WITH A TASTEFUL NAUTICAL THEME and an intimate dining space, Lure Raw Bar, in Albuquerque, feels more San Francisco than the Sandías, although you can see the mountains beautifully from the rear patio. From a seat at the cozy zinc-topped bar, a clear glass partition offers a full view of the effortless talent it takes to shuck oysters as quickly as you and a date can enjoy them.
The secret to a transcendent oyster experience is freshness, according to Lure co-owner Seth Beecher, who sources these pearlescent beauties directly from farmers on both coasts, flying them in daily. When you slurp down one of the rotating selections, its salinity, sweetness, and minerality burst forth, quickening your pulse and supercharging your pleasure receptors. “Oysters, when you shuck them, they’re alive, essentially—you’re eating something that’s as fresh as it could possibly be,” Beecher says. “In Asian cultures, they believe in chi. When you eat something that fresh, you’re absorbing its chi. That makes you happier and more powerful.”
Even the word “oyster” carries mythic weight. Its roots stretch back to ancient Greece and Aphrodite, the goddess of love from which the term “aphrodisiac” gets its name. In Roman mythology, the goddess’s equivalent—Venus—arrives not on a scallop shell, but on an oyster. At Lure, the ocean-spray flavor of a rare Olympia will surely awaken the sensuality of the divine within you.
Kakawa Chocolate House is known for ceremonial drinking chocolates and handcrafted confections.
Photograph courtesy of Kakawa Chocolate House.
Perhaps chocolate, however, is your mood elevator of choice. Few foods are more synonymous with romance. Revered for centuries, cacao has long held ritual importance, as evidenced by its presence in ancient vessels at Chaco Canyon. Chocolate is also a potent source of “the love drug” phenylethylamine, which floods the brain with dopamine and boosts serotonin. Kakawa Chocolate House, in Santa Fe, harnesses the alchemy of cacao with impeccable craftsmanship, leading to giftable treats that feel both indulgent and ceremonial. Try the charming shop’s intricately adorned Love Bird chocolates, forged from your choice of dark or caramelized milk chocolate and adorned with edible rose gold. The heart-shaped sweet reminds us of “a simpler time when we shared beautiful and delicious objects to celebrate our love,” co-owner Bonnie Bennett says.
Housed in an 1849 adobe, the Double Eagle Restaurant elevates classic French cuisine with New Mexico flavors.
Photograph courtesy of Double Eagle Restaurant.
Then there’s chile—New Mexico’s most enduring infatuation. While we might debate the flavor supremacy of red or green, we need to be honest with ourselves: Red chile, deeply smoky and piquant, isn’t just delicious, it’s sexy. Capsaicin, the compound that gives chile its heat, floods the body with endorphins and raises heart rate and circulation. The flush of your cheeks, the electric tingle across your scalp, these are telltale signs of arousal. While plates of blue corn enchiladas smothered in red make a fulfilling date-night dish, nothing quite matches the heat and seduction of the red chile escargot at Double Eagle Restaurant in old Mesilla. Housed in an 1849 adobe, the restaurant’s clever take on the classic French appetizer—snails baked in a house-made red chile sauce and topped with parmesan and oregano—creates an elegant and unexpected dish that’s hot in more ways than one.
Read more: From enticing effervescents to sultry natural wonders, New Mexico’s homegrown wine scene has never been hotter. This Valentine’s Day, pop a cork, clink a glass, and let the good times flow with a local vino at one of these romantic date spots.
