Travel Channel’s Samantha Brown show will feature Cafe Pasqual
It’s lunch hour Friday, and not exactly the best time to bring a film crew into Santa Fe’s busy Cafe Pasqual.
The small cafe seats only 49 people and always has a waiting list, with customers leaning against the stucco walls outside. Even a community table for 10 can’t handle the overflow.
But that’s exactly what Samantha Brown, host of “Passport to Great Weekends” wants for her show. She likes to walk into situations and see what happens.
Standing outside the cafe Friday, Brown said the theme for the Santa Fe show is “getting that natural high.” To that end, Brown has had massage therapy at Ten Thousand Waves, “psyche therapy” with shamanic healer Luisa Kolker , and today , will have color and sound therapy.
“Everything is about getting ‘elevated,’ ’’ said Brown, which is why she spent the morning riding bikes on the Dale Ball trail with Mellow Velo bike shop owner David Bell.
And … food therapy at Cafe Pasqual? “We wanted that grass roots feeling,” said Brown. “The restaurant is very much an institution here.”
Brown is known for her down-to-earth personality and that’s one reason she likes Santa Fe. Wearing a simple sundress and sandals, she said, “I love the inclusiveness of Santa Fe — I can walk in anywhere like this.”
Because of a poster taped to the front window of Cafe Pasqual announcing the Travel Channel’s presence, most patrons are expecting Brown’s visit.
“We first heard about her on iTunes,” said customer Rick Koe, who was on a road trip from Portland, Ore., with his family. “We like her — she’s not so rehearsed. Her show is really unique.”
Even Cafe Pasqual owner Katharine Kagel was a fan — well before she had any idea that her restaurant was a favorite of Brown’s. “I absolutely love her show,” said Kagel, who explained that she just got a call from the show saying the producers wanted to shoot in her restaurant.
Kagel reminisces about the booth where the show’s support staff is sitting. Actors Sam Shepard and Jessica Lange breakfasted in the same booth almost every day for four years while living in Santa Fe in the ’80s.
Known for its organic produce and innovative cuisine, Cafe Pasqual opened in 1979 and has changed very little — just the murals, it seems, but the same lively, colorful “feel” is there.
“I’ve been here four times,” said Brown, adding that Santa Fe was her first trip when she was hired by the Travel Channel eight years ago, after auditioning for the show while working as an actress. “I like going back to places that haven’t changed that much. Santa Fe is grounded in a very wacky, wonderful way.”
Brown said she was told by a local on her first trip here that she “had” to go to Pasqual’s, the same story many of the other patrons also told Friday. Jane Chihal, here from Carrollton, Texas, said, “Judy at Origins said, ‘Never leave Santa Fe without going to Pasqual’s,’ ’’ referring to the women’s clothing store on West San Francisco Street.
But those who knew Brown’s show, knew that trying a new restaurant was a mild adventure for Brown. “I’ve seen her descend from a ceiling on silk ribbons, with them wrapped all around her,” said Kagel.
“Last week,” said show producer Ginny Somma, “she rode in a barrel race in Wyoming.”
Brown, who grew up in New Hampshire, shrugged it off. “I never thought in a million years I’d be doing this. I’m not a travel expert,” she said. “I don’t want to be one.” But she does know what she likes.
“What is the broth?” she asks Kagel excitedly, after swallowing her first spoonful of soup.
WHEN TO CATCH IT
Host Samantha Brown starts her new series, “Samantha Brown: Passport to Great Weekends,” premiering June 26 at 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. on the Travel Channel. With locations ranging from Santa Fe and New Orleans to New York City and Washington, D.C., Brown identifies best spots for a girls-only weekend, family getaways, romantic trips and weekends planned around themes like city slicker escapes, music, ski retreats or soaking in the sun at the beach.
