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Deborah Madrid and Marc Vigil have beers and appetizers at the Second Street Brewery in Santa Fe’s Railyard. (Journal File)
Second Street Brewery has been serving good food and cold beer for decades. The brewery’s newer location at the Santa Fe Railyard, launched in January 2010, continues the tradition and added a needed dimension of informal evening fun and music to the Railyard. This time of year, it’s a great spot for people viewing, especially on Farmers’ Market Saturdays because the patio opens onto the market grounds.
A friend and I stopped by for lunch after a late visit to Santa Fe’s thriving Farmers’ Market. The market closes at noon, and the restaurant opens at 11 a.m. for lunch. Good timing! We were lucky enough to get a table on the patio. We saw the Farmers’ Market crowd head out with shopping bags filled with corn, garlic, squash, chiles and the pretty, fernlike carrot tops hanging over the edge of the tote bags. We watched the farmers fold up their tents and pack the leftovers into plastic bags and coolers. We saw the Food Depot truck arrive to pick donations for distribution to those in need.
Unlike some Santa Fe patios, no dogs are allowed at Second Street Railyard, but there were plenty of children, with babies well represented. Outdoor seating includes a large picnic table, perfect for families. If you prefer, there’s also indoor dining and drinking at the bar or at tables, many of which have views of the big-screen TVs set to football this time of year. You’ll find live music here many evenings.
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Second Street Brewery at the Railyard LOCATION: 1607 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, 505-989-3278 HOURS: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays; 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays; noon-9 p.m. Sundays FULL BAR |
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Second Street offers a regular menu of appetizers, soups and salads, sandwiches and burgers and entrées. There’s also a specials menu, and a posting of seasonal beers on a large blackboard. Although the ambience is casual, as you’d expect in a brewery/restaurant, there’s nothing nonchalant about the food.
We started with a salad: fresh Farmers’ Market greens, studded with cherry tomatoes and topped with three colors of grated carrots – orange, yellow and red – slivers of white jicama and a touch of salty New Mexico feta cheese. Attractive and very good. When my major complaint about a restaurant is that the half-salad was too big for the plate it came on, I guess it’s time to shut up and enjoy the abundance ($5).
We added a cup of green chile “stew.” The dish is a light, flavorful soup, made with chicken and spicy with fresh chopped green chile. Potatoes, tomatoes and a bit of celery complemented the tender white meat chicken that settled in the broth. The stew arrived with a warm flour tortilla ($4.50/cup).
My partner and I moved on to more substantial fare. We shared one of the day’s specials, the mussels ($14). Both Second Street restaurants consistently offer mussels in a version that features the black-shelled beauties in a broth of microbrewed ale, herbs, garlic and tomato. It’s good. Instead of beer, the daily special version I tried used white wine, Dijon mustard, a bit of cream, caramelized onions and wonderful smoky bacon cut in inchlong slices. The result? A robust and savory broth that, to my surprise, was a good match for the milder flavor of the mussels. The bowl came with a slice of crusty baguette on top, perfect for soaking up the sauce. The heartiness of this variation of steamed mussels is a perfect preamble for fall.
We also had the Reuben, a meaty, cheese-light version with plenty of shaved pastrami and crisp, pungent sauerkraut that the menu said is made in house, served on good marble rye bread ($10). Like all the sandwiches and burgers here, it came with our choice of fries, chips or slaw. The fries were fresh and hot, thickly cut, but not very crisp.
The traditional starters are here: wings, nachos, cheese fries with red, green or Christmas chile, onion rings and calamari. You can try a New Mexico Farmers’ Market plate with local lamb sausage, local cheese, chutney and a salad or the buffalo patty melt made with local buffalo and topped with New Mexico chile, jack cheese and green chile mustard. It’s great to see so much use of local products.
Other menu options include barbecued pork ribs in a chipotle beer sauce with jalapeño slaw and sweet potato fries, enchiladas, fried chicken and fish and chips. There’s a kids’ menu and several desserts. In addition to ales, stouts and pilsners, the brewery serves bottled nonalcoholic beer and root beer.
The friendly, efficient service got the job done on a busy afternoon.
Second Street Brewery also serves drinks and food at its original Second Street location. The menus are similar.
