The farthest margarita stop is in Chimayo, about 30 miles north of downtown Santa Fe. If you’re going for a t-shirt prize, you can easily find five margaritas to drink within walking distance of the Plaza. You’ll find the majority of stops within Santa Fe city limits.

You can even get a somewhat otherworldly cotton candy tequila concoction at Meow Wolf. While most of the stops are restaurants or bars, several Santa Fe hotels also participate. After just five passport stamps, you can collect your first prize.ĭeveloped in 2016 by TOURISM Santa Fe, the margarita trail now has 43 different stops. When you order the signature margarita at each of these establishments, you earn a stamp on your margarita trail passport. A pub crawl style challenge, the Santa Fe Margarita Trail rounds up 43 different area restaurants and bars. “That’s what you’re doing when you come here.This modern take on the Santa Fe Trail shines a spotlight on the historic city’s favorite cocktail. “It’s like stepping back in time,” Jeff says. With the music of George Jones and Johnny Cash pumped in through the overhead speakers, hungry people settle in under a string of lights that glow overhead like lightning bugs. On a busy night, The Range now serves as many as 177 tables of customers eager for a taste of the countryside in a coastal California area dominated by avocado toasts and charcuterie boards.ĭespite the hardships created for local restaurants by COVID-19, which shuttered many successful businesses, the legacy of The Range and Jeff’s no fuss approach to keeping on have allowed the restaurant to survive another year. “I thought, ‘What did I do?’”Īfter that debut, he properly staﬀed the restaurant and held on tightly, as the community around him grew and tourists from neighboring wine country began to trickle in for a nice roast chicken dinner and glass of vino. “It was just me and one other guy that night,” Jeff recalls. When the Jacksons opened The Range in 2004, they expected no more than a handful of people to stop in, so they were shocked to welcome over 70 customers the ﬁrst night. Many of the restaurant’s oﬀerings feature local produce and protein, as well as honey from nearby almond groves and wine from San Luis Obispo County vineyards. Louis ribs and a ﬁlet with Gorgonzola cheese and wine sauce. While his wife runs the front of the house, Jeff is in the kitchen cooking menu items like Angus beef carpaccio, pomegranate BBQ St. I’m just using crawﬁsh, not langoustine.” What may seem like an odd pair, if not an impossible coupling, is an obvious match to Jeff, who points to a common link. The old burger shack became the perfect spot for him and his wife, Lindsay, to serve what he envisioned as “hillbilly meets French fusion.” “When we moved here, it was very oaky, drunks passed out in the front,” Jeff reminisces about moving to town nearly two decades ago. “You know what they say, when God hates you, he gives you a restaurant,” Jeff says.īut Jeff ultimately sold his share of the restaurant and set his sights on a small lot in what was then, by his own account, a “one-horse town.” Jeff later co-owned a restaurant in Los Osos called Mare Blu, which one Yelp reviewer hailed as “the most unpretentious breakfast and food in the county.” The unpretentious vibe seems to follow Jeff wherever he goes.Īnd he did continue to go, go, go. “I’m not an artist but I saw those plates and said, ‘I want to do that,’” he recalls.

The exposure to such exquisitely plated cuisine was captivating. Since he was old enough to work outside of the home, Jeff found himself in the kitchens of French restaurants in Southern California. “We picked peas while watching the TV,” he says.

Jeff, a self-described hillbilly, remembers growing up on a farm, where he and his family butchered their own rabbits and harvested vegetables. In what was formerly the drive-thru of a burger joint on the small town’s main street, Jeff sits at a wood-planked table in his restaurant’s patio area. Jeﬀ Jackson, the owner of this country-style Santa Margarita institution, appreciates a simpler life, one that’s not complicated by credit cards, cellphones or computers for that matter. When the check arrives at the table after a steak dinner at The Range restaurant, don’t expect to pay the bill with plastic.

Santa margarita restaurants