Rosewood San Miguel de Allende (photo by Brad A. Johnson)

It is an hour before midnight, and a large crescent moon has risen above San Miguel de Allende. The clangs of a church bell mark the hour, but silence soon returns to the Mexican city's historic core. Suddenly, the whinnies and snorts of horses and the clippity-clop of hooves slapping against cobblestone streets signal the approach of a band of vaqueros. The ranch hands, at least a dozen of them, from perhaps three different generations, in sweat-stained straw hats and scuffed boots, pull up to a bare-bones saloon with swinging wooden doors. They tie their horses and one ancient-looking donkey to a railing that has been used for thi s purpose since the Wild West days. A 12-piece mariachi band strolls over from the town square, a half block away, to greet the men with a song. Twangy guitars set a quick rhythm. Trumpets blare. An accordion joins the melody.

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El Capricho's chèvre

Cristina Gerez Webb, proprietor of El Capricho in San Miguel de Allende, makes some of the finest cheese in Mexico. But that’s not all. From her workshop and urban farm on the outskirts of town, she also makes goat-milk yogurt, cookies and seasonal fruit conserves, not to mention the chicken eggs, Thanksgiving turkeys and bees…

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Arugula and strawberries from Hacienda Purisima at Rosewood's 1826 Restaurant

There’s an incredible farm-to-table culinary movement taking hold in San Miguel de Allende. The town's best chefs have been racing to embrace the region’s local agricultural bounty: incredible goat cheeses, farm-fresh eggs, artisanal honeys and surprisingly great wines. There’s even a bewildering variety of locally roasted coffees. But the real treasure is the region’s organic produce. And one of the key players in the movement is Hacienda Purisima de Jalpa, an organic farm located 15 miles from San Miguel de Allende in the rural village of Jalpa (where local residents share a single, communal phone booth in the center of “town”).

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San Miguel de Allende

I love the sunset in San Miguel de Allende. I shot this photo of the San Miguel skyline from the rooftop bar of the new Rosewood San Miguel just as the sun was beginning to set over the city.

Mexican wine at 1826 (photo by Brad A. Johnson)

San Miguel de Allende has long been one my favorite places. It's where the Mexican revolution began, a beautiful colonial city in the mountains of Guanajuato. And it's one of the places I return to again and again for vacation. Until recently, the rather sleepy town didn't have a true 5-star hotel or restaurant, but that changed in February with the opening of the new Rosewood resort and its signature dining room, 1826.

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