Pierre and I are visiting New Mexico - the land of enchantment, the land of arguably the most experienced presidential candidate, Bill Richardson, and, as we have found, the land of the most friendly people in a tourist destination that we have ever met.

We flew to Albuquerque and drove up to Santa Fe. We stayed at the Hotel Plaza Real which had reasonable rates and a great location, although it's a little tired. The first night we ate at El Farol, a tapas restaurant that was recommended by a local. It's right on Canyon Road, the road that holds a great majority of the galleries in town. We arrived, were seated and our waitress promptly took our order. Then the slips began. She couldn't get the cork out of the bottle of wine - it crumbled. She tried a second bottle - same thing. Finally, she met success with the third bottle. We ordered several delicious tapas from the menu. The first plate arrived and was not as ordered. We very nicely and politely informed the waitress that we had received the wrong plate. She seemed ready to dispute our order, but re-thought. Then the beef plate arrived and was clearly overdone. By then the waitress had sort of given up on us and it took a while to get her attention and explain the problem. This time she did argue, but eventually returned with a piece of meat cooked as we had originally ordered. All in all, the food and wine were decent, but the minor slips both in service and in attitude of the waitress marred our experience.

Next day, we spent practically the whole day visiting galleries on the Canyon Road as we are looking for a large piece of art for our space in Dallas. All of the gallery owners were extremely friendly, providing a high level of service and knowledge. It's rare to find such genuinely eager service providers in an area that is overrun by tourists pretty much year round.

After our multiple mile walk, we were ready for dinner. I had picked Bistro 315, before we left home, a restaurant that multiple websites had been very high on. When we arrived, it resembled a hole in the wall and didn't seem very promising. But this is precisely when exceptional service turned an average dinner into a momentous one - all in the person of Deborah.

Pierre ordered a bottle of pinot noir. Deborah brought it to us and from the first sip, Pierre was disappointed. I chastised him for not dialoging with Deborah about what she would recommend. After all, this was a wine bar and restaurant and the wine list held more than 300 selections, of which, I was sure, Deborah was more familiar than Pierre. After a while, he admitted that he should have and began discussing various wines with Deborah and others of the wait staff. Now it was time for dinner and by this time we were very comfortable asking Deborah for her recommendations. And now it was time to have a decent bottle of wine - Deborah recommended. Pierre told her that we would leave any we didn't drink for her to consume later. This generosity prompted by the ridiculous laws of New Mexico that don't allow you to take an open unfinished bottle with you when you leave. She brought us a fabulous bottole of French Burgundy. And then we learned about her interesting background which included being born and raised in Buffalo, New York, spending 14 years in Paris, and then following a guy to Santa Fe. By this time, Deborah brought us two glasses of sauternes and a free creme brulee for dessert. The chef, whom we imagined was French, came out to chat and we learned how he had found his way from Peru to be a chef at a French restaurant in Santa Fe. We had a memorable dinner. Compared to the night before, the food was the same or maybe even a little inferior, but the service was superb. Thanks Deborah for a wonderful evening.

So, please bear with us while we ramble through New Mexico and maybe don't manage to post every day. Next we are off to Taos with two more great dining experiences ahead of us.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive