Otherworldly sunsets and quietude have long drawn daydreamers, celebrities, and scientists to Santa Fe. Those same qualities have also branded the nation's oldest capital an idyllic tourist trap. But change is coming, led by mayor Javier Gonzales, who last year promised to spur the “nighttime economy.” Nowadays, downtown stays open for the nocturnal crowd. And July is high time to witness the City Different's transformation. Art Santa Fe and the International Folk Art Market, the area's most vaunted exhibitions, attract swarms of attendees, while Santa Fe Bandstand features an eclectic mix of concerts. And for those who stay up till dawn: hot-off-the-griddle breakfast burritos.
SEE | Catch a movie at Jean Cocteau Cinema, a majestic single-screen art house—opened in 1976 and revived in 2013 by little-known local novelist and fisherman-hat aficionado George R. R. Martin. Skylight, Santa Fe's newest music venue, hosts punk legends like X and indie darlings like Of Montreal. If you're itching for some history (ahem, dystopian history), drive 45 minutes to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, site of the atomic Manhattan Project.
DO | Once a bustling train depot, the downtown Railyard was recently reborn as a 50-acre district lined with open-air markets and art galleries. Take a hike up Atalaya Mountain, which rises 9,000 feet above sea level and provides a God's-eye view of the Rio Grande Valley below (and smells of juniper, ponderosa pine, and Douglas fir).
EAT | For a Southwest comfort-food twist, try a cup of the green chile beef stew or a banana leaf tamale at Tune-Up Café. After wandering through Old Town, refuel at Bangbite, a burger truck whose chef—Enrique Guerrero, formerly of Napa Valley's French Laundry—brings serious culinary cred. Trent Edwards, the owner of Duel Brewing, names his Belgian ales after Renaissance painters like Grünewald and the works of French novelists like Proust. (Make sure to try a beer-yeast waffle on the side.)
“Santa Fe is green chiles and sopapillas and breakfast burritos. It's glorious sunsets and long, lingering dusks—with no mosquitoes.”
—George R. R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire and owner of Jean Cocteau Cinema
Patrick Hruby (illustrations); Kyle Hilton (portrait)
