Santa Fe Foodies website adds paid subscriptions to upgrade restaurant listings

Jul. 5—Robert McCormick has something different in mind for a Santa Fe dining guide.

His Santa Fe Foodies website at santafefoodiesnm.com is adding a paid subscription.

The same free content, anchored by "Where the Locals Eat" list of restaurants that launched in October 2021, will remain in place. But McCormick sensed there is an appetite for more Santa Fe restaurant content than other local dining guides provide.

The subscription component is going live in the coming days.

McCormick also hosts the Santa Fe Foodies page on Facebook, which has 11,000 members and spirited food and restaurant discussions most hours of the day, with about 1,000 posts a month.

The 160 restaurants in the free section and 217 restaurants so far in the paid subscription section are selected from places that get mostly positive mentions on the Santa Fe Foodies Facebook page he launched in 2018.

The subscription listings for each restaurant include: introductory blurb, address that can be clicked for directions, phone number that can be clicked to dial, hours, and direct access to restaurant websites.

Santa Fe Foodies evolved since McCormick established the Facebook page principally to promote the short run of his Cuba Fe restaurant in 2017-18. It started with people posting home-cooked meals and restaurant meals. People then started reviewing restaurants.

And the reviews, especially negative reviews, started sparking differing responses that sparked social media tantrums.

"It's sort of developed into a community," McCormick said. "It turned into a place for people to talk about food. A lot of people are interested in food. People are passionate on social media. It can get out of control. People behind their devices lose all sense of civility."

But the Facebook page gave McCormick, who has lived in Santa Fe for 11 years, an appreciation of the local restaurant scene.

"The biggest thing I've learned is the area has a lot more locally owned eating establishments that I've never heard of," he said. "There are quintuple the number of great eating establishments than I thought."

The website is an outgrowth of endlessly repeated questions on the Facebook page, such as: "What's the best restaurant for green chile?" or "What's the best Italian restaurant?" The website is an attempt to answer those questions with its "Where the Locals Eat," and McCormick frequently answers the Facebook questions by posting the website link as a comment: www.santafefoodiesnm.com.

What does a $9.99 monthly pass, or an introductory $19.99 pass good through Dec. 31 get for subscribing foodies?

Each has listings for 217 restaurants and more than 50 food trucks. They are broken into 182 categories, starting with 27 broad categories (vegan-vegetarian, comfort food, lunch, anniversaries). Most have subcategories (matzah ball soup, bagels, family friendly, open on Mondays) and the town is split into 22 areas, with downtown carved into eight districts (Plaza east, south side, Madrid, Meow Wolf area).

The categories are also based on Facebook discussions — and repeated questions.

"People were starting to ask the same questions," McCormick said. "People ask for websites, hours, days, directions, phone numbers, addresses. The website is designed to do that job."

Other local dining guides also list more than 200 restaurants, though McCormick lauds his effort's attention to detail.

McCormick does not charge restaurants to be listed on the free or subscription sides. Mille owner Marcel Remillieux consciously "paid" his way to the site by offering a discount.

"To receive something, you have to give something," Remillieux said.

Mille opened Jan. 12 as a French breakfast-lunch restaurant in the former Bouche Bistro space, but Remillieux intends to add dinner as soon as he can hire enough people. Wine service will start soon.

Mille has been hugely popular.

"I was shocked," said Remillieux, who previously owned Fleur de Lys in Los Alamos. "We didn't get that kind of enthusiasm in Los Alamos. In the first [few months at Mille] we had twice the business we had in the last year in Los Alamos. I never thought I would see lines out the door in the first two weeks."

Mille is listed on a number of dining guides but Remillieux regards Santa Fe Foodies as unique.

"Here's a democratic process," Remillieux said. "It gives a fair shot to everybody because it's community driven. It's not based on how much you paid or how long you have been in business."

Santa Fe Foodies is not necessarily McCormick's central gig.

"My life is about two things, music and food," said McCormick, who is a guitarist and vocalist in his own band Sunbender and plays in the band Widow Oxley. "I am an amateur cook but I'm not a chef."

His day job is that of website designer and social media marketer. Those skills are adding up to the elaborate upgrade of the Santa Fe Foodies website.

And the website by no means is a done deal.

"It's a living organism," McCormick said. "It's telling me what to do."