A letter from Downtown · Santa Fe Plaza
Sazón
Fernando Olea's mole-focused dining room two blocks off the Plaza — a lifetime of Mexico City recipes, in Santa Fe adobe
Mexico City to Santa Fe, 1991
Fernando Olea arrived in Santa Fe in 1991 from Mexico City — a young cook carrying his grandmother's recipes and a conviction that the Mexican food he encountered in the United States was not, in fact, Mexican food.
He spent his first years in kitchens most tourists never saw. In 2015 he finally opened his own room on Shelby Street, two blocks from the Plaza — Sazón, the word cooks in Mexico use for the seasoning a dish gets from the hands of the person making it. In 2022 the James Beard Foundation named him Best Chef of the Southwest.
Small menu, twenty-six-ingredient moles
The menu at Sazón is deliberately small because the moles are not. Fernando builds his sauces the way his grandmother in Mexico City taught him — toasting chiles one variety at a time, grinding almonds and pumpkin seeds by hand, letting the pastes rest for a day before they meet the pot.
On any given night the menu might carry a mole poblano built from twenty-six ingredients next to a green mole thickened with tomatillo and hoja santa. The pace is Mexican, not American — dinner here is meant to unspool.
Shelby Street, gold at seven
Shelby Street is one of those quiet Santa Fe blocks where the adobe walls run right up against the sidewalk and the light in July goes gold around seven.
Sazón sits inside a low earth-colored building two blocks south of the Plaza, near the Loretto Chapel and a short walk from Canyon Road's galleries. Guests wander in from the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, still dusty from the high desert, and Fernando's small dining room — dim, tiled, hung with folk art — meets them like a familiar house.
With gratitude,
Fernando Olea
Chef & Co-Owner, Sazón
Order this
The dishes that made Sazón
Mole Poblano
The mole of Fernando's grandmother — dark, sweet, complex, ladled over slow-cooked chicken.
New Mexican Mole
Created for Santa Fe's 400th anniversary; local red chile from Chimayó and a whisper of piñon woven into a traditional mole base.
Chapulines
Toasted Oaxacan grasshoppers on a warm corn tortilla with guacamole — a rare taste of pre-Hispanic Mexico in New Mexico.
Good to know
Sazón, answered
How do reservations work?
Reserve well ahead — the room is small and books out. It's a proper dinner destination.
What's the fastest way to understand the kitchen?
Ask about the mole flight if it's on offer; three sauces side by side is the fastest way to understand what Fernando does.
What should I know about the pace?
The wine list is a real one; the mezcal list is too. Trust the pairing and plan for a slow, unhurried dinner.