Lunch at Baleen
First let me say that I LOVE lunch in Santa Fe. And I especially love trying new places. So, I was thrilled to check out the new restaurant at The Inn & Spa at Loretto, also known as Hotel Loretto to you old –timers. The advertisements announcing the impending opening for Baleen were so whimsical and unique that my interest was certainly piqued.
Baleen appears to be associated with the Noble House Hotel Group and can be found in four of their hotels: Miami , San Diego , Naples and Santa Fe . However, there is none of the chain-restaurant feel to Baleen. For those of you who remember Nellie’s, much of the former casually elegant atmosphere has been preserved. You can still enter from the back, walking past the towering Loretto Chapel or enter through the front lobby at the corner of Old Santa Fe Trail and Alameda . The same lovely planters filled with red geraniums are there as is the wonderful covered portal.
For summertime dining, definitely opt for the breezy portal. There is also a beautiful shaded arbor and an inside dining area. Unlike the former Nellie’s, Baleen successfully recreates a sort of Santa Fe-meets-Raffles environment with rattan and teakwood chairs, complete with white tablecloths and delightful little chandeliers above the tables on the portal.
Our water was offered promptly (remember that Santa Fe is still experiencing drought conditions and water is not automatically served) and our order was taken in reasonable time. I asked my companion to order the tortilla soup and I ordered the Caesar salad for starters. A cup of the soup is actually served in a bowl with chunks of fresh avocado and the requisite tortilla strips. Just the perfect temperature even for a hot day, the stew-like consistency with a large portion of white chicken meat in a tomato-chicken broth base was the essence of what you would expect of tortilla soup. There are no real starters per se on the lunch menu as we found out. No side salad is offered and when my Caesar salad was served I regretted ordering anything else as it was so enormous. Not your typical Caesar, this salad came complete with artichoke hearts, strips of red and yellow bell peppers and long crisps in the place of croutons. The dressing was mildly spiced with chipotle peppers (smoked jalapenos now so popular in Southwest cuisine) as almost everything was we were to find. So, no, the salad was not a traditional Caesar but well-dressed and delicious.
Our second courses were just as satisfying in that the servings, while still enormous, never lost their flavor while growing cold. My tiny poblano shrimp dumplings were served lukewarm (as intended I believe) on a bed of spinach with sesame seeds and in a sweet chile garlic sauce. The last bite, considerably cooled off, was as good as the first. The grilled portobello and vegetable sandwich ordered by my companion was served lukewarm as well. The focacia bread surrounding it was not warm but the inside was and slathered with the now ubiquitous chipotle dressing. The accompanying pasta salad was a huge serving but wonderful with bits of artichoke hearts and peppers.
A few other salads are offered as a refreshing solution to a hot day in the Santa Fe sun: greens with jicama and orange, spinach and bacon, two types of chicken salad and a salmon salad. For the heartier eaters you will find the obligatory hamburgers, turkey clubs, pasta dishes and the like.
