Episode 1

full
Published on:

27th Oct 2024

Barbara Nevins from Southwest Cafe Shares Her Story

A Journey Through Southwest Café with Owner Barbara Nevins

Join sommelier Jillian Fontana in the debut episode of Ridgefield Table: A Peek in the Kitchen, brought to you by the Ridgefield Theater Barn, as she interviews Barbara Nevins, the owner of Southwest Café. Barbara delves into her 37-year journey of sharing New Mexican cuisine influenced by Pueblo tribes. Explore her passion for food, the popular Hatch Chile Wine Dinner, and the art of wine pairings. Discover the familial relationships fostered in the restaurant, including the American dream story of Barbara's head chef. Learn about Southwest Café’s commitment to community, from organizing AIDS benefits to the Margarita 5K. This episode offers an insider’s view of the café’s culinary delights, vibrant atmosphere, and community engagement.

More About Artist Erin Nazzaro: https://www.instagram.com/erinnazzaro/?hl=en

00:00 Welcome to Ridgefield Table

00:28 Meet Barbara Nevins of Southwest Cafe

01:06 The Challenges of Running a Restaurant

02:39 Exploring New Mexican Cuisine

05:09 The Hatch Chile Wine Dinner

07:28 Pairing Wines with Spicy Food

09:40 Upcoming Wine Dinner Events

09:56 Excitement for the Second Event

10:20 Building a Family-Like Team

11:47 The Chef's Journey

12:53 Art and Ambiance of the Restaurant

14:03 Modeling for R.C. Gorman

16:16 Future Plans for Southwest Café

17:03 Community Involvement and Events

19:15 Conclusion and Farewell

Transcript
Jillian:

Welcome to Ridgefield Table, a peek in the kitchen.

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This is Jillian Fontana.

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I'm a local sommelier in town, and

I'm working with the Chamber of

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Commerce in Ridgefield to bring you

a wonderful podcast supporting all

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of the restaurants and eateries in

the town of Ridgefield, Connecticut.

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This podcast is sponsored by

the Ridgefield Theatre Barn.

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The Theater Barn recently underwent

this beautiful expansion, It's

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a wonderful asset to Richfield,

and we're so lucky to have them.

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Now for our first episode, I'm welcoming

Barbara Nevins, and Barbara is the owner

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of the Southwest Cafe in Richfield.

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So Barbara, thank you so much

for coming on our podcast.

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Thank you for having me, Jillian.

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I've heard you've been a

restaurant owner for some time now.

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How did you get into the

business of restaurants?

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I've been working

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Barbara: for since I was 17 or

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18 years old.

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And I always wanted to own my own.

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And I finally did 37 years ago.

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Wow, 37 years.

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So what year was it that you opened?

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1987.

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87.

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Yeah.

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I also came from the restaurant

business, and it is not an easy

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industry, I know, from experience.

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How have you dealt with that?

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Oh, it's a constant evolution.

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It's, it, there's, you're always putting

out fires literally and figuratively.

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But you have to have it in your blood

somehow, otherwise you can't do it.

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I can't tell you how many people I've had

as customers that come in and say, Oh, I

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really want my son to own a restaurant.

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Can you talk to him about it?

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And I always look at the parent and

say, How much money do you want to lose?

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Because unless they want to do it, and

then they have to work their way up.

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You don't just walk in the door and

say, I'm going to own a restaurant.

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You have to know a little bit about it.

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And that it's more than one party

and shots of tequila every night.

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It sounds glamorous from the outside.

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That's right.

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But when you're behind a bar, in

the kitchen, not so glamorous.

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But it's really fun if you love it.

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It's a fun business.

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It is.

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And you're always up against the

wall doing some, putting out, I guess

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I'm putting out fires here and there

wondering if everyone's going to show

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up for work or , plumbing issues going

to happen, which happened last week.

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And.

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You just never know.

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But that's part of the fun of it, too.

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It is.

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And you never know who's going to come

in for dinner and how big your crowd's

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going to be and what regular is showing

up tonight to go, have a nice conversation

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with and you just have to love it.

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You have to have it in your blood or

else you shouldn't bother doing it.

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It's definitely not boring.

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No.

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No.

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That's one thing.

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You'll never get bored.

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Definitely say it's not boring.

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Okay.

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The food at Southwest Cafe.

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Can you tell me a little

bit about the cuisine?

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So I lived in New Mexico, in Taos,

New Mexico, in the 70s, and it's

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quickly became my favorite food.

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Mexican food from New Mexico.

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It's specific to northern New

Mexico, you've heard of Tex

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Mex or Cali Mex or something.

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This is New Mex, Mex if

you will, Santa Fe style.

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And it's different.

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People don't really think of that,

this type of food with Mexican

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food, but it's really good.

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It's just part of the the cuisine

of the northern part of New Mexico,

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Santa Fe style that you wouldn't

necessarily find in a Mexican restaurant.

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What are the Native American

tribes in that general area?

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It's the Pueblo people.

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Okay, so Taos Pueblo is called twa,

and that's one of the Pueblos and that

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is located right in the middle of Taos.

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They were one of the ones that got

to keep their land originally, and

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it's a beautiful stretch of land.

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They fought to keep it and a lot of

the Pueblos were not so lucky, but they

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have the, longest living condominium in

the country because they've been there

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since about 1400, I want to say, and

you've seen the adobe structures They

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go multiple layers with only the doors

down below and then they pull up ladders

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So that's for their own protection so

that they climb the ladders to get into

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there They're adobe and that's still there

for tourists to go see there are a few

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families still living there Originally,

they did not have electricity I don't

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think they do now even on the couple of

families that are left when I lived there

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in the 70s it was definitely inhabited and

and with no electricity and the running

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water was a stream The land is beautiful.

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They've got horses and buffalo

and all sorts of stuff.

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They have a sacred lake.

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You're not allowed to go to as you're,

as a gringo, but it's beautiful.

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I highly recommend if anyone gets out

to that area to just take a tour of the

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Taos Pueblo because it's run by young

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native people, Tewa people,

that are working their way

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through college or whatever.

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And it's about a 40 minute tour

that they give you little insights

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about what happened there.

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Very interesting.

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And, like I said, it's run

by the natives themselves, so

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that alone is interesting too.

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That sounds, that's so interesting.

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It is really cool, yeah.

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So let's take it back to

your restaurant, Barbara.

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So Southwest Cafe, what are you

really excited about right now?

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We do have our, one of our

big wine dinners coming up.

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The Hatch chile Wine Dinner is

really my biggest wine dinner.

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We've been doing wine dinners

for probably 20, 25 years now.

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About four to five times a year.

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They've become really successful.

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The people who go always

sign up for the next one.

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I have this following that is just lovely.

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The customers just love it,

but this one is the big one.

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So you said hatch chile wine.

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Wine Dinner.

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. What is a hatch chile?

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Hatch is a town in southern New

Mexico, and it's known to be

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the chile capital of the world.

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And I work directly with

a farmer down there.

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I've been working with his

relatives over the years.

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Now he's a young man.

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He's in his mid thirties now.

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But I've worked with his great uncle years

ago even, and other relatives of his.

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I've been out in the fields in Hatch

with the chile's, and now they ship them.

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I used to have to bring them home

in duffel bags on the airplane.

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On the airplane?

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Yes.

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You would bring them home?

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chile peppers.

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It was fun.

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I'd bring my staff with me and

we'd check big duffel bags of

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chile, as many as we could.

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But after 9 11, the security got

a lot tighter and , I can do some,

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but I can't do as much as I used to.

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Now, he ships to me, but that, and

that's a lot easier, but it's not nearly

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as exotic, they are delicious, and I

don't know what the actually season is

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right now because they harvest them in

August and we usually get our shipments.

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I think we got our last

shipment last week.

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We roast them at Southwest Cafe and

we ZipLock them and freeze them.

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And usually they last

through mid January I'd say.

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So now you have a Hatch chile menu

for this wine dinner How do you

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incorporate the chilees with this menu?

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There's four courses, and each course

has hatch chile in it, even the dessert.

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And in fact, I'll give a plug to

Debra Ann because she did some

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hatch chile ice cream for us.

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Really?

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Specifically for Southwest, and

we're going to put that with

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chocolate hatch chile crepes.

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Yes.

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Really?

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Okay, so for our non Ridgefield listeners,

Deborah Ann's is a wonderful chocolate

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and ice cream shop in downtown Ridgefield.

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So good.

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You have to stop by if

you've never been there.

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So , that's amazing.

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So she's creating the ice cream just

for the dessert portion of the menu.

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Now, what about the wine?

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So if, for people who may not

know me already, I'm a certified

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sommelier, so I'm a wine expert.

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Now, It's notoriously difficult

to pair wine with spicy food.

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. So Barbara, how do you handle the

wine pairings for this dinner?

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I taste a lot of wines.

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I have my sales reps bring me cases

of wines and I pop 'em open and I try

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and drink and, I do what you would do.

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I'm not drinking the whole bottle.

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I'm drinking sips and.

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Not swallowing the sips , sometimes I do.

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Sometimes, yeah, sometimes no.

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Yeah, but you'll find and you know

this I think that a fruitier wine

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tends to go better with spicy.

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Now a lot of people say, oh, I

don't like sweet wines but you,

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if you have it with the Spicy food

you'll find that you probably do.

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Yeah, it's a big difference.

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So you taste the wines with that in

mind For example, like a true sauvignon

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blanc you think is very citrusy

it's more grape fruity that flavor.

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I don't really go for that for the

most part unless there's some South

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American ones that I found that are

have a little more sugar to them.

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Yes, but Generally speaking.

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Yeah, like this wine dinner

will have a Viognier For one.

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I have a rosé for one.

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I've got a Malbec so these aren't

particularly sweet, sugary wines,

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but you use the word fruity, right?

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So I would definitely agree with

something that has quite a bit more fruit.

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It will have a little more sweetness,

but it's not an overly sweet wine.

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No.

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It's not like a dessert wine every time.

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Every wine.

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No.

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And our dessert we've picked a Lambrusco.

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I love Lambrusco.

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Just as a little fun, sparkly,

bubbly, that's a little bit

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on the fruity, sweeter side.

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The wine isn't supposed to be

a dessert wine as such, but it

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does have enough to it, I think,

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is it a red Lambrusco?

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Yes.

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Okay.

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If you've never had Lambrusco,

the most common color you

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would find would be a red one.

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However, it is made in white and rosé.

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And then within the red ones, they

have different grades of sweetness.

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So a lot of times they'll use

the term amabile or dolce to

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describe the sweetness level.

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And then if it's a dry one,

it would be called secco.

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That's my little wine plug for today.

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So now when is this wine dinner occurring?

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We initially set the date for November

fourth, and it sold out in two days.

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So what are you going to do?

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What about the people

who want to support it?

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So we added a second night, November 6th.

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Oh, fantastic.

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Yeah, and that's selling

out pretty quick, too.

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So people are so excited that

they couldn't get to the first

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one, now they have the second.

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I'm glad I have an in with you so I can

get there at least maybe on the 6th.

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Yeah.

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It's fun.

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They are a lot of fun.

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And we seat people.

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All together in banquet style seating,

so you're seated with other people.

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We put real tablecloths,

real candles on the table.

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So it's a fun upscale event,

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.

So you mentioned when you would go out to look at the hatch chilees that

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you would bring some of your staff.

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Is this something you normally do?

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That seems like a pretty generous thing

to fly your staff out to New Mexico.

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My staff has become family to me.

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I have several people that have worked

for me for decades, like 27, 28 years.

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So they are like family to me,

and they treat me really well.

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So that's some people call it team

building if you're in the corporate world.

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We just call it, let's go

to Taos for a couple days.

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And we've done it several times.

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Your team respects you probably,

I'm guessing, because you treat

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them with a lot of respect as well.

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We both, we, we do.

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We definitely work together, hand in hand.

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I couldn't do it without

them, that's for sure.

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Like I said, I have one guy in the

kitchen that's been with me for 28 years.

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I've got two women in the front of the

house that have been with me 28 years.

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One is with me, 30 now.

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I have identical twins.

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Both of them are one of the,

that I just mentioned, and

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their one year old is sister.

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Who's also been with

me for about 18 years.

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That is unheard of I think the

newest hire outside of the summer

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kids is probably PJ and he's been

with me for about 10 years, 8 or

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10 years, that's a great bond.

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Yeah, I know.

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They're really good.

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I know sometimes it's hard to get some

good help, and we've talked about your

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team, but I'm curious about your chef.

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How did you find him?

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Oh, Julio has been with me for about 12,

13 years now, and he came in from Ecuador.

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He didn't speak any English, and

he started off as a dishwasher.

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I helped him get his green

card, and He learned how to

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do the prep cook, line cook,

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and he was like a sponge.

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He never left their side.

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He learned everything he could from them.

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So , if the chef went away on vacation

or if we were in between chefs, he

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would come up to me with his phone

and show me all these recipes that

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he wanted to try for specials.

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He was so interested in food

from the minute I met him.

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He learned English.

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And then I said, you've

got to go to chef school.

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So I helped him get to chef school.

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He graduated from there.

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And now he's my chef.

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He's been my chef for probably five years

now, and he does my wine dinner, creative

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entrees and specials and everything else.

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And he's worked out very nicely.

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So I've been into the restaurant,

of course, several times.

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And when you walk in, the first

impression is the color and the art.

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So where do all of these

art pieces come from?

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New Mexico is known for being very

artsy, especially Taos and Santa Fe.

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And I was very good friends

with a few artists from Taos,

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that have made it pretty big.

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One, R.

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C.

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Gorman is very well known in the

art community, and he's Native

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American, he's a Navajo man.

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He shows at the Smithsonian, actually.

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I have some of his art there, and

a few other artists from Taos.

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I also show with Erin Nazero, who's local

. She paints in Mexico and South America,

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and she's got all the colors that we need.

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And she's a lovely woman.

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So we sell her art right off the

wall, because people come in and

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go, Oh, we really want that piece.

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And, they've walked out with pieces..

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It's just beautiful.

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It suits us well.

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Wow.

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Because we're so colorful.

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Yeah.

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You know what I'll do, since we have a

local artist represented in the notes for

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this show, when people come to look at

the podcast, I'll write this information

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down that way if they're interested

in purchasing or looking at any of

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her pieces, they have access to that.

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She's great.

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Did you ever get to meet R.

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C.

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Gorman?

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Yes.

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I knew him very well.

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We were very good friends.

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I met him because I was waitressing in

a restaurant in Taos in the 70s and I

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went up skiing one day before my shift

and got carried down in a stretcher.

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Oh no.

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And I tore ligaments in my knee

and I was in a Velcro wrap cast and

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told me to stay off it for six weeks.

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Of course, this was the last six weeks

of ski season, so I not only couldn't

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ski anymore, but I couldn't make any

money anymore for the last of the season.

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So I was very distraught,

didn't know what to do.

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And then in comes R.

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C., he was a regular at the restaurant

anyways, very flamboyantly gay man,

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a lot of fun to be around, and he

liked his champagne with lunch.

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And he came up to me and said, My dear,

can that thing come off your knee?

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And I said, yeah, yes, but I can't

stand up as he goes That's all right.

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Would you model for me?

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Would you consider modeling for me?

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And I said you want me to model for you?

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I've never modeled before

There's a lot of art in Taos.

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And so they all use a model.

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He said, oh, yes, my dear I want

my models to be flat chested and

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big assed And oh my goodness, okay

And that the rest is history So

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what happened to this piece of art?

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You actually went and did this?

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I did about five or six pieces

for him, and he has since passed

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away, and whatever happened

to the art from the modeling?

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Oh the one piece, he did a

trade with Andy Warhol for me, a

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stand up, a vertical nude of me.

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Andy Warhol traded for one of his

reverse image, side silhouettes of R.

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C.

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Gorman.

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And it was really cool.

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But anyways, and then , when Andy

Warhol died went to Sotheby's to

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look at his collection that he had

up there, and there was my piece.

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Oh my gosh.

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How did that make you

feel seeing yourself?

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It was weird.

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He made me look like any other Native

American person, so you couldn't

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tell I was an Anglo or anything.

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You wouldn't say, oh, there's Barb.

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Thank God.

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Thank you.

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But no, it was good.

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We had a lot of fun together, Arcee and I.

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So what is the future

of the Southwest Café?

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What are you looking

forward to down the line?

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Southwest Café is, as I always

say, has been organically grown.

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I don't think you could write a

manual as to how to run a restaurant

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by Southwest Café because we make

it up as we go along, more or less.

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That's And I don't mean that in a bad way.

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It just organically grows on its

own with my staff and myself.

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The future is a little bit unknown.

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We just go through the weeks and say, Oh,

maybe we should have another wine dinner.

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Or maybe we should send

my chef to New Mexico.

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Or maybe, we should do a benefit for.

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Whatever our cause would be, which

we've done all of the above, really?

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What are some of the causes

you've done with the restaurant?

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early on we did an AIDS

benefit for Bread and Roses.

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You, it's probably before, way

before your time, but Bread

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and Roses was an AIDS hospice.

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It's here in Ridgefield and I did it

in conjunction with Harvey Fierstein

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and Steve Zemo and myself and we

did more than one benefit for them.

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It was fabulous.

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We raised a lot of money for them.

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We worked directly with the board

of directors of that hospice

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and they did wonderful things.

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It was small, but they took care of it.

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That's incredible.

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Yeah.

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That was really needed.

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Yeah.

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We do our Margarita 5K every year.

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And that is for the group home that's

here on Grove Street, Sunrise Cottage,

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which is now a part of Ability Beyond.

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We're in like the 20th year,

I think, of doing that.

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And that originally started because we

had it on the day of my anniversary

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of opening the business, August 1st.

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And we did that to give back to the

community what we have been able to reap

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from the community over all these years.

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And the Sunrise Cottage residents

come out and cheer the runners on.

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We have a lot of fun now.

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We start off with 34 racers, it's

a 5k, and now we've got over 500.

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I saw all their friends and family

spectating, and we work directly

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with the Ridgefield Running Store.

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Megan Searfoss is wonderful, and we have

one of the residents, John Andrew is

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his name, , he plays a guitar and sings

It's the Jimmy Buffett song, Wasted

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Away in Margaritaville, right before the

national anthem is sung and the gun goes

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off for the runners to start their 5K.

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It's a lot of fun.

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Everybody has a good time.

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That sounds like a very good time.

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And each runner gets a free margarita at

the end of the race in our parking lot.

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So we have this big party in

the middle of the parking lot.

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And Southwest Cafe has a band.

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And it gets packed, and it's

all real fun with all the races.

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I'll be spectating for that,

because I won't be running,

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but I will be spectating.

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We can get you a

volunteer job if you want.

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We're always looking for

volunteers for the racecourse.

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Oh, I would love to do that.

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It's a lot of fun.

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And do I also get a margarita at the end?

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You get a margarita.

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Okay.

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Then, for sure.

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Thank you so much for coming down to the

Ridgefield Theatre Barn today I feel like

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I did just walk in your kitchen, Barbara,

get a really behind the scenes view of

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what is going on in the Southwest cafe.

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So thank you so much for coming.

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thank you for having me.

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We have a lot of fun over there.

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Every time I go in, I just

feel like I'm in Santa Fe it's

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so beautiful and colorful.

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.

The Ridgefield Chamber of Commerce is so excited to share all of

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the stories from the wonderful

restaurants that we have in Ridgefield.

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We have something like

75 plus eateries in town.

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And so I'm really excited

to share all of the stories

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For all of our listeners, if you

enjoyed this podcast, please give us a

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:

rating, share the episode, or subscribe.

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We'd really love your support.

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And we will be back soon featuring

someone else from a restaurant in town.

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Thanks so much for listening.

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About the Podcast

Ridgefield Table
A Peek in the Kitchen
Don’t know where to dine in the 75+ eateries Ridgefield, Ct? Hear from the owners, chefs, and industry pros about their best kept kitchen secrets, aspirations and hot new menu items. Hosted by sommelier & hospitality veteran, Ridgefield resident Jillian Fontana. Brought to you by the Ridgefield Restaurant Network and the Ridgefield Chamber of Commerce.

About your host

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Jillian Fontana

Jillian is a certified sommelier and hospitality veteran who loves to entertain, cook, travel and of course dine out. Her hobbies include herbalism, fermenting and dry-curing, writing, and trying to ski. She is a resident of Ridgefield, Ct and her greatest loves of all are her two kids and husband.