the Restaurant

EXPERIENCE THE COMPOUND WITH OUR VIRTUAL TOUR

ALEXANDER GIRARD, ART & THE COMPOUND RESTAURANT

The Compound Restaurant has a heritage rich in history and regional influences. The land surrounding The Compound Restaurant has been inhabited for centuries. Native Americans farmed the land and then Spanish settlers took it over and established a large sheep ranch along the acequia that runs to this day behind the restaurant. The Compound Restaurant began as the main house in a walled compound of houses and was known as the Macomb Compound. Parts of the building are over 250 years old.

In the 1930s and 1940s The Compound was a retreat for famous guests filming or painting in the area. Georgia O’Keefe, John Wayne, and Errol Flynn all stayed in the main house. The Hooton Family purchased the property and Mrs. Hooton, an avid art collector, called her friend Alexander Girard and asked if he would come to Santa Fe to help her turn the main house into Santa Fe’s first fine dining restaurant. Girard had never been to Santa Fe before and he loved it so much, he stayed and spent the rest of his life here. You can find over 160,000 pieces of folk art he donated to establish the Folk Art Museum of Santa Fe. Girard’s whimsical, fun, and artistic hand is well-represented throughout the restaurant.

Girard designed the restaurant with sanded white walls and used the Mexican Cotton fabrics left over from his Braniff Airlines job to line the ceiling of the restaurant.  Known as the inventor of the conversation pit, Girard designed the first-of-its-kind sunken bar to be an intimate place to foster conversation, and just like the restaurant, the Compound bar is its own Santa Fe institution. Thoroughly loved and made popular by locals and travelers alike. Many original Girard pieces can be found throughout starting at the entrance with a large heart titled “14 Languages of Love”. The American flag that hangs across from the iconic rainbow in the middle room, was woven by Navajo Indians in 1966, there are also two curio windows with Garard’s recognizable Folk Art aesthetic. The snake, sun, moon, wavy popcorn ceiling, and the parquet wooden door in the back portion of the restaurant are all original Girard works. Even the pillows on the bancos are a reproduction of his fabric collection at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York.

Girard is not the only artist represented at the Compound. There are also works from Dan Namingha and his family, all prominent Native American artists of today and they dine at the restaurant regularly. The sculptures in the Garden Patio and Bar Patio were made by Allan Houser, one of the most renowned Native American painters and Modernist sculptors of the 20th century. Both of their works are represented at The Museum of Indian Art and Culture.