Food hall vendors outline plans for downtown Santa Fe venture | Business

“I’m an ambitious person in general. I’m fortunate my partner is just as ambitious. When I worked in Los Angeles, I had 15 restaurants. Anything less than 10 for me is too little.”

Weiss and Becker are the team behind Kuidore and The Cluckery, which will open in the new food hall being built by Albuquerque developer Jim Long, CEO of Heritage Real Estate Co., in a business complex at 150 Washington Ave., just north of the Santa Fe Plaza.

The nearly 140,000-square-foot project, in the former site of a First Interstate Bank location, is scheduled to open in late August or early September, Long has said, and will feature 17 vendors — 11 eateries and six beverage enterprises.

The operators of those businesses will be dishing up a wide range of options — everything from Mediterranean, Asian, Native American, Mexican and Italian cuisine to hamburgers and pizza. Other vendors will be selling coffee and lemonade, while four alcohol vendors also are planned.

The project will be Long’s third food hall; he also owns and operates the Sawmill Market and Park Square Market in Albuquerque, where many of the vendors in the Santa Fe food hall also have a presence.

Among the vendors with operations in both Albuquerque and Santa Fe are Weiss and Becker, owners of the Buttermilk Restaurant Group.

Weiss, who began her career at Coyote Café many years ago before returning last year, said she and Becker have been working with Long for four years, operating the Notorious P.O.K.E. at Sawmill Market. The Buttermilk Restaurant Group also operates the Capital Coal Neighborhood Eatery at 326 S. Guadalupe St. in Santa Fe, sharing space with the Catch Santa Fe Poke Co.

“He’s a great guy to work with,” Weiss said of Long. “He’s very pro-small business, very pro-New Mexico. He’s a very down-to-earth guy and very connected to New Mexico. That’s what draws us to him.”

Buttermilk will be operating two new concepts in Santa Fe. Kuidore will serve Yakatori-inspired rice bowls and Japanese street food, Weiss said, while The Cluckery’s focus will be on fried chicken tenders, homemade coleslaw, bread-and-butter pickles and crinkle-cut fries.

She said Kuidore will offer a build-your-own-bowl menu and seven varieties of skewers, including beef and chicken, accompanied by such glazes as citrus teriyaki and Chimayó chile. She said she began experimenting with those glazes during her time living and working in Los Angeles, and she believes they will provide a welcome new alternative for local diners.

“Santa Fe, in general, lacks diversity in Asian flavors,” she said, noting that has begun to change with the arrival of Leo’s on Hickox Street, a Thai-Malay eatery opened last year by Zakary Pelaccio and several partners.

Diners will start with a base of sticky rice or sesame rice noodles before layering on their choices of vegetables and protein.

“It’s about building a beautiful but healthy meal,” Weiss said. “If we’re going to do a fried chicken thing, we have to balance it with something really healthier.”

Sauces also will be a point of emphasis at The Cluckery, she said, noting the dipping options will include classic ranch, chimichurri, sweet and sour and hot honey mustard.

“The idea is, you’ll be able to change up every bite so it’s not just the same thing,” she said.

Weiss said her other obligations likely mean she won’t be on the line cooking at either of the food court eateries on a regular basis. But she won’t be a stranger to either operation, she said.

“I’ll be eating there all the time,” she said, adding, “I’ll be keeping my hands wet in the ingredients.”

Becker will oversee day-to-day operations at Kuidore and The Cluckery.

“As Richard says, he’s a man of the people,” Weiss said. “He’s the face of the restaurant group.”

Downtown visitors who are looking to relax with an adult beverage will have several options at the food hall, all of them operated by Long’s Heritage Real Estate and overseen by Lucas Swallows, the company’s corporate mixologist.

The Zia Taproom will feature products from New Mexico’s best craft breweries, Swallows said, while The Winebar will focus mostly on international offerings augmented by a handful of local standouts. Wines will be served by the glass, he said.

The Margarita Bar will feature “heavy hitter” timeless classics, Swallows said, along with a special house margarita and a build-your-own margarita option with tequilas and triple sec choices.

“There won’t be a bad option,” he said, noting the bar will offer a variety of herb-infused tequilas and botanicals such as cucumber, fresh berries and jalapeño.

But the star of the food hall’s alcohol lineup likely will be The Vault, a bank vault that is being converted into a cocktail bar. Swallows, an Albuquerque native whose mixology career includes stops in Las Vegas, Nev., as well as Singapore and New York, said the bar will have an elevated feel to it, although he added it won’t be the kind of place to take itself too seriously.

“There’s going to be some tongue-in-cheek stuff in terms of how we present the menu,” he said, noting the room’s atmosphere will be a mix of Southwestern and banking elements.

The menu will feature cocktails, mocktails, wine and soda.

Swallows said the four bars will be scattered throughout the food hall to promote movement and encourage visitors to explore the venture in its entirety.

Still, Swallows said it would be a mistake to picture them as separate entities.

“I like to think of it as one big bar with options spread throughout,” he said.

The food hall will be a sprawling enterprise, according to Tiffany Fanelli, Heritage’s property manager.

The space includes the ground floor and part of the second floor of a building on Washington Avenue, as well as a courtyard and part of a second building in the complex at 125 Lincoln Ave., which will house the food court’s offices, four small retail spaces, and a walk-in cooler and dry storage for vendors.

Fanelli said the hall will have seven entrances, making access easy from all sides, with its main entrance at the southwest corner of Marcy Street and Washington Avenue.

The courtyard between the buildings on Washington Avenue and Lincoln Avenue will feature a stage where live music will be performed, as well as a water feature, fire pits, sculptures, and tables and chairs, she said.

A large, elevated flowerbed for shrubbery on the north side of the courtyard was removed over the winter to make room for more seating, as was a short wall on the south side that helped cordon off a patio dining area for The Bull Ring restaurant, a longtime tenant of the complex.

The food hall interior will tell stories through material and craft, according to designer Rachael Snow of Snow Studio. Her approach was to incorporate locally sourced materials in unexpected, contemporary ways, including natural stone, Douglas fir wood and layered textures, she wrote in an email to The New Mexican. 

“A central part of the vision is collaboration with local artisans and makers,” she wrote. “Their work is woven throughout the space, from the interior construction itself to murals, artwork, and furnishings. This allows the market to function as a living gallery that celebrates the craftsmanship and creative community that define Santa Fe.”

Snow noted the tile work also will play a key role in the project.

“You’ll see that we’ve incorporated traditional Native American and Southwestern motifs in a way that feels both rooted and newly expressed within the built environment,” she wrote. “Conceptually, we’re excited to build on historical motifs and imagine them for today. The intention is to create something that honors the city’s heritage while also pushing it forward.”

She described the atmosphere as a “light-filled, open environment” that reflects the landscape of New Mexico and the “spirit of gathering that’s so central to Santa Fe.” At the same time, she cited the work of Alexander Girard, John Gaw Meem and Georgia O’Keeffe as inspirations for the design.

Snow has worked on two other food halls during her career and specializes in high-end hospitality and food-and-beverage design.

“What I love about food halls specifically is the layering of experience,” she wrote. “They’re not just a single concept but a collection of voices, each with its own identity, coming together under one roof. That creates a really dynamic design opportunity.”

On the other hand, Snow wrote, this is the first time she has worked on a project that includes a bank vault, a prospect she found exciting.

“It’s not often you get to design around something with that level of history and physical presence,” she wrote, noting the vault features the original bank’s rotary gear-and-dial door from the 1990s.

“It’s about 18 inches thick, and we’re preserving it in the open position so visitors can experience the mechanics up close as they enter the Vault Bar. It becomes this really memorable threshold moment. As you pass through the vault door into the bar, it almost feels like stepping back in time.”