Chocolate Maven in Santa Fe: Sweet Cream Cold Brew, a Green Chile Bacon Cheeseburger and Berry Crepes

Start with the burger. On a white plate at Chocolate Maven Bakery & Cafe on San Mateo Road in Santa Fe sits a green chile bacon cheeseburger on a sesame seed bun, with strips of bacon, chopped green chile and melted white cheese, and a pile of fries beside it. The menu describes it as aged white cheddar, Hatch green chile, applewood smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato and red onion on a freshly baked bun.

The Maven's own site says it is an artisanal bakery that ships baked goods all over the USA and serves brunch and pickup options to its local Santa Fe customers. It also calls itself a "must see" Santa Fe restaurant where customers have a view into the bakery in action.

On the table

The cold brew arrived over ice in a tall clear glass, with a thick layer of white sweet cream foam on top, set on a white tablecloth. Sweet cream cold brew is on the Maven's specialty drinks list, next to plain Cold Brew, Punjabi Street Chai and Chocolate Chai. Hot chocolate comes Italian, Mexican, Mayan Chile or Semi-Sweet.

The crepes came rolled and topped with strawberries, blueberries, a dark berry sauce and powdered sugar. The brunch menu lists Mixed Berry Mascarpone Crepes as "sweet summer berries and creamy mascarpone wrapped in sweet crepes."

The menus we found online are dated, from 2022 to 2024, so check the current menu before you go.

The rest of the menu

The Maven serves breakfast on weekdays, brunch on weekends and holidays, and lunch on weekdays. Featured items on the menus page include Egg Copenhagen at brunch, a Sonoma Wrap and a Reuben at lunch, and huevos rancheros at breakfast and brunch. The brunch menu also lists peach compote French toast, made with batter dipped challah layered with sweet cream cheese, and blue corn blueberry pancakes. The lunch menu has a Southwest Veggie Burger, a chipotle black bean burger with local tomato, red onion, lettuce and green chile on an organic bun.

For pickup or delivery, the menus page sends you to a Toast ordering button, where you pick the day and the time you want to eat.

The bakeshop

Inside, shelves hold bagged loaves with MAVEN labels, including challah, and a glass case holds pastries. The beverage menu carries a pledge of healthy and delicious food: no artificial flavors, preservatives or synthetic additives, always organic eggs, unbleached, non-bromated regionally grown flours, no hydrogenated oils, and organic milk for all beverages.

The pastries travel, too. When Whole Foods Market announced in January 2024 that it was relocating its Albuquerque store on Carlisle Boulevard NE, it said the local offerings would include pastries from Chocolate Maven.

How the Maven got here

The first Maven belonged to a poet. Judyth Hill writes, "I am the original Maven!" and says she owned and ran the bakery. She told Lokkal that she baked all day, then cleaned up and taught poetry in the evening in the bakery's beautiful tearoom. The Santa Fe tourism site describes it as a tiny pastry shop known for brownies, hot chocolate and late night poetry readings. Today, it says, the Maven is a full service artisanal bakery and dine-in restaurant, shipping its product across the US. Lokkal also reports that Hill made a chapbook, Baker's Baedeker, and sold every copy in a single night at a reading at her bakery.

The couple who own it today came to Santa Fe in 1990. They started their baking venture out of their house, making and selling honey sweetened whole wheat cinnamon rolls that eventually made their way into Whole Foods Market, formerly Wild Oats Markets. They bought the bakery in 1993, when, as one of them told the Santa Fe New Mexican, it was struggling. "I feel like we gave it mouth-to-mouth resuscitation," he said.

After they took over, the business moved into units C and D of its current location on San Mateo. It also occupied unit B of the building. Their daughter, Harirai Khalsa, helps with the business, and the New Mexican called the family "the mom, pop and daughter trio."

"The Maven isn't a place just doing business that meets the norm," the co-owner told the paper. "We always wanted to make something exceptional." And: "We love making food. We love making people happy." Table Magazine reported that he regards Chocolate Maven as theater, in a sense, "an art form," with the food as part of that.

Next door

Unit B is the room next door. Table Magazine says it sits next to the Chocolate Maven in a space that over the years housed a furniture store and a children's theater. It opened in fall 2024 and hosts a rotating roster of local, national and international jazz, blues, folk and other artists on its stage.

Before you go

The Maven is also one stop on the Chocolate Trail, a Santa Fe route that connects five chocolatiers: Chocolate Maven Bakery, Kakawa Chocolate House, Senor Murphy Candymaker, Sweet Santa Fe and The Chocolate Smith.

A banner on the building reads, "We Love You Santa Fe!" and thanks the city for believing in a local family business. Chocolate Maven Bakery & Cafe is at 821 West San Mateo Road, Santa Fe, and the bakery's phone is 505-984-1980. Check chocolatemaven.com for the current hours and menu.