The neighborhood dish: Café Grazie

Café Grazie sits in an unassuming stuccoed strip of businesses located in the same parking lot as Target, just farther west of the store and closer to Zafarano Drive. It’s been open for seven years. One of my neighbors and I are regulars at the restaurant, which is family-owned and operated; everyone working there (and those in the kitchen) is a member of the family.

On a recent visit, we promised each other not to eat the same dishes we usually order. We started out with the goat cheese salad ($12) of organic spinach, piñons, sun-dried tomatoes, balsamic dressing, and warmed goat cheese. It’s a hefty portion of salad that, like most everything on the menu, comes with the café’s tostato (grilled bread with garlic-infused olive oil). The secret to this salad is in the warming of the goat cheese; it isn’t melted but rather heated just enough to heighten its flavor while allowing the spinach to remain fresh and crisp.

We also ordered the caprese salad ($12), made of four giant fresh tomato slices under large slices of fresh mozzarella, sprinkled with fresh basil, and topped with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It was artfully presented on a narrow, rectangular plate. The fresh basil made this run-of-the-mill salad picante.

If satiating our hunger was the only goal, we could have stopped with the two salads and basket of tostato and turned our attention to dessert.

Instead, my friend, who always (I mean always) orders the pasta pomodoro ($13) as an entrée, took a chance on the stuffed grilled chicken ($19), three chicken breast cutlets filled with Italian cheeses and sun-dried tomatoes, folded, and grilled to perfection. With garlic mashed potatoes, a sizable portion of yellow squash and zucchini, and a few asparagus stalks, the dish resembled an American cafe entrée — but the pollo was definitely Italiano. The potatoes were rich, the asparagus grilled al dente, and the half-moons of squash and zucchini intact with a slight crunch.

I generally order the gamberoni (shrimp) à la Roma ($16) as an entrée but this time tried the spicy meatball linguine ($15). After a childhood filled with eating hundreds of plates of homemade spaghetti and meatballs, it’s not a dish I would choose ordinarily, but I was intrigued by the chef’s addition of piquín chile, garlic, and basil in the meatballs. The dish comes with house-made tomato sauce, which is thinner and lighter in color than the thick, sometimes sticky, and often too acidic version made with tomato paste. The sauce transformed what is often a heavy dish into one that tasted light and natural.

The chile made the meatballs spicy and robust; the garlic and basil added a layer of flavor but were not overwhelming. The linguine was cooked slightly al dente and easier to fork than spaghetti. The result was a balanced dish with enough meatballs atop the linguine and sauce to make it a good value. (I hate it when I order a dish that has, say, three shrimp on four cups of pasta. I’ve been known to ask for a double order of the protein on those entrées.)

For desserts, we tried the vanilla bean gelato ($6) and tiramisu ($7). The gelato, served in a cold, metal dish, was rich and creamy and flavored by the tiny specks of vanilla. Although not made in-house, the gelato came from La Lecheria, a Santa Fe-based treat shop popular for its craft ice creams and gelatos.

The tiramisu was disappointing, and while it was presented with the usual sprinkles of powdered cocoa, it didn’t match the flavorful levels of the other dishes. It seemed to lack the touches of rum or cognac that typically trip the taste buds in the classic Italian treat. Alas, it didn’t “cheer me up,” which is the translation of the word tiramisu.

Yet the meal represented what we’ve come to expect from Café Grazie: fresh, satisfying, and a good value. Our servers were friendly and attentive, although the cafe was busier than usual — most of the 36 seats were filled at one point early in the evening. (Patio seating is available seasonally.)

Café Grazie owner Juan Ramon Arias, who is from El Salvador, partnered with a former chef who’d worked at Italian restaurants. Arias, now the sole owner, kept the Italian menu because it proved popular, says Katya Arias, his daughter and the restaurant’s manager.

Katya told us that the cafe is, indeed, a family operation: Her uncle Emerson Arias is the chef, and another uncle, Ernesto Arias, also works in the kitchen. Katya and her brother José are Café Grazie’s servers.

The dinner menu is quite extensive for a small bistro: salads, antipasto, pasta dishes (gluten-free pasta is available), chicken classics, risottos, and even grilled entrées, including salmon and sea bass. In addition to the tomato sauce, all the restaurant’s sauces and desserts are made in-house. Beverages include a full array of coffee drinks and a solid selection of wine and beer.

At Café Grazie, everyday lunch is called brunch. The small brunch menu includes flatbreads such as the Grazie ($15), which is topped with artichokes, marinated olives, green peas, feta cheese, and Roma tomatoes; and egg dishes such as Mediterranean eggs ($16) served with a side salad of artichokes, green peas, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, cherry tomatoes, and tostato. The brunch menu also includes a few specialty drinks, such as mimosas and a white wine mojito.

Compared to some local restaurants — where prices have gone up but menu options have decreased — Café Grazie still offers a voluminous menu and moderate prices, which have increased only slightly since the pandemic.

Of course, the only downside to spreading the word about good restaurants is that now more people know about Café Grazie, my secret neighborhood cafe. As a regular, I hope I can still get my table on a Saturday night.

Hollis Walker spent a decade of her young years working in the food industry, ranging from counter service at a Dairy Queen to waiting tables in a fine French restaurant. She loves to cook and hews to her mother’s only food rule: You must try everything at least once.