Chispa Tapas Bar

I love coming here for a light dinner… the service is fantastic and the entertainment is great! Andrea, the restaurant’s manager, is always so fabulous at making sure her staff is on top of things… they really have a great team environment! If you sit at the bar, you get a lovely conversation with the bartender… or you can watch and listen to the entertainment at one of the tables. I’m very happy with the excellent food and will return again and again for sure!!!

So um, Tango Tuesday, as we discovered too late, is NOT a professional show (we were led to believe otherwise). It’s a place for the public to go tango on Tuesday nights, and there were some very good dancers there; it just wasn’t what we were expecting. Oh well. Music too loud for eating and trying to have a conversation, tapas okay, service good, but probably won’t come back if and when I return to Santa Fe. BUT, I would try the restaurant as it looked very nice and has a lot of good reviews.

Chispa is the Tapas Bar at El Meson.
Our family of four enjoyed a fabulous, if rather expensive, meal there last night. We started out with two sopas del dia — a gazpacho, with peppers, cucumbers and toasted bread crumbs served on the side (very good), and a beef & vegetable with shitake mushrooms (outstanding). Among the other outstanding entrees we enjoyed were the PIMIENTOS ASADOS EN CAZUELA CON QUESO DE CABRA (Marinated roasted Red and Yellow Bell Peppers with melted fresh Spanish Goat Cheese), VIERAS A LA GALLEGA (Baked Scallops in their own Shell with Galician Tomato, Paprika and White Wine Sauce topped with Bread Crumbs), SOLOMILLO DE RES AL CABRALES (Grilled 3oz Filet Mignon with Cabrales Blue Cheese Cream Sauce and Red Wine Carmelized Onions) and the JAMON SERRANO ($ 15) and JAMON IBERICO ($ 25) in a side-​by-​side tasting. The Jamon Iberico was richer, more flavorful and a bit more fatty — it was aged 2 years vs. 1 year for the JAMON SERRANO. We had several other tapas, and all were very good — I’m just listing the ones (above) that we thought were outstanding.
They also have a good selection of Spanish wines. We were tempted to get one of our favorites — Juan Gil Monastrell — but decided to try a bottle of the Emiliio Moro 2005, which, as our waiter promised, was a complex, fruit-​forward and full-​bodied RIberro del Duero that we very much enjoyed. Note that the markup is pretty steep — the Juan Gil was listed as $ 43, and we typically find that in local wine shops and food stores in the Seattle area for around $ 15.
As we were finishing up our meal, a three-​piece jazz combo — I think their name was Swing Set (last night was their debut) — started up, sometimes joined by a female vocalist. Not very Spanish, but very nice accompaniment to dinner and/​or drinks.
The tables had plenty of space between them, and the décor was very nice. Service was prompt and attentive throughout the multi-​course meal. Prices seemed on the high side, but given the consistently high quality of food throughout the meal, along with excellent service, I think it was worth it.
As far as I know, they serve the same tapas at Chispa as they do at the main restaurant, and I think I overheard the table behind us ordering some paella — which isn’t on the Chispa Tapas menu, but may be available nonetheless. Readers may want to check out some of the reviews for El Meson — which, while generally positive, included a few rather negative experiences — for a greater diversity of perspectives.