The Placitas Studio Tour is celebrating its 27^th annual tour and will feature a diverse range of fine arts and crafts created by local artists. Browse jewelry, fine art, crafts and art pieces in mediums ranging from wood to painting, sculpture, fiber, ceramics, woodworking, glass and mosaics, and more. The tour will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

With so much to see and so many artists to meet, it will be a weekend mom will remember for years to come! Best of all, you can bring home a special, meaningful piece of art for her to treasure.

For a full list of artists, to view their work, and to plan your visit, go to https://placitasstudiotour.com/index.html.

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For those looking to immerse in the way of the locals while on vacation, Sandoval County’s annual events provide a unique look into local life and culture.

Plan your visit around one of these events for a visit you’ll remember for a lifetime:

• Placitas Studio Tour – A highly-anticipated annual event for the art community of New Mexico, the Placitas Studio tour is held each year on Mother’s Day weekend. Featuring only artists who live in or have a full-time art studio in Placitas, the tour is free of charge and self-guided. Visitors can stop into artists’ studios, learn about their processes, and purchase creations in all mediums.

• Corrales 4th of July Parade – Celebrate Independence Day in the Village of Corrales. Enjoy old-fashioned summer favorites like classic cars, a parade, fire trucks, ice cream, barbecue, fireworks, and swimming, along with opportunities to meet and greet horses and raise funds for the local library summer reading programs.

• Sandoval County Fair & Rodeo – Held annually in early August, the Sandoval County Fair is an exciting end-of-summer celebration for families, bringing together delectable fair food, rodeo events, Pow Wows, vendor booths, livestock exhibits, entertainment, and a grand parade. New in 2023, the fair introduced annual watermelon eating contests and a chili cookoff.

• Las Fiestas de San Lorenzo – Held annually in mid-August, Las Fiestas de San Lorenzo takes place in Bernalillo, New Mexico. Las Fiestas celebrate and honor Bernalillo’s patron San Lorenzo and feature ritual dances known as los Matachines. In fact, Las Fiestas is the largest Matachines dance in the region. In addition to los Matachines, attendees can experience food, music, mass, and more. By attending, visitors are offered a close-up view of the culture, history, and religious practices of this are. 

• Rio Rancho Fall Festival – Held annually in late October, Rio Rancho Fall Festival, presented by the City of Rio Rancho, is a family-friendly celebration of autumn. Complete with carnival games, pumpkin carving, food trucks, music, a trunk or treat, and a beer garden, this lively celebration is the perfect time to don your costumes, bring the family, and enjoy local flavors and entertainment. This year’s event will take place on Saturday, October 21.

• Light Among the Ruins – Each December, guests are invited to experience the ruins of Giusewa Pueblo and the San Jose de Jemez Mission amidst the backdrop of hundreds of farolitos. The two-evening program includes traditional and contemporary Native American music, dancers, and bonfires. Arts, crafts, and food are available for purchase at this historically and culturally immersive holiday event.

For more information and to plan your visit, go to https://seesandoval.org.

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Whether you like to spice it up or enjoy the classics, these top five visitor spots are sure to hit the spot: 

Cazuela’s Mexican Grill & Brewery – Enjoy micro-brewed beer, flavorful steaks cooked just the way you like them, seafood and traditional Mexican food at Cazuela’s—all of which are homemade and cooked to order.  

El Bruno’s Restaurante y Cantina – A local gem, created by two locals, El Bruno’s offers the unique charm of Los Ranchos combined with family recipes perfected through generations. Sip a margarita and enjoy the distinct flavors of New Mexico.   

Indigo Crow Café – Voted New Mexico’s best for Outdoor Dining, Neighborhood Gem, and Contemporary American on OpenTable, Indigo Crow Café in Placitas offers a daily changing menu, as well as wine pairing dinners, happy hours, and brunch options—all made fresh with local ingredients and artful touches. 

Joe’s Pasta House – Authentic and delicious, Joe’s Pasta House serves up freshly made Italian dishes inspired by Joe’s grandmother’s own recipes. Stop in and try the flavors of Italy—along with a few New Mexican twists—in Rio Rancho. 

Range Café – A favorite among visitors and locals alike, the Range Café features an array of vibrant local flavors, crafted into mouthwatering dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. A staple in the area since 1992, The Range offers live music, extraordinary takes on classic favorites, and locally inspired cocktails. 

For those on the go, delicious flavors are available fast from a variety of local favorites like Blake’s Lotaburger, Burrito Express or Dion’s Pizza. 

To plan your culinary adventure, visit https://seesandoval.org/places-to-eat/

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Running August 2–6, the Sandoval County Fair will feature livestock exhibits, dancing, rodeo events, Pow Wows, vendor booths, and the iconic fair parade. In addition to beloved fair favorites, this year’s fair brings two all-new events—the First Annual Chili Cookoff and the First Annual Watermelon Eating Contest—both taking place on Saturday, August 5, alongside the annual parade.

A celebration of local agriculture, this year’s fair will focus on the theme of “Celebrating the Bounty of our Country.”  Visitors can explore and learn about local agricultural traditions through visiting livestock barns, watching livestock shows, or heading to the rodeo. Rodeos will take place nightly Thursday–Saturday, followed by a dance each evening. A youth rodeo will take place on Sunday, August 6 at 11am.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit https://sandovalcountyfair.org.

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With a recent change in leadership, the Los Ojos Restaurant and Saloon is busier than ever said new owner Monique Alton.

Alton, who took over this bustling restaurant from her parents in June of 2021, said she is happy to see the business is still thriving despite the uncertainty Covid presented to many local restaurants.  

“We did what we could when times were tough,” she said. “We even acted as a grocery store offering supplies to local residents in need.”

According to Alton, her family bought Los Ojos 13 years ago and had a great time running the restaurant. However, she said the day-to-day operations took its toll on her parent’s health. 

“This is a tough gig,” Alton said. “So I started helping out in the back end of things and then I became more and more involved until I moved up to helping out with everything.”

Not long after Alton took the reins of this historical saloon and eatery, she and her staff had to learn to adapt to social distancing policies and supply chain issues.

“The state shut us down completely in March of last year, but we have a package liquor license so we stayed open to sell alcohol,” she said.

On top the package liquor sales, Alton said Los Ojos began selling items like beans, ground beef, toilet paper, gloves etc.

“This was kind of a point of contention because I didn’t know we had to have grocer’s license to sell these items, but since it was Covid, no one was in their office to answer these questions,” she said. 

Alton said there is a huge senior community in Jemez Springs, and in lieu of them making the hour long drive to get supplies, Los Ojos did what it could to help fill their needs by offering these supplies.

“Everyone was really grateful that we offered these things and so we continued; in some way keeping our business relevant in these uncertain times,” Alton said.

The next step was to evolve what the restaurant offered to its customers in the form of cuisine, she said.

“We started offering family enchilada casseroles, taco meal prep kits, margaritas to go,” she said. “It was a real struggle of creativity to see how far we could push what we could serve.”

The grey area of the rules was tough on Alton, who said she likes knowing her boundaries.

The hardest part of this era for Alton, was asking members of her staff to voluntarily take time off. 

“We have the greatest staff,” she said with tears in her eyes. “But half of the staff had to make that tough decision either to stay on or find work elsewhere.”

Just a few months later Los Ojos was reopened to limited seating, which in turn made the restaurant one of the only options for people traveling to Jemez Springs to eat.

“At this point we were slammed,” Alton said. “It was insanity, with limited seating we were busting at the seams every day.”

Because of the demand at Los Ojos due to reopening, Alton said she was able to bring some of her staff back.

“Since then we have stayed busy,” she said. “We don’t really have our usual 

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CORRALES – Most locally run businesses will attribute any success they receive to following a series of rules and guidelines.

However, there is one business in the heart of the Village of Corrales that prides itself on not following any rules whatsoever.

The Village Print Shop, located at 4605 Corrales Road has been dancing to the beat of their own drum for nearly four years, according to co-owner Curtis Osborne.

“When we first came into this space it was a complete mess,” Osborne explained. “We painted every wall, every ceiling, inside-outside. We built a fence and did all of the landscaping. It has been quite the process to get the business to where it is now.”

Currently, this 8,000 square foot building hosts an open floor plan that allows for huge art installments and plenty of wall space for local artists to hang their work for patrons to enjoy and possibly purchases.

“Art wasn’t our main focus when opening this space,” Osborne said. “We are the Village Printshop, so the business aspect of things like printing T-shirts, stickers, banners, and business cards was the main focus of our plan.”

When referring to “we” Osborne explained that he and his partner, co-owner Thierry Gonzales, wanted to create a business that allowed its clients to think outside of the box for their printing needs.

“We just happened to have plenty of wall space here,” Osborne said. “So we thought, ‘let’s use this space and make it an art gallery and host some parties.’”

Osborne, who is also an artist, said he uses the wall space to showcase his artwork as well.

“When I work on my projects I try to get as far away from the printing aspect of things, as I can get,” he said with a smile. “When I do my projects, there are no rules, I can do whatever I want.”

Upon entering the Village Printshop’s front room, it becomes very apparent that this business is unique at first sight.

“This place was a yoga studio, a restaurant, all kinds of things throughout the years,” Osborne said.

Osborne and Gonzales took full advantage of the adjacent rooms and spaces the building had to offer by making each section its own themed area.

For example, the room immediately to the right of the entrance is used for music. A full drum kit, a piano, and a stack of vinyl reside in this space as a way of evoking the muse.

The middle room, which is the largest room in the building, is currently the staging area for several giant fire ant structures and a nearly 6-foot tall blue yeti.

“This is the space where we host our big art shows and open houses,” Osborne said. “It’s also the only space where we have a good heater.”

According to Osborne, this structure was originally built in the 1950s as a dance hall for the Village of Corrales.

Past the middle room towards the back of the building are three more rooms that work as two printing areas and one art installment that utilizes mirrors to create an optical illusion of an infinity hallway.

“When we first got to this building, the old yoga class that was here, left behind these huge mirrors, and we thought, ‘Score,’” he explained. “So we used them for several projects like the back area where the infinity hallway is and on our old ice cream truck.”

Osborne said, he and his business partner bought an old ice cream truck for $500 and spent the best part of 2021 sanding it down and repainting it.

“We placed one of the old mirrors in it and added a flame thrower out of the top that shoots flames,” he said. “We have to tell the fire department when we are going to use it because they will get calls from the locals if we don’t.”

Just next door north of the main building where the Village Printshop works out of is the old sheriff’s station that is also being rented by Osborne and his partner to display more artwork.

This small adobe structure consists of two rooms, one with a ping pong table and art on one side and another with several large art pieces on display on the other side.

“People were squatting here before we took it over, so we had our work cut out for us to remodel the building and retrofit it, make it what is now,” Osborne said. “This is where we house the more permanent artist’s work.”

Osborne explained, there are no rules for an artist to display their work at the Village Printshop.

“We display whatever an artist gives us,” he said. “Whether it be a painting or a photo, or even several large fire ants.”

For more information on the Village Printshop go to: http://www.thevillageprintshop.com/The_village_printshop/shop/home

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BERNALILLO – It’s just past six thirty on a stormy Friday evening as the participants in an over 300 year-old-tradition prepare to practice seven dances in honor of Saint Lawrence (San Lorenzo). The street to the hosts, called the Mayordomos, for this year’s event where the practice is take place is flooded on both sides. It looks bleak for a moment as the participants in the dance begin driving in. Everyone stops to assess possible solutions on how to clear the large puddles on the street so the practice can continue. Just then, a pump truck arrives from the Town of Bernalillo’s Public Works Department to help clear the large puddles that threaten to stop the practice. Almost thirty minutes later, after many of the dancers and participants begin to file out of Epifanio and Sylvia Gallegos’ home, the street has been transformed into a usable space to practice the dances.

“This is the type of community we have,” said Mike Kloeppel, Economic & Community Development Director for the Town of Bernalillo. “I have been involved with these dances since I was a teenager; and I can tell you it takes a lot of hard work but it’s something we feel as a community is very important.”

This notion was put to the test last year during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which threatened to break one of Sandoval County’s longest standing traditions. But just like the community came together to clear the puddles on that Friday evening, the Fiestas de San Lorenzo still took place via a live stream on social media in 2020.

“It’s a good feeling to know that through all of the turmoil and sicknesses and despair that we’ve had, it’s good to see that we can get together and celebrate things that we’ve been doing for so many years,” Kloeppel said. “It’s good to know that hopefully we are turning a corner to get back to some kind of normalcy.”

The normalcy Kloeppel is referring to points to 328 years of tradition this August in the town of Bernalillo.
History indicates that the roots to the Fiestas de San Lorenzo can be traced back to Spain where San Lorenza was one of seven deacons for the Catholic Church in the 3rd Century.

Kloeppel said San Lorenzo was burned to death on a gridiron by a prefect of Rome for distributing alms to the poor instead of Rome.

Legend has it that after San Lorenzo had been burning on the gridiron for a while, when he told his tormentors “I’m well done on this side, turn me over.

“Because he was martyred and the patron saint of the poor and the sick, the townspeople here took a liking to that,” Kloeppel said. “It is for this reason that many of the participants in the Fiestas pray to San Lorenzo for his help as an intermediary to God to help get their prayers heard.”

According to Kloeppel, many of the participants in the dance, dance in part to fulfill a promise they have made to San Lorenzo.
“If you have made a promesa to San Lorenzo it is between you and him,” Kloeppel said. “It’s not something you talk about with others.”

Preparation for the dances begin in July a month before the fiesta, but Kloeppel explained that it is yearlong event.

“Every tenth of the month we go to the Mayordomos and say a novena in preparation for the August tenth festivities,” he said. “There are a lot of behind the scenes preparation that most people outside of this don’t ever see or know.”

Kloeppel said this is an ongoing tradition for many families in the area as a way to continue their promise to St. Lawrence.

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Believe it or not, this is the type of curriculum that is offered, among many other guitar related items, at the Strat Academy located in the village of Corrales.

The Strat Academy is the brainchild of owner and former touring musician Jimmy Smith.

Smith, along with his wife Lisa, offer students guidance in almost everything guitar related.

“This idea started back in 99,” Smith said. “Back then I was teaching people how to build their own guitars and the (Fender) Stratocaster is probably the most famous guitar…so I thought this would be a good name for an instructional academy.”

Since then, Smith has expanded from guitar builds to also teaching guitar to beginners and advanced players.

“The Strat Academy is a one of a kind business in the state of New Mexico,” he said. “We are the only ones as far as I know who do this type of instruction.”

Besides guitar building and lessons, the Academy also provides guitar repair services and a retail section in its entrance.

“We wanted to encompass everything guitar related in one space,” he said.

The Strat Academy consists of three sections that span the large parcel of land it resides on. Besides the retail and repair shop, the academy has an 800 foot loft where students can learn drumming and piano. The back shop is equipped with various tools that are completely dedicated to guitar building.

After several incarnations and three buildings later, Smith said his business has hit its stride in its current location on 4627 Corrales Rd.

“It comes down to the parking,” he said with a laugh. “If you don’t have that, business can be kind of bleak.”

But business has been anything but bleak for the Smith’s since the spike of COVID has gone down.

“We have a waiting list now,” he said. “We are happy that we get to continue this, because it is our passion.”

To learn more about the Strat Academy go to: http://stratacademy.com/

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