Santa Fe's Newest Restaurants Are Open for Lunch. City Hall Decides on Dinner This Month.

Area 505, the steak-and-sushi restaurant on the third floor of 135 W. Palace Ave., soft-opened Aug. 22. Six weeks later it still serves only breakfast and lunch, because dinner and late-night bar hours depend on a liquor license. The license request goes to the city's liquor hearing on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 4 p.m. The Governing Body takes it up on Oct. 14. Amalfi Pizzeria on St. Michael's Drive is on the same agenda. Several of this year's most-discussed openings are running in stages, and the next stage for two of them now has a date.

Area 505's license decides what kind of night it can host

The Area 505 request is more than a yes or no on alcohol. The agenda lists a Restaurant B license, which covers beer, wine and spirits, for on-premises consumption only, plus patio service. The applicant is Area 505 Restaurant, LLC, and the space spans Suites 300 and 301. The patio matters because the restaurant has a rooftop one, which the Santa Fe Reporter's September review mentioned while noting the restaurant was serving breakfast and lunch rather than dinner.

Restaurateur Luis Ortiz built the concept around steak and sushi, and the Santa Fe New Mexican reported that dinner service and late-night bar hours were both waiting on the license. Right now, the version of Area 505 a downtown lunch crowd can visit is a daytime restaurant on a third floor. The version on the application is an evening place with a bar program and a rooftop.

As of Oct. 5, neither vote has happened. The Oct. 7 hearing is a committee review. The Oct. 14 Governing Body meeting is listed as the next step. If approved, the restaurant still sets its own date for starting dinner. Nothing in the public record yet says when that would be.

On St. Michael's Drive, the same agenda covers pizza and wine

Amalfi Pizzeria opened in mid-July at 1722 St. Michael's Drive, Suite A, in the space Pizzeria Espiritu used to occupy. Owner and manager Sophia Maloney runs it with partner Jose Montalvo. The menu covers classic Italian dishes, pizzas and paninis, plus a few of their own creations. The dough is made with Caputo flour, imported from Italy. Maloney explained the choice to the New Mexican in September:

"It essentially changes the entire way it tastes, the way it forms. It makes it a lot softer and a lot denser."

Maloney is a Santa Fe native with 10 years in restaurants, and Amalfi is the first place she has owned. In September she said the restaurant was working on a beer and wine license and might later apply for a second license to serve locally distilled spirits. Hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, and she said Monday service with the same hours may be added.

The Oct. 7 agenda lists Amalfi Pizzeria, LLC, requesting a Restaurant A license, which covers beer and wine for on-premises consumption only. It follows the same path as Area 505, with Governing Body consideration on Oct. 14. One hearing and one vote will cover both a rooftop steakhouse downtown and a neighborhood pizzeria in midtown.

A few doors away, Anthony's Soul Café has been running at full schedule since Aug. 12. James Anthony Moore opened the Southern comfort-food restaurant in the former Annapurna World Vegetarian Café space, next to his Anthony's Grill. The menu sticks to Southern staples, and the restaurant hosts live music. The Santa Fe Reporter and the café's own ordering page both list the address as 1620 St. Michael's Drive. Between the soul food, the pizzeria and the midtown campus a short drive away, this stretch of St. Michael's has picked up three new reasons to stop since midsummer.

La Casa Sena cleared its license and is still on the remodel's timeline

La Casa Sena shows that a license is only one step before opening. New owner Andy Barnes, who also owns Dinner for Two, finished a $300,000 renovation of the 125 E. Palace Ave. space. The New Mexican's follow-up reported that the liquor-license transfer was approved, and Barnes had called it the last major hurdle.

The plan brings in chef Rony Gutierrez and moves the menu toward Mexican and Southwestern food. The former La Casa Sena wine shop is set to reopen as Andy's Liquors and Fine Wines on the same day as the restaurant. The restaurant's own website answers the opening question with "We are shooting in late Fall 2026!" Its weekly hours list every day, Monday through Sunday, as closed. The site says private events can be booked through its events page.

That puts La Casa Sena one step ahead of Area 505 and Amalfi on licensing, with no confirmed date for its first public service. The East Palace Avenue restaurant and its wine shop are expected to open together.

Two midtown and downtown openings with no date yet

The Santa Fe Food Hall at 150 Washington Ave. was planned with 17 vendors, 11 eateries and six beverage businesses. The food concepts named in New Mexican coverage include Kuidore, The Cluckery, Patty Man, Manko and Blossom & Glaze. The beverage lineup includes Zia Taproom, The Winebar, Margarita Bar and The Vault. The developer had projected finishing construction in late August and possibly opening in early September. As of Oct. 5, no published report confirms that it has opened.

At the midtown campus, Dirty Laundry Movement plans to move its hot yoga studio from 2019 Galisteo St. to a 3,400-square-foot space next to Tender Fire Kitchen. The new space is in the Aspect Driscoll Building at 1025 Midtown Calle Central, part of the Aspect Media Village development. The new location is set to include a wellness café, a treatment room and showers. Owner Lauren Roberts told the New Mexican in early September that the move could come in about a month and that the studio would reopen right after closing the current site. As of this week, the studio's website still lists classes at the Galisteo address and calls the Midtown location "opening soon."

The next four weeks, by date

The license votes land in the middle of one of downtown's busiest October stretches. Here is the calendar as it stands:

1. Oct. 7, 4 p.m. City liquor hearing on Area 505 and Amalfi Pizzeria.
2. Oct. 10 and 11, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fall scenic chair rides at Ski Santa Fe.
3. Oct. 10 through 12. Indigenous Peoples' Day Weekend Celebration on the Plaza, with an Intertribal Powwow on Oct. 12.
4. Oct. 14. Governing Body consideration of both license requests, the same day the 18th Santa Fe International Film Festival opens. The festival runs through Oct. 19.
5. Oct. 17. Canyon Road Paint & Sculpt Out.
6. Oct. 23 and 24. Spirits of New Mexico at El Rancho de las Golondrinas.
7. Oct. 30 and 31. Día de los Muertos on the Plaza, with a free celebration Oct. 30 and a candlelight parade Oct. 31.

Area 505 sits on West Palace, a short walk from the Plaza events. If its license is approved, film festival week and the Día de los Muertos weekend would be the first busy downtown evenings when a rooftop dinner there becomes possible, depending on when the restaurant chooses to start. Until then, the confirmed options are breakfast or lunch on the third floor, Caputo-crust pizza on St. Michael's without a glass of wine, and soul food with live music at Anthony's.

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