonderful outdoor patio, which Eric?, the owner of Gallery 203 confirmed when he walked in shortly after 6:30.  He seemed to be a regular, since he lived a few doors down Ledoux and his gallery was across the street. 

Everything is extremely close in downtown Taos, almost as if people living and seeing each other all day long rub shoulders and therefore are intimately aware of everyone else’s business.

the Pork Sandwich

the Lamb fajitas

the pickled Beet Salad

We split an order of Cajun spicy pasta with shrimp, chicken and Italian Sausage ($17.00) and a Cesar Salad ($10.00) and bought a bottle of Il Donato red wine, that was not very good for $28.00 and had a lovely dinner that made us stuffed.  I guess four meals in a day are a bit too many.

We took a tiramisu home and ate it with cups of tea and went to bed.  It was made with whipped cream and vanilla cake instead of lady fingers and sweet mascarpone, so lacked the gravitas of the real thing.

the tiramisu

Bon Appétit