Keeping it Local

~AlwayReal

A friend of ours needed a reprieve from the stifling heat of Austin, Texas, and asked if she could come stay a few nights to relax, cool off and maybe get some river floats in. We said, of course, we always have room for friends! So, a few days later, she drove up with her three chihuahua mixes. We got her settled into our sweet little guest quarters and gathered to make plans for the few days that she’d be with us. The weather has been all over the place, sometimes downright chilly! I’m a temperature wimp, most happy at degrees between 70 and 85, and had no interest in plunging into our cold river. None of us did, so we decided to take her on a driving tour.

Three humans and our collective five dogs piled into our roomy van and headed north. We planned to drive to Ghost Ranch and maybe go for a hike, knowing that even if the dark, looming clouds turned into thunderous heavy rain, she would likely get a thrill out of the amazing visuals alone. It’s unbelievable to me that we are lucky enough to live amongst this stunning landscape. Ghost Ranch is always breathtakingly beautiful and this day was no exception. We collectively decided to not risk getting caught in a lightning storm mid hike, so headed out with Echo Amphitheater as our next stop.

Sadly, it was still closed for these ominous upgrades that I keep reading about in the Abiquiu News. My bar is getting higher and higher for the big reveal. Ah well, she’ll have to wait until her next visit. Our end destination was slated to be the town of Chama, where we hoped to grab some lunch before heading back home.

Driving into Chama is a different experience each time I go. My wife and I have been there during art festivals where the town is thriving and packed with locals and tourists. All the gift shops and restaurants are open and the charming coal train is spewing black toxic fumes into the clear blue sky. Other times it looks like a ghost town, shuttered, quiet and gray. This trip was one of those. Driving in, we were almost the only car on the road and hardly any businesses were open. We cruised the mile long tourist strip. Foster’s Bar kind of looked open, so I volunteered to hop in to do recon on the food situation. The bar was open with a handful of locals, but the restaurant was not. On our way into town, we passed Local, which had a sign saying that they would open today at 4. That gave us about 40 minutes to do a driving tour of the behind the scenes town. I love looking at architecture and was happy to have the time and the forced company of my wife who really doesn’t like to be kidnapped on these excursions at all. In this case, she had no choice and she ended up admitting to enjoying it a little.

When we pulled up to Local, the outdoor gas fire pit was aroar and nice music was softly playing in the large, attractive outdoor seating area. We leashed up our pack, hoping to sit at one of the inviting tables by the fire, but it was too cold, so we loaded all the furries back in the van and got a nice table inside. This place has a really nice feel inside and out. It’s got a ski lodge vibe with, hopefully, fake game heads, comfortable couches, individual and group tables, tall ceilings and the biggest etch-a-sketch hanging on the wall that I’ve ever seen. It’s an order at the counter setup, which allowed us to ogle the huge, wood fired pizza oven in the very clean, open concept kitchen. Seeing that, we opted for pizza. We also ordered a couple of cups of the soup of the day, which was a delicious and very spicy chorizo chili with beans. Not being super hungry, we ordered only one pizza to share. They have one size, a 14 incher. We went for “The Rustler,” which had pepperoni, bacon and green chile. My wife ordered one of their many beers on tap and our friend and I asked for water. As many readers know, Chama has been having issues with their water for a very long time now. They ran out of water last summer after not fixing a long term leak in their storage tank and now are dealing with a “boil advisory.” Thus, we were offered bottled water at $2 a pop. Thankfully, they allowed us to bring in our personal water bottles from the car.

The chili arrived first and we dug right in. I have a high spice tolerance and preference, but this version was spicy! I asked the nice GM for a side of sour cream to soften the tongue burn. It helped and I truly enjoyed it to the last spoonful of the black bean-y chorizo yumminess. I hope this becomes a regular choice on the menu.

Our pizza arrived in a cloud of delicious aroma. It was perfect! A soft mozzarella cheese atop a savory subtle tomato sauce. The bacon, pepperoni and chili were a nice trio to compliment the perfectly crunchy and tasty wood baked crust. We all agreed that this is the best pizza in this part of the world and wished that we had ordered more. The last time I had crust this perfect was in Naples, Italy.  Just sayin’…

One unfortunate part was that everything was served on paper or plastic, which was confusing as the prices are on the higher side and there were attractively rolled high quality napkins resting on cute, small, metal trays that we happily assumed were intended for the pizza. Furthermore, we were brought way too many paper plates and plastic forks and knives that we didn’t use but hoped would not be tossed. We had to ask why this was the case, and were told that it’s the way that they are dealing with the “boil advisory.” I did see a commercial dishwasher and do not understand why this wouldn’t suffice as methods of commercial sanitization require boiling water and/or a chemical sanitizer.  It was a bit confusing to use plastic-ware along with thick, dense cloth napkins and I wish there had been something posted to tell customers the situation.  But, I do understand that restaurants have to make decisions that don’t always make sense to the patrons.
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Overall, we really liked this place and hope that the town of Chama can figure out the water issues and continue to head in the direction it seems to be going, which is up.
Lets keep it local by visiting Local! FYI a small lunch was about 50 bucks, but keep in mind their prices include a 15% service charge so we don’t need to figure tip into the total.