Caffe Greco gets it’s name from Rita and Michael’s life experiences. When Rita was a teenager, she spent many years studying opera at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilla. Everyday Rita, who is of Spanish, French and Greek descent, would enjoy the amazing Greek food her father would prepare. 

After graduating, she moved to New York, where she met the love of her life Michael Linder, an opera singer and cantor who performed at Carnegie Hall and also had a passion for music and food as a maitre d’. They got married and had two children Carl and Julia. In 1987, they came to Santa Fe and fell in love with La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco De Asis. Next, they moved here. 

Other members of the family you will see in the restaurant include Rita and Michael’s daughter, Julia Bell, who married Lance Bell (whose family owned and ran Bell’s Department Store for 58 years in Santa Fe) who is a cook and food writer and their granddaughter Jacquelina Bell, who has been cooking since she was three years old. Sometimes, you will find Jacqueline singing and playing piano in our red room. Next, we have Michael and Rita’s son Carl, who is an Attorney in Miami with his wife Robin and their two daughters. Caffe Greco is just one big family affair.