Upper Crust Pizza: the easy weeknight answer.

Upper Crust Pizza is the easy answer for the night when you're tired, the day got long, and nobody at the table wants to coordinate a real dinner. Casual counter ordering, amazing pizzas including some of the best gluten-free options in town, hearty salads, patios at both locations. It's the move.

There are two locations and the choice between them is purely geography. The downtown spot is near the Plaza — the one to use after a Canyon Road afternoon or a museum day, when you want to land somewhere on the way back to the car. The El Dorado location is south of town, off the Lamy/Eldorado road, and it's the one that's actually convenient to both of our houses on Old Las Vegas Highway. We use whichever is closer to wherever the day ended up.

The pizza itself is the right kind. Crust with structure, sauces that taste like tomatoes, real cheese, toppings that are actual ingredients. The gluten-free crust is genuinely good — not a token offering — which makes Upper Crust one of the few places we can take a mixed-diet group and have nobody compromising. The salads are large enough to share and substantial enough to be a meal on their own.

What it gives you on a longer Santa Fe trip is a release valve. After a few nights of slow New Mexican dinners, hot stone bowls, and table-side anything, sometimes you just need pizza and a beer and the kids running around the patio. Upper Crust is exactly that. No reservation. No production. Done in 45 minutes, home in an hour.

The take-it-back move is the other reason we keep it close. Order ahead, pick up, eat at the house. The pizza travels well — by the time you're back at Casa de Camino or Casa de Ice and the patio is set up, the boxes are still hot. We've fed a full house this way more than once on the night of arrival, when nobody had the energy to cook or go out.

Practical notes. Both locations have parking. Both work with kids. Both have outdoor seating that's worth using when the weather cooperates, which in Santa Fe is most evenings from May through October. Order at the counter, find a seat, and don't expect anyone to come refill your water — that's the trade for fast and easy.

Save it for the night you don't want to think. That night will come at least once on every trip, and you'll be glad you knew about Upper Crust.