Did you know that we grew up in London and Brighton, England? Well, we did. In Brighton, we spent time in the Prince’s Regent’s Close neighborhood, where our grandma lived. In London, our family’s apartment was in Earl’s Court, which, we later learned, is where all Australians and Americans end up living for whatever reason. Anyway, the point is this: We know from fish and chips, baby, and just like with most things having to do with food, our opinion is informed and weightier than yours or your friend’s. Sorry, we don’t make the rules, we just live with them.
Anyway…
This preamble was a fairly annoying way for us to talk about how we visited Hook It Up, the new fish and chips spot on Guadalupe Street brought to you by the Eldorado Hotel & Spa and chef Sean Sinclair, whom folks might know because of his Las Vegas, New Mexico, days and his former eatery Bar Castañeda. To us, Sinclair shall forever be the guy who made sure people were eating during the 2022 Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire (do we cap the F in fire in this instance? We’re gonna, we just didn’t know if a fire gets the mucky-muck treatment like that). You can read about Sincalir’s commitment to coolness in New Mexico Magazine, even, by clicking right here (shout-out to writer Lynn Cline, whose food opinions are also more right than yours and your dumb friend’s).
Anyway…
Sinclair is a fish and chips guy now, and he’s upping his game from the previous version of Hook It Up, which existed solely in Albuquerque’s Sawmill food hall. Now he’s got a brick and mortar all to himself in the funny little building down the way from the Eldorado Hotel & Spa; next to Il Vicino; behind what was once Sakura; across from Concrete Jungle; just up the way from REMIX Audio Bar and Santa Fe Bees and Bumblebee’s Baja Grill and…and…and…we went there.
Now, this was the third day the place had been opened, so don’t sit there thinking we’re some kind of monstrous food writer who is basing how things went based upon whether a restaurant was fully ready for madness less than a week into operations. It’s not fair to evaluate a place in that window, so we’re not. We are, however, going to think of this as a preview and say that, with our preview goggles on, we’re thinking Hook It Up has a whole lot of promise, especially in a city full of people who ask where the best fish and chips in town are a lot—like, people as us that a lot.
For now, our answer is gonna remain Second Street Brewery (because it’s seriously the closest thing to the shop near where we lived in London), but Sinclair’s newly opened eatery is gunning for the top slot, and even with a packed house and a mere 72 hours of open-ness last week, the spot did so well.
Sinclair uses Hoki for the fish. It’s flaky, it’s cod-like, it’s super-tender and flaky, though not crumbly and dry, at least how Sinclair does it. The internet tells us this fish is also called the “blue grenadier,” which not only sounds like a way cooler name, but like some sort of 1940s-esque radio serial superhero. They’d be all, “Watch out for Hitler, Blue Grenadier!” and then Blue Grenadier would be like, “Stuff this in your pipe and smoke it, Jerry!” and we’d all hear the punch sound effect. Hahahaha! Are we old or young? You’ll never know.
Anyway…
Setting aside the trials and tribulations of those first shaky days that literally every last new restaurant faces, we left Hook It Up fully sated, having eaten the fish and chips (streak fries!), fish tacos (they’re huge!) and hush puppies (with green chile inside and honey butter on the side!) and we just want to say this: Be cool if you go over there. Be patient. Give them a chance. Enjoy the blue grenadier (ours was borderline perfect, but again, this is not an official review) and don’t be mad at the business that downtown parking sucks. There’s a lot over there, but Il Vicino faithful will surely know it fills up fast. We found a meter near the Santa Fe Community Convention Center with no problem, and the post-dinner walk back was merely a block and also much-needed considering how much we ate.
Anyway…
Here are the highlights:
Sean Sinclair opened his Hook It Up fish and chips spot last week
It’s at 109 N Guadalupe St., and you can call ‘em at (505) 982-1290
The staff is super-nice, even as they were fighting for their lives with some guests who seemed rude
The fish is hoki, at least in the fish and chips, and we prefer to say blue grenadier
Steak fries!
If this is the beginning, we figure it’ll be the spot to beat in a couple months if not weeks
There’s a mushroom sandwich on the menu that sounds phenomenally good, but we were obvs there for the fish
Sinclair took to social media recently to say that Hook It Up will, for the time being, be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. He also says it’s possible there’ll be days where the food just plum sells out while they get into the logistics of everything. Just be prepared.
Also
The Green Chile Cheeseburger Smackdown from our friends at Edible New Mexico is comin’ up faster than you think. In fact, Sunday, Sept. 13 feels like really soon, man, and we know these things are crazy popular, so maybe get tickets ASAP? This year’s version of the venerable burger competition comes to the Beer Hall at Santa Fe Brewing Co.’s flagship campus (that’s 35 Fire Place if you’re wondering), and…oh, wait. Actually, it’s sold out, we just learned. Ooof, that’s a tough one, but we’re gonna just say that we almost always see people online who can’t make the event, so if you’re stalwart and pure of heart, maybe you can get in on the action? If not, know that the lineup features what THE truck, Time Travelers Gastropub, NM ChileJang, Joe Daddy’s Grill, Kosmos Astropub and Luchador Food Truck. Some of those are from near, some are from far and if you click the link above, you can learn more about all of it.
Are we crazy, or does it feel just a little early for those chile roasters in parking lots to be popping up? Don’t get us wrong, we can sense fall creeping in from just outside our arms’ length, but it feels like something is off. We welcome the sights and smells, but dang. Also, we already knew we were crazy, but you, dear readers, drove us to that.
El Chile Toreado found itself on the New York Times list of the best Mexican restaurants in the country, and we’re kind of like, “Right on, ECT!” We do think that anyone not from around here, while welcome to their own opinions, could learn a whole lot about Mexican-vs-New Mexican, but whatevs; there are only gazillions of writings on the matter. If anyone is struggling, please know that our red and green chile here are pretty much their own thing, no matter how much Colorado tries to chime in, and we never really had it in the way we now know and love until we lived here full-time starting at…some point.
Even though we think Area 505 Steakhouse & Sushi Bar is a weird name for a restaurant, we’re still down with it, both because we like trying new spots (see this week’s intro section for proof) and because we like the Casa Bonita folks who we hear own/are opening/have opened the space in the location formerly known as Swig (if you’re old), a bar in which we made many a questionable choice during the halcyon days of yore. Anyway, we figure the name says it all in terms of what the restaurant serves, but we also heard from a pal who stopped by that there’s a killer burger. Rest assured we are on the case.
More Tidbits
If you’re subbing out real sugar for some other kind of sugar, note that a 2025 study (that we only just heard about) from the University of Colorado Boulder (which is probably full of people trying to horn in on our chile fortune) found that the sweetener erythitrol—which is in all kinds of sodas and fake sweeteners and even protein drinks—might just up your risk of stroke. We’re torn between wanting to die young, while we’re still beautiful (our grandma looked pretty bad by the time she croaked), and not super-duper wanting to have a stroke. Either way, here’s a link to that study: STUDY LINK.
Speaking of things from 2025 we just found out about, the dorks at IGN-dot-com (a gaming/nerd site, so brace yourselves) published a pretty cool cookbook for in-game recipes featured in the recent Legend of Zelda games. No, this isn’t real food, but we like how Link can cook in those games. It’s cute, even if you don’t love games. Either way, here’s a link to study Link’s food-ings: STUDY LINK.
We found a pretty cool commercial kitchen supply store online called Chef Link, and we figured folks might want to know about it in case they’re looking for a super-serious piece of equipment (or maybe you own a restaurant, we don’t know your life!). We had to kind of pore over the site, or study it, if you will, to see all the cool offerings. Maybe you’d also like to check out, or study Chef Link? Maybe you just like looking at shiny metal things? Either way, here’s a link to that Link: STUDY LINK.
Lastly in not just local food news this week, we just came across this Harvard study that, while utterly non-shocking, is maybe worth a read for all of us who like to both eat and be alive: Published in June, the findings of this study say that ultra-processed foods have a link to higher rates of cognitive decline and dementia, as unless your name is Dr. Demento, you probably don’t like the sound of that. As we say, foods like that are obviously terrible for you, but maybe just check out the study to remind yourself or someone you love that trying to eat better is always, ummm, better. Either way, here’s a link to that study: STUDY LINK.
In Summation
Y’know, it’s kind of refreshing to see a chef like Sean Sinclair being open about what goes into restaurant-ing. So many times, there’s this concept of vulnerability equating to weakness. That’s dumb. For Sinclair to address issues head-on while doing what he can to ensure a good experience? Well, it says something to us—that he thinks on a community level, that he’s at least somewhat trustworthy and that he’s serious about the quality of that fish and chips. All we’re saying, though, is that if it turns out Hoki fish is also known as Blue Grenadier, that’d be a good name for something…maybe your Pinebox Derby car? Some assing-ass DC hero? A drink that has so much sugar you start to think about using erythitrol instead, at least until you see the thing about how it might make people stroke out? Look, we don’t have all the answers. We’re mostly just trying to eat out a lot without having to pay for it.
Consider us hooked,
The Fork
Dining and Cooking