Bill Todino is the current local artist whose impeccable works you see in the main dining room. His photographic representations have a pure quality, absent of maudlin or saccharine sentiment, but representative of the deep roots of Faith here — eminently New Mexican. Reasonably priced in time for holiday giving!
u Breakfast at Joe’s is a great and nourishing way to start a chilly morning. We start serving at 7:30 every day. And if you read The New Mexican newspaper you could be lucky enough to find a breakfast coupon good up to 11AM !
Thanksgiving is upon us – reminding us individually and as a nation, to give thanks for all things great and small. And it’s Joe’s pleasure to make Thanksgiving Day festivities simpler for you to enjoy. “Let Joe do it”, and you can take the credit! We are again offering our Thanksgiving take home menu. The dishes are par-cooked in oven-ready containers. Just heat and serve. Ask for the order form and choose à la carte items or the entire meal from soup to dessert. This year we are offering local organic Embudo turkey (really good!) or Diestel naturally raised. First come first served on the Embudo turkey. If you are considering it, we urge you not to delay. The last four years we have sold out and it is heart breaking to have nothing left for “last minute” customers. And while on the subject, Roland and Sheila wish to express our deep gratitude for you our guests, especially our regulars who stand by us through good days (and the other days!) who give us the chance to do what we do, and to each of our dear staff members who work cheerfully day after day; and to God/Spirit/Divine Love guiding and protecting all. Thanksgiving Menu
As the daughter of a WW II soldier, I give a simple salute to Tyrone Woods and the other two Navy Seals who ignored orders to stand down and gave their lives in the attempt to protect our Ambassador in Libya on Sept 11. We hope and pray for a day when military protection will not be necessary, but for now I am grateful for their courage and dedication.
There is almost no issue common to all of us more important than the control of our food supply. Every aspect of our food is being compromised — it’s quality, its purity and its nutritional content are compromised, sometimes critically/fatally, by such things as chemical preservation, genetic modification, irradiation, long-distance distribution — all deemed necessary because we are now inextricably bound to a system of mass food production.
We are fortunate however to have strong voices bringing us back to earth so to speak, reminding us that it has not always been so and that sound food production methods can be revived and restored. I’ll get back to that in a moment, but as a relevant side note I am proud and pleased to say that in our industry chefs all over the world are now inspired by local foods and are designing their menus around such foods. It’s not just leaders and visionaries anymore who are on that bandwagon.
Back to voices for local food movement – reserve your seat for Joel Salatin’s return engagement at the SFCC hosted again by Carbon Economy Series. Joel has written many books on the subject (the latest “Folks This Ain’t Normal” – a display copy of which you can peruse at our red counter). Joel and his family own and operate the amazing Polyface Farm, a near perfect template for the local sustainable food-production movement. Joel’s pearls of homegrown wisdom and truths about the hope of REAL whole healthy food production will be shared with the public. Nov 9, 10, 11. Call 505-819-3828 to reserve or go to carboneconomyseries.com
Gluten free products are improving. We now have some pretty darned good pastas and an improved pizza crust. I don’t think anything can replicate the nutty rich flavor of high gluten wheat flour. That said, in some cases you would not be aware that some of these new products are gluten free! Please specify your needs when ordering. Our “normal” baking flour for all our pastries, breads, sauces, pizza is New Mexico grown organic wheat flour.
At this time we still have some local organic fruit, mostly apples and pears, picked recently that we are using in some of our pies and cobblers.
Joe’s Meet Your Farmer program, started May 2011, continues. Here’s how it works. Every Saturday after Market (sometime after 1:30) we invite any and all of our local growers to come by Joe’s to relax over a meal and a beer. (We bribe them with a “good deal”). You are invited to sit with them, chat with them, ask them questions about their growing practices. And get up-close and personal with Who Grows Your Food.
DiJa Know — that cattle and sheep because they are herd animals are far less likely to panic when taken to “processing” in small family groups. This is more humane and additionally benefits consumers as the meat does not become infused with adrenaline. Our local ranchers like Anthony Manzanares of Shepherd’s Lamb, transport their animals in just this way.
DiJa Know — Bayer’s highly profitable product, neonic pesticides, which now coat upwards of 90 percent of US corn seeds and seeds of wheat, soy, cotton and peanuts are now accepted to be the likely trigger for bee colony die-off. There is enough pesticide on just one kernel of corn to kill hundreds of thousands of honeybees. And kill it does. Since 2006 bee populations are down about 30%. Honey bees (and bumble bees) of course are as essential to food production as water and sunlight. Bayer and Monsanto (Monsanto being responsible for most of the modified seed traits) have super-funded Washington lobbies, rivaled only by the tobacco lobby Altria, formerly known as Phillip Morris. Because of the market dominance of agrichemicals, farmers have just 2 choices: either pay up for Bayer’s poison, or exit the corn-growing business.
How can you know that a restaurant truly is buying locally grown foods? Or are they merely riding the coattails of the now-chic “eat local” movement by purchasing a token bag or two at the Farmers Market? Well, understandably not every business will reveal its expenditures so it is difficult to know for certain. But some of the signs are – food that changes in size, shape, color, flavor with the seasons – veggies for sure. Also the absence of certain items when they are out of season – like heirloom tomatoes from October to July. At Joe’s we choose to be transparent about our expenditures on local foods. In 2008 we spent $30,000. In 2009, despite decreased revenues, we increased our local purchases to $60,000. And by 2012 we expect that to exceed $100,000 representing about 50% of our food budget.
Why is locally grown food so very important to Joe’s? Why do we keep hammering on this “buy local” theme? There are many factors that are out of our hands when it comes to our food supply. Most of what ends up on the American dinner table derives from a shockingly few giant agribusinesses. Their influence reaches from designing the (GMO) seeds to planting, harvesting, processing and shipping. We as consumers cannot with confidence hand over the entirestewardship of our food to these few multinationals. Our passion here at Joe’s is for a local sustainable food supply – food produced by growers who are accountable for what they grow. Our mandate is KYG – Know Your Grower. We are able to look our local farmer in the eye and ask him about his growing practices or even visit his operation. This gives us the confidence that we are eating food that is healthy, wholesome, non-genetically engineered, often better than organic, humanely treated and minimally processed. It is grown with a smaller energy-use footprint and
transported short distances. And dollars stay in the community. We cannot divorce human health, the economy, ecology, personal (perhaps spiritual) satisfaction or honorable work from FOOD. Food is fundamental. What we eat, where it comes from, the stewardship of food animals, the nurturing and building of soils – all these factors affect us at a cellular and visceral level … whether we slow down enough to be aware of it or not. We are fortunate in Santa Fe to have a dedicated farm base producing a wonderful array of goods. Here at Joe’s we do our best to offer this bounty from our local farms to you.
We highly recommend you read The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan and Folks This Ain’t Normal by Joel Salatin. It will change forever how you view what you eat.
Joe’s signature latte cups, tee shirts, beer glasses and wine glasses are all for sale. Ask your waiter.
Tuesday is STILL Spaghetti and Chianti Night at Joe’s. $29.95 for two will get you Caesar Salad, Spaghetti Bolognese (made with our grass-finished local beef) and a great ½ liter of Chianti.
♥ Joe’s hand-made French chocolate truffles. They are close to divine. Who do you know who would love a little red bag of truffles? $1.99 @ or 5 for $8.99
Free food! With a Joe’s gift card for $100 (when you pay with a check or cash) it is programmed to give you an additional $10 worth of free food or drinks or merchandise. This is our “frequent diner” card.
Are you on Joe’s check list? Are you using your credit cards less frequently? I know we are and somehow it is liberating. We as taxpayers have contributed generously to the BB’s bailouts and their CEOs’ mega bonuses. Well, enough is enough. Here at Joe’s we are going retro and we encourage guests to pay by personal check and of course time-honored cash and precious metals! Coming soon – bitcoin. So if you are a “regular” and wish to pay by check, please ask your waiter to get you on Joe’s check list. Couldn’t be easier.
Chuckles from women in politics:
I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: ‘No good in a bed, but fine against a wall.’
– Eleanor Roosevelt
Every time I look at my children, I say to myself, ‘Lillian, you should have remained a virgin.’
– Lillian Carter (mother of Jimmy Carter)
Joe’s
2801 Rodeo Rd (at Zia Rd) Santa Fe, NM 87507
505-471-3800 www.JoesDining.com