Sage Bakehouse
Santa Fe meets Paris
Welcome to Postcards from New Mexico! Two Sundays a month, I share beauty, stories, and culture from this region that has been my home since 2008.
The weather here in Northern New Mexico has shifted dramatically in the last week. Gone are the gentle warm days of early autumn, now we are bracing against cold winds and there was even a splash of snow at the top of the Jemez and Sangre de Cristo ranges last night.
If you live here or if you come to visit, now is a great time to sit down with a steaming latte and perfectly made cinnamon roll as you contemplate your plans for the day or have a catch-up visit with a friend. And do I ever have the place for you.
Sage Bakehouse is my idea of the perfect bakery. Imagine the conviviality of TV’s Cheers bar combined with the high quality delicacies of a Parisian patisserie, and you’ve got Sage. I’ve been going here for years and just like Cheers, this is where everybody knows my name and my regular order (which happens to be that latte and cinnamon melt). Sometimes I’ll get a small table to myself but more often I’ll sit at the large communal table and strike up a conversation with someone else who comes here to worship at the altar of gluten. I’ve met some of the most interesting folks at that table!
You can get a lot more here than cinnamon rolls. Sage is famous for their amazing breads, including sourdough, wheat, farmhouse, pecan raisin, kalamata olive, challah (only available on Fridays), and more, many of which you’ll find on the tables of Santa Fe’s finest restaurants. Sage’s breads are naturally leavened, hand-formed, slowly fermented, and baked on the hearth of a French oven -- what the French call “pain tradition.”
Andrée Falls started Sage in Santa Fe in 1996, and she’s still at the helm of the bakery supported by many staff who have also worked here for years and who are unfailingly helpful and sincerely friendly. This place is solid, in the best way. The reason why the breads and pastries are so out-of-the-park awesome? Andrée tells the story:
Our whole wheat and rye flours come from the San Luis Valley, west of Alamosa. They are stone ground by Kris Gosar in Monte Vista, Colorado. We've worked with Kris since the day we opened back in 1996. Our other flours come from a cooperative of farms in southeastern Colorado and southwestern Kansas. They are milled with a pneumatic system at a mill about forty miles north of Denver.
Here’s the beautiful video version of the story:
Andrée’s roots in the hospitality industry go deep – she grew up watching the cooks at her mother’s restaurant prepare the day's lunch. At eight years old, she put on an apron and has been cooking and baking ever since. Andrée got her infusion of French food and baking from a three-year stay in Paris.
You can taste the commitment to tradition that goes into every one of Sage’s goods, from that epic cinnamon melt with the cinnamon carmelized to the flaky crust, to the classic croissants with layers of buttery goodness, to the sourdough bread with the just-perfect golden crust. And there’s so much more to enjoy. Take yourself over there either solo or with a friend on one of these fall/winter days and I promise you’ll love every moment.
See “Local’s Tips” below for insider tips about Sage Bakehouse, including a ‘secret’ place to stay in Santa Fe!
If you go / Local’s tips…
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