There's a time lag between visits to restaurants and the time they get posted on Road Tips. I write them up in advance and have a program that allows me to schedule when they are published on the blog. Over the years, it's happened four or five times where we've gone to a place and by the time I publish a post on the restaurant, it has gone out of business. This is one of those times. We had dinner one evening at this restaurant in Santa Fe and less than two weeks later they closed. Since I had already written up the place on Road Tips and I figured that I just go ahead and share our experience while we were there.
While in Santa Fe, one evening my wife and I had gone up to the Cross of the Martyrs on the former site of Fort Marcy to watch the sun set. Afterward, we set out to find a bite to eat for dinner. There was one place that wasn't too far away that I had my eye on since we first got to Santa Fe, a little bistro called Fire & Hops.
Joel Coleman and Josh Johns met in 2010 while Coleman was the chef at a Japanese/Asian restaurant in Santa Fe, while Johns was managing Second Street Brewery. The two hit it off and talked about opening a place of their own - a gastropub featuring interesting foods and interesting beers. But when Coleman's restaurant closed unexpectedly, he moved to San Francisco to continue his culinary career while Johns stayed behind in Santa Fe.
Coleman was a native of Santa Fe and had years of culinary experience under his belt. He first got into working at restaurants when he was going to high school on the island of Kauai in Hawaii, then moved back to the mainland to go to culinary school, followed by work at San Francisco area restaurants. Coleman eventually settled back in Santa Fe and was the chef at Koi before it closed in 2011. Coleman worked in restaurants and as a private chef until he moved back to Santa Fe in 2013.
Pictured right - Joel Coleman and Josh Johns. Photo courtesy Santa Fe New Mexican.
When Coleman came back to Santa Fe, he looked up Johns and their conversations about opening a bistro started up again. They first found a small house on N. Guadalupe Street that had been built in 1907. Transforming it into a restaurant took a bit of time and the business partners opened Fire & Hops in August of 2014. Coleman ran the kitchen, while Johns took care of the bar and front of house.
While the chef at Fire & Hops, Coleman became fascinated with gourmet ice cream. In 2016, Coleman opened up a boutique ice cream parlor - La Lecheria - in Santa Fe. At one point, Coleman had two La Lecheria locations and by 2022 he decided that he wanted to focus on quality ice cream than working in a kitchen like he had down his whole adult life. Coleman sold his share in Fire & Hops to Johns later that year and stepped away. In his absence, Johns reached out to local chef Austin "Gus" Emery to continue the vision Coleman and Johns set out for Fire & Hops when they opened in 2014.
It was just after 8 p.m. when we pulled up to Fire & Hops just west of downtown Santa Fe. (see map) The only problem is that Guadalupe Street is a busy thoroughfare and there is no parking at Fire & Hops. We drove around the place a couple times trying to find parking before we found some on street parking on Jefferson Street about a block away from Fire & Hops.
Inside Fire & Hops, we found a couple small dining rooms with wooden beams across the ceiling. Artwork from local artists along with posters hung on the walls. The rooms were cozy and had hardwood flooring.
The small bar area was off to the left when you walk in. The wooden beams had coasters from different types of beers and breweries on display. The bar area was hopping when we got in, but it was past closing time when I snapped this picture.
We were met by a young lady - Angela - who also turned out to be our server that night. We had the option of sitting inside or out on the small covered patio in the back. It was a nice night and we decided to sit on the patio. Angela gave us a couple menus to look over. Fire & Hops has a rotating beer list of mainly local breweries to choose from. I ended up getting a hazy IPA from the Ex Novo Brewing Company down the road in Corrales, NM, a suburb of Albuquerque. My wife got a paloma, something that she had been on a kick with over the previous few weeks.
Most of the food on the menu is locally sourced and changes due to availability. It wasn't a large menu, but most of the things were sort of interesting. Their roasted Brussels sprouts looked enticing to my wife as an appetizer, but I was sort of cringing at getting something like that as a starter. And I even like roasted Brussels sprouts from time to time. Actually, the smoked pork poutine looked better to me. But I knew my wife would never go for that and I wouldn't want to have anything other than that if I ordered the poutine.
One of the guys at the table next to us go the Fire & Hops burger - a house-ground burger with a choice of cheese and caramelized onions on a bakery-fresh bun. The Cubano sandwich also got my attention, but I have to say that I will never find a Cuban sandwich as good as the ones I've had in Miami, so that was out of the question for me.
In the end, I ordered the Kalua pork tacos. Encased in soft flour torillas, the Kalua pork was topped with cabbage and pickled red onions. The pork had a nice smoky and earthy flavor. It wasn't heavy on the stomach and they were perfect for what I needed that evening.
My wife went with the monthly sandwich special - the BBQ pork sandwich. It was topped with a creamy cole slaw and served on a bakery-fresh bun made by the Chocolate Maven artisanal bakery in Santa Fe. A side of Cajun fries came with the sandwich with a garlic aioli dip. My wife offered some of the fries to me and I have to say they were somewhat spicy - and highly addictive. She was more than happy with the sandwich and even though she doesn't like spicy foods like I do, she even admitted that the fries - when dipped in the garlic aioli - had a great taste.
After dinner, the place had sort of cleared out - they close at 9 p.m. and we were sort of lolly-gagging around with our meal. Angela didn't seem to be in any hurry to get us out of there and after she cleared our plates she came back with a dessert menu. They had a fried blueberry pie topped with a house-made lemon sorbet with lemon creme drizzled on the plate. Well, she had me at blueberry, but any time you can couple lemon with blueberry with me, I turn into a food slave. And, oh man, was it all good! It was so delicious and rich and delectable and succulent and- well, I don't want to drone on with other adjectives. Let me just say that it didn't suck.
For just trying a place based on how it looked from the outside has served us well over the years and I thought that Fire & Hops looked interesting enough to give it a try. And we weren't disappointed. My Kalua pork tacos were very good and my wife really enjoyed her BBQ pork sandwich. And we both loved the Cajun fries with the garlic aioli, as well as the fried blueberry pie with the lemon sorbet. Angela was a great server and was more than patient with us as we took our time with a nice leisurely meal. Fire & Hops is a quant little place and would be a great stop if you get to Santa Fe.
(Update - We were there the end of August and less than week later Fire & Hops announced they were closing. Josh Johns cited the ongoing problem of procuring help that a lot of restaurants seem to be going through after the pandemic, plus the growing cost of locally grown food, coupled with the lack of parking in the area. Gus Emery was also scheduled to step away from the restaurant due to family concerns, so Johns felt it was time to just shut the whole operation down. The last day was September 10. That's a shame. Fire & Hops was a great place to visit.)
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