Suchness is open-kitchen camaraderie
Chef Kevin Sousa launches first Taos restaurant
It was only seven weeks ago that the former Byzantium space began its metamorphosis into Suchness, Taos’ newest fine dining establishment.
At soft opening Friday evening (June 7), Chef Kevin Sousa debuted a new, hyper-original menu in the compact but open space.
The interior was a major project prior to opening. At just 1,100 square feet, Kevin and Meg Sousa said the reworking of the interior required lots of “design trickery” to open it up. Using engineering software to visualize the space, they decided to emphasize the open kitchen and maximize movement there.
Instead of erecting a wall between the kitchen and the dining room, the Sousas decided to it open. There is a clear transition between the dining room and the kitchen itself, however, establishing a clear hierarchy between the two sections of the restaurant. The result is sensual. The sounds of food mingling with high heats and the scents they emit during the process only add to the feeling of camaraderie at Suchness.
“The goal was to make a small space not feel like a cafe space,” Kevin Sousa said. Imagining the interior like an art gallery, the couple painted the walls white and added plenty of artwork from their home, some of it painted by Kevin Sousa himself. According to them, this added to the restaurant’s open atmosphere.
Another solution was utilizing QR-code menus. Although the couple acknowledged the technological barrier such a menu could present, the decision nevertheless gave them plenty of extra space that would otherwise be occupied by large, laminated menus. Such menus take up space on the table, give servers more to carry and take up closet space. They also require printers, especially when changes are made to the menu — and this is guaranteed to happen under Kevin Sousa’s chefdom.
“What we’re trying to focus on is food, service and atmosphere,” Kevin Sousa said, “and the only
way we can do that is if we eliminate a lot of the trappings of bigger, more elaborate restaurant concepts that we’ve done in the past. The menu might seem small, but I
like to call it succinct and cohesive. It’s only 12 savory items and two desserts, but it’s only me and one cook.”
As he and his apprentice settle
into his kitchen, Kevin Sousa said they will have a dynamic menu that changes three to four times a month, occasionally swapping dishes as he sees fit. This is another reason behind the QR-code menus; with so many changes, it would become an enormous task to reprint.
A James Beard- nominated chef, Kevin Sousa has had lots of experience working in a variety of kitchens, including, most recently, at the Stakeout. Suchness is a conglomeration of those experiences.
Although they settled for a smaller space, the Sousas said their options were limited. And had they not moved into the diminutive spot on Camino de la Placita below Taos Plaza, they would likely still be in the process of decorating a larger place. The only renovations they chose to do to was tile the kitchen floor and set up shelves along the kitchen walls. Otherwise,
the space was ready-made for their endeavor — including one of the less-glamorous but rather essential components to a restaurant: a greasetrap.
According to Kevin Sousa, it is often difficult for new restaurants in Taos to install or upgrade grease traps because the demand is high and the workforce is low. If they settled in a space without a grease trap, they would currently be at the end of a long queue.
Before moving to their permanent professional home, the couple operated a pop-up dinner under the name Hungry Ghost. The couple remarked the pop-up had been very difficult. Although it offered them freedom to choose location, hours and a menu, it had one major limitation: no central kitchen.
The pop-up was meant to get their dishes out into the community and satisfy their hunger for