SCANNING THE TABLES AND BOOTHS at Capital Coal Neighborhood Eatery, in Santa Fe, I notice a refreshing disregard for traditional culinary pairings. One diner chases a hot-chicken slider with a kimchi quesadilla. Another pairs a vegan poke bowl with a wedge salad slathered in bacon and blue cheese. A group of friends shares French dips, nachos, and Korean bibimbap, while a solo patron relaxes with a Frito pie and a glass of rosé. Here, there are no rules—just endless opportunities to mix, match, and savor.
The anything-goes attitude applies to how long you stay, too, says chef and partner Dakota Weiss. “No one has a reservation for your table. If you want to hang out for a few hours, please do,” she says. “We want to be a place where the local community feels comfortable.”
Weiss’s flavor-forward dishes have attracted a devoted following since she and her partner in business and life, Richard Becker, opened what they call a “micro food hall” in December 2023. “I’m not shy with spice, salt, and acid,” says Weiss, who lived in Santa Fe as a teenager and returned from Los Angeles during the pandemic. “I chose the dishes selfishly, picking the things I missed most from LA.”
Capital Coal mastermind Dakota Weiss.
Her goal was to pump more variety into the local dining scene and to appeal to Santa Feans who were craving something new. “I love everything about New Mexican food, but people want and need more choices, so we brought in foods that are beloved elsewhere,” Weiss says. “But we include certain ingredients to give a New Mexico twist and make the food relatable, like Hatch green chile and Tucumcari cheddar on a French dip.”
The Nashville staple hot chicken, for example, can be ordered with no spice, medium, or hot. “New Mexicans are intrigued by anything spicy,” she says, noting that they usually order it hot. “Then they usually tell us it should be hotter. We’ll definitely kick it up for anyone who asks.”
Unlike most food halls that host multiple vendors under one roof, Weiss devised several strongly branded menus that come out of one kitchen and are mostly ordered at the same counter. Concepts include Frenchie’s Dips & Tots, Kimchi’s Korean BBQ, Richie B’s Hot Chicken, and Santa Fe Salad Company. Specials are often seasonal. An eclectic roster of winter soups includes elk chili, Hatch green chile chowder, chicken lemongrass curry, and carrot ginger coconut bisque. “We streamlined the food hall concept, so you don’t have to pull out your wallet a hundred times or miss any of the options,” Weiss explains.
Kimchi's Korean BBQ's tacodilla with shrimp.
“We also didn’t want to touch the bones of the building,” she says of the Railyard District building that is on the National Historic Register. Built around 1880 as a storage facility for the Capital Coal Company, it’s been a cracker factory, a grocery store, an automotive shop, and Zia Diner, which closed in 2016 after 30 years. “I never dreamed I’d own a restaurant in Santa Fe, let alone someplace with this kind of history,” she adds.
Capital Coal retains elements from previous eras: an exposed ceiling recalls the building’s industrial past, while Art Deco–style pillars from the Zia Diner days frame a central lounge area. Paintings of pop-culture icons like Frida Kahlo and Gene Wilder decorate the walls, and 1980s New Wave music pumps through the speakers. Two independent vendors—the Artisan’s Bottega and Santa Fe Sconery—anchor the rear dining area.
Weiss began her culinary career as a salad chef at Santa Fe’s legendary Coyote Cafe before she ascended the fine-dining ranks at luxury hotels in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Florida. As executive chef at Jerne in the Ritz-Carlton Marina del Rey, she further honed her craft. Never content with a single focus, Weiss developed her own gourmet popcorn brand, co-founded a spectacularly successful chain of Los Angeles–based poke restaurants called Sweetfin, and became a food TV regular, appearing on Bravo’s Top Chef: Texas and Roku’s Morimoto’s Sushi Master.
Each concept’s menu comes out of one kitchen.
“If I don’t have like 15,000 projects going on, I get bored very quickly,” she says.
Weiss achieved another career triumph in 2021, when she returned to Santa Fe as Coyote Cafe’s executive chef. Her homecoming, however, was also personal: She wanted to be closer to family while undergoing treatment for breast cancer. “I had no idea what kind of a toll it would take on me,” she says.
Weiss eventually stepped away from her demanding role at Coyote but couldn’t stay idle for long. She opened Catch Poke on Marcy Street in 2022 (now located in Capital Coal’s rear dining area); and she and Becker operate Frenchie’s Sandwiches and Notorious P.O.K.E. at Albuquerque’s Sawmill Market. Now in remission, Weiss returned to Coyote Cafe in February 2025, leaving Capital Coal in the capable hands of Becker and executive sous chef Lissette Vides.
Beyond Weiss and Vides’s creativity, the food hall also thrives on collaboration, hosting raw bar and smash burger pop-ups. In an ongoing series of partnerships with renowned Santa Fe culinary masters, chefs create two-month specials, with 10 percent of the proceeds benefiting a charity of their choice.
Stay awhile in Capital Coal’s lounge area.
Dale Kester of Santacafé crafted a poke bowl—sweet soy-glazed salmon, forbidden black rice, blood orange, avocado, edamame, and fried rice noodles, finished with red chile oil and furikake—to benefit Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. Kathleen Crook of Market Steer Steakhouse created a Cowpoke burger featuring a beef-and-pork-belly grind, Market Steer steak sauce, sharp cheddar cheese, and fried onion rings to benefit the Cancer Foundation for New Mexico.
“Everyone has a green chile cheeseburger, so I wanted to offer something a little different,” Crook says.
“Usually, with fast casual, you have to keep it simple,” Weiss says. “So these collaborations are a way to offer something a little more special and to give these fine-dining chefs a chance to flex their muscles.”
Weiss’s strategy is to never stay still. “We switch things around every day, based on what works in the moment,” she says. “We’re constantly learning. The more concepts we bring in, the more exciting it is.”
In downtown LA, Dakota Weiss lived between Philippe The Original and Cole’s French Dip—both of which claim to have invented the iconic sandwich served with au jus. In Capital Coal’s version, Weiss, of course, adds Hatch green chile.
SANDWICH
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
- Hoagie roll, toasted and buttered
- 5 ounces rare roast beef, slightly warmed and seasoned with salt and pepper
- 2 slices Tucumcari sharp cheese
- 3 tablespoons Hatch extra-hot green chile
AU JUS
- 2 cups beef bone broth
- 2 sprigs rosemary
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Makes 1
SANDWICH
Spread mayonnaise on hoagie roll, then pile with roast beef, cheese, and chile. Serve with au jus.
AU JUS
In a small saucepan, simmer all ingredients until herb flavors infuse the broth, about 10 minutes.
Weiss uses elk in her chili instead of beef. “Elk is what we used at Coyote Cafe when I started my career there in the late 1990s,” she says. “It is very lean and has a much richer flavor than beef, with a tad bit more game and iron in the flavor profile.” If you can’t find elk sausage, Weiss suggests using ground elk, which Beck & Bulow carries at their store in Santa Fe, and doubling the spices in this recipe. “I’d also add a few slices of chopped bacon to make up for the missing flavor and fat.”
- Vegetable oil
- 2 elk sausage links (about 6 ounces)
- ½ pound red bell peppers, diced
- ½ pound yellow bell peppers, diced
- ¼ pound red onions, diced
- 2 tablespoons garlic, minced
- 1 pound fire roasted tomatoes, crushed
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon coriander
- 1 teaspoon cayenne
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Shredded cheddar, crushed tortilla chips, sour cream, and chopped cilantro, for garnish
Makes 4 servings
- In frying pan lightly coated in oil, cook and break up sausage until browned. Set aside.
- In a large pot or Dutch oven, sauté peppers, onions, and garlic until soft and translucent; add tomatoes and sausage to the pot.
- Add the remaining ingredients and simmer at a very low heat until chili reaches desired consistency. Garnish and serve.
