#CCCCO Third Leg: Kansas City and Santa Fe

By Clay Gordon | a year ago | 16 min read

Sunrise through the lounge car window of the Amtrak SW Chief Viewliner. Somewhere in Kansas. When the camera has trouble focusing because it’s early morning.

Chronicling the third leg of the 2023 Cross Country Craft Chocolate Odyssey #CCCCO – Kansas City to Santa Fe, via Lamy, NM.

Recap

As I mentioned in my previous Chronicling post (click on the card below if you haven’t read it yet) I arrived in Kansas City at around 10:00 pm on Easter Sunday Eve.

Because Union Station was in the early stages of being kitted out for the NFL Draft, the normal traffic patterns in and out of the station were disrupted and there was no signage. So, rather than walking less than 500 meters, I took an Uber to my hotel on Grand at 20th, conveniently situated near the station and a block east of the (free) KC Streetcar line.

The night was not as restful as I had hoped ... what I took to be the drumming of a loud band nearby turned out to be the clatter of the wheels of freight trains. Not as bad as in My Cousin Vinny – but enough to interrupt my sleep irregularly.

Easter Sunday

Easter was a day I carved out for myelf with nothing on the calendar except exploring downtown Kansas City and getting some BBQ. I awoke late, availed myself of the breakfast buffet in the hotel, and headed down (north, actually) Grand Street towards the River Market district, intent on getting an up-close-and-personal view of the Missouri River.

Sadly, that did not happen as there was no obvious pedestrian route to get to Riverfront Park.

[L]: About as close as I could come to the river on ground level; the road above did not have sidewalks. [R]: I was in the right place.

Dating back to 1857, the River Market plays an important role in the history of the city. Today there is a mix of permanent businesses – at least one produce vendor, a butcher shop, a specialty coffee shop, some restaurants, a souvenir store – temporary stalls, and on this Easter Sunday, a flea market. By the time I got a decent coffee (much better than the hotel) and consumed it leisurely, the market was just beginning to get busy and really come alive.

From the POV of the sign above, looking back toward downtown.

Three of the stands I stopped by. [L] *CocoaVino* offers a chocolate sauce mzde with a wine reduction. A little sweet for my taste (I don’t think I am really their target customer) but an interesting concept. [C]: *TerraVox* Winery, a Missouri- based winery (who knew Missouri had a thriving winemaking industry?) that makes a bunch of wines with grape varietals (see what I did there?) of which I was entirely unfamiliar. I appreciated their differences from the same-old same-old varietals but several are likely acquired tastes if you preferences run to high-alcohol reds. [R]: There is also a robust craft distillery community and I particularly liked this offering from *Of The Earth.*

On the south end of the market is a very good butcher shop [L]: *Local Pig*; that also stocks a wide range of specialty foods. [C]: This includes **Bourbon Balls With Chocolate and Bacon**(!) and [R]: A good selection of craft chocolates made in Missouri, featuring Askinosie.

There’s not much else to report about Sunday. I took the KC Tram back to the hotel and indulged in the luxury of a nap and just relaxing. I found out the place I really want to go to for BBQ was closed on Easter Sunday. (All of the places on my shortlist were closed. Because. Easter Sunday.) So I made do with some perfectly adequate but nothing special BBQ at a place within walking distance of the hotel, treating myself to some really good beer from local Boulevard Brewing. I returned to the hotel early because Monday was going to be a very long day.

Easter Monday

I started my day at 09:00 with a business meeting at one of KC’s highly-recommended local specialty coffee shops, Messenger Coffee (which is in a multistory building and features rooftop seating), and had a pastry – an almond croissant – from the co-located Ibis Bakery.

The presentation of my morning cappuccino at Messenger Coffee Co.

I did not plan this, but Messenger/Ibis was just down the street from my hotel and just around the corner from the original factory/retail shop of Christopher Elbow. I first met Christopher in NYC while he was still the pastry chef at the American Harvest restaurant. He was in town taking classes and we had lunch at Les Halles where he shared his confections with me and his plans to set out on his own. Before I left NY I loosely arranged a visit.

The original plan was to meet Christoper at the shop. The actual schedule has me visit the shop (which opens at 10:00) after my meeting and then then head to the production facility where we would catch up.

I was dodging raindrops as I made my way from Messenger to [L]: Christopher Elbow. [C]: FOH, just after opening on a Monday morning. [R]: Originally, the entire operation was in this space. Although craft chocolate was not in the original product mix, it was added in later, and today the craft chocolate manufacturing operation is here, with an expanded educational program planned for this space.

Elbow’s manufacturing operation moved out of downtown into *much* larger facilities to the SW. It’s an impressive operation in its scale and the quality and diversity of the products made. Much of the work is still done by hand but there is no hesitation to use machinery where it will increase productivity with no loss of quality in the finished product,

Click to visit the Christopher Elbow website.

Next Stop: Encore Coffee (and Chocolate)

Mike King came to my attention as a regular participant in ChocolatLifeLIVE episodes as well as being a contestant (and Bronze medal winner in the milk chocolate category) in the recent Craft Chocolat Challenge. By the time I was ready to leave Christopher Elbow’s place it had pretty much stopped raining and by the time I arrived at Encore it was pushing lunch.

Encore started out as a specialty coffee roaster only, but during COVID lockdowns Mike added craft chocolate to his repertoire as a way to differentiate Encore from the other coffee-only roasters in the area. His coffee roastery/chocolate workshop is in modest digs in an industrial strip mall in Grandview, a short Uber south of downtown. Mike roasts his cocoa in the same roaster he uses for his coffee and makes his chocolate in small melangers.

Mike and I spent much (most?) our time together talking about coffee, including cupping several of his coffees using the SCA rating form.

We shared some of the chocolate I picked up in Cincinnati from Maverick, and I picked up some Encore bars to share further on down the road. The conversation about chocolate took many different directions with Mike sharing his experiences growing a small craft chocolate business and the challenges he’s facing being located in the Kansas City market. We also talked about equipment (especially the roaster), approaches to scaling, beans, and ideas that take advantage of KC’s culinary traditions.

As emerged from my conversation with Paul Picton at Maverick, it’s clear that even though Missouri is also home to two early influential craft chocolate makers (Askinosie and Patric) Missouri is not a destination makers tend to visit.

In my estimation this is something the craft chocolate community needs to address in order to grow. And it’ something I am considering how to address as a part of the future of TheChocolateLife.

Mike ended up taking me to dinner at one of his BBQ choices – across the river in Kansas [L]: Slaps. [C]: I got a mix of pulled pork and ribs which came with sauce (KC style but not tooo sweet), pickles and pickled jalapeños, great for cutting the richness of everything, and two sides, cheese corn and coleslaw. [R]: A closeup on the cheese corn – imagine a soupy creamy mac and cheese but sub the mac for corn and you get the idea.

After dinner, I had some time to kill before I headed back to Union Station, so I spent it at the hotel, where I had checked my bags for the day, on the computer.

While my train was scheduled to depart at 1o:00 pm, I had the foresight to head to Union Station early, figuring that Uber drivers would likely be as confused as I was about where to drop me off at Union Station.

I was right, and I ended up being dropped off across from a parking lot where there was no access to the station, with zero signage. Fortunately, a security guard noticed I was someplace I should not have been. Unfortunately, the security guard was not a local – he was from Texas or somewhere hired just for the period of the NFL draft. After about twenty minutes, during which period I was becoming increasingly antsy about making my train, I was finally guided to an entrance to the station.

Inside I was lost as the signage (what little there was) again let me down again. I eventually made my way train side where I boarded another overnight train, the same SW Chief line (same train, different day) I had taken to KC from Chicago. I settled into my Viewliner seat (no one was seated next to me, thankfully) and as we left the station I set the alarm on my phone to wake me in time to catch the sunrise in the lounge car.

Amtrak – On to Santa Fe!

Early in the morning, in very low light, it was hard for my camera (my iPhone) to focus – the window was *that* scratched and dirty. The featured image shows what the camera saw when it focused on the scratches.

Top [L – R]: The Viewliner cars are a real treat to sit in at any time of day. Their expansive windows and seating options make a very welcome change from regular coach seating. Bottom [L - R]: Catching the Kansas landscape – most of the trip from KC, MO to Lamy, NM was in Kansas – as we rolled by it.

On to Lamy, NM ... Gateway to Santa Fe

Travel time from Kansas City to Lamy, NM (the train doesn’t actually stop in Santa Fe) was about fifteen hours – as I mention above, most of those hours are through the state of Kansas before cutting through a corner of Colorado before entering New Mexico.

There was one rest stop (in La Junta, CO), about 08:00, with enough time to get off the train and walk a couple of blocks to get a real café latte – much better than I had any right to expect at that time in tiny town like La Junta, CO – made on an actual espresso machine by a barista who knew what she was doing.

Though there is, confusingly enough in its own right, a Las Vegas, NM, Google Maps does not think it’s possible to get there by train, *even though I am aboard a train that stops in Las Vegas, NM*. Did I know the way to Santa Fe? Wny yes. Yes I did.

Welcome to Lamy, NM, where the pavement ends and the West Begins. [R]: Photo courtesy Robin Williams.

Though there is a well-known chocolate destination in Santa Fe (which I did visit), that’s not the only reason I made the stop. My original intent was to travel to Denver by bus from Trinidad, CO (and then back to pick up the train). That plan had to be scrapped when I learned the bus did not run the day the train stopped in Trinidad on the way to Santa Fe.

Scrambling, I took a look at r/t bus options Albuquerque <> Denver and found they also did not run every day. I don’t know anyone in ABQ but I had a dear friend in Santa Fe I had not seen in many years and so I reached out and was invited to stay for a day or two. The timing was perfect, and it would give me an opportunity to visit the Georgia O’Keefe Museum, too. (I am a fan of much of her body of work in part because of her connection to the photographer Edward Stieglitz, which is the route by which I came to appreciate her work.)

Maybe I had been in Santa Fe as a child. It’s possible, but I don’t remember. Even if I had it would have been more than 50 years ago and whatever I thought I knew then would not have prepared me f or the Santa Fe of today. And, I found that Google Maps did not give me any proper sense of the true scale of the metro area.

I was fortunate that my hosts had a spare vehicle so I was able to come and go (they lived about a ten-minute drive SW of downtown) each day.

[L]: One of the great names for any enterprise – crash (of Rhinos) Murder (of Crows) Business (of Ferrets) – crashmurderusiness. The specialty coffee drinks selection was just as interesting as [R]: the tea selection on offer – and even more enigmatic!

In the same building as crashmurderbusiness (you can walk between the two without going outside) is Chocolate+Cashmere, a store that sells, unsurprisingly, cashmere apparel and chocolate bonbons. The bonbon selection steers heavily toward Southwest influences; all are well-made, tasty, and handsomely decorated.

Probably the best-known name in “gourmet” chocolate in Santa Fe (Spoiler Alert: It’s not Señor Murphy’s) is *Kakawa Chocolate House*. I know the original founder, Mark Sciscenti, who is no longer affiliated with the company. (A long story that I will leave to Mark to tell.) It’s an attractive spot and a nice walk from the square that is the center of town. I tried the pictured [Bottom L&C]: Goat Cheese & Sage Truffle and found the flavors to be a little timid for my liking. The piece was well made, despite being a little horsey to my mind. The hot chocolate with Mexican spices had a nice fiery heat and, TBH, the heat could easily have been the reason I found the truffle flavors to be muted. There is also a small selection of craft chocolate bars from other makers to he had.

When I think of the colors of the southwest, this combination immediately springs to mind – adobe and deep sky blue.

I had several hours before my timed entry to the O’Keefe Museum, so I headed out without a particular destination in mind. One benefit to aimless wandering is the possibility of serendipitously running across something interesting. And *La Lecheria* was the highlight of that period of aimless wandering. I had a flight of four flavors – all very good – and purchased this bar from Albuquerque-based Eldora Craft Chocolate. (La Lecheria uses Eldora chocolate in at least one of its ice cream flavors.)

New Mexico Craft Ice Cream

New Mexico Craft Ice Cream0

A surprising find inside a mall near the square was *Chocolate en la Plaza*. Originally the company used El Rey (there is still signage on the wall that points to this) but more recently has begun to make their own craft chocolate. Most of the pieces seem sized to the tourist trade (at least an ounce), but I was captivated by the biscochito, a type of shortbread cookie, dipped in chocolate and then decorated with roasted almonds covered with red Hatch chili powder.

While it is okay to take photos in most rooms in the O’Keefe Museum, by the time I arrived it was fairly cloudy and most of the galleries were fairly gloomy. The galleries were underlit to begin with and so taking good photos was a challenge. Surprisingly (and happily), none of the large lily paintings – the ones I think most people would be familiar with – were on display. On the walls were pieces I had seen in books but never in person and it was possible to get very close to most of the works and see the detail of brushstrokes, which I always appreciate.

After a fair amount of twiddling this is what one of the larger galleries looks like – much brighter than it was during my visit.

Another surprise was finding ChocolateSmith ... even their rather forlorn FBM ProXima. The owners were experiencing some service issues, and even though I no longer have a working relationship with FBM, I did reach out to FBM to see if I could help them get it running. ChocolateSmith makes some fabulous local confections that feature, caramel pistachios and pine nuts grown in New Mexico, and Hatch chili powder. The owners also own Whoo’s Donuts, right next door. When you’re in Santa Fe, make sure to stop by both.

The local commuter train service from Santa Fe to Albuquerque. Spectacular skies while waiting for the train. The fare was $4.

Before arriving in Santa Fe, I learned that my original plans for visiting Denver were falling through. After taking a look at the schedule, I decided it did not make sense to make a nine-hour bus trip each way and spend two nights in a hotel to make one, maybe at most two visits in the Denver metro area was not something I wanted to force. I’d just have to make the trip at some other time.

So, I took the commuter train from Santa Fe to Albuquerque, a pleasant trip of about ninety minutes. Conveniently, the powers that be in ABQ concentrated all of the public transit in the same downtown location. I checked my bags at the ticket office and, with about four hours in front of me, I headed out to find lunch and explore a little of downtown ABQ.

That exploration, along with the trip from ABQ to Flagstaff, the final leg of my journey on Amtrak, will be covered in the next (and final installment) in my Cross Country Craft Chocolate Odyssey series.