After years of rumors and months of negotiations, Mark Miller has transferred ownership of Santa Fe's venerable Coyote Cafe on Water Street to a new quartet of managing partners: Sara Chapman, Tori Mendes, Quinn Stephenson and Eric DiStefano.

DiStefano, who has been executive chef at Canyon Road's award-winning Geronimo restaurant for the past 12 years, is a surprise addition to the new managing partnership — and one of the factors that Miller said made him comfortable with the deal.

The problem in the past, Miller said Tuesday, was attracting people who would "ensure the continuation of the tradition of the restaurant."

Miller said he will retain ownership of The Coyote Cafe name and logo, and "there are still legal papers that need signing ... a licensing agreement, a consulting agreement and other things." However, Miller acknowledged Tuesday that "everybody is in agreement" on the sale of the restaurant.

Miller has a new venture under way as consultant on the Pueblo of Pojoaque and Hilton Hotels project to develop a theme restaurant for the Buffalo Thunder Resort. He will continue to travel and consult with international companies "doing flavor-profiling and palate coaching for Asian-Latin flavors ... what I really like doing now," he said.

All of The Coyote Cafe's new managing partners have had a long association with Miller — Chapman and Stephenson began working at The Coyote as bussers when they were in their teens, and Mendes has been managing the restaurant for more than three years — and all live in town.

"They know the style of the food and the customer base," Miller said, "and they are all young enough to take it on."

DiStefano joining the group and serving as executive chef, he said, brought something to this partnership that had been missing in the past. "Now we've got a balanced team of people in beverage, dining room, (public relations), and sales and office," Miller said, "so it's a good match of abilities."

Mendes was an 11-year veteran of The Palace Restaurant when it was owned by Lino Pertusini, Chapman said, and Stephenson was beverage director for Swig, Geronimo and The Palace when it was under Cliff Skoglund's ownership. Chapman also worked at The Palace when Skoglund was a co-owner.

In addition to serving as executive chef at Geronimo, DiStefano helped Skoglund and partners open Swig, The Palace (and its short-lived successor, Señor Lucky's at the Palace) in Santa Fe. DiStefano has spent much of the past year in the greater Phoenix-Scottsdale area, where, he said, he has been staffing, writing menus and otherwise helping set up Skoglund's two newest restaurants, The Spotted Donkey Cantina and Luc's, which are already winning "best new restaurant" mention in the local press.

"Eric wasn't given the opportunity to be a partner before," Miller observed. "It's the difference between working for someone and working for yourself, and it's time in his career to do that."

DiStefano had been trying to keep his move from Geronimo to The Coyote Cafe under wraps for weeks, the chef said Tuesday, but dozens of phone calls per day from people wanting to know what was going on finally convinced him to make his involvement public. He just finished writing Geronimo's Thanksgiving menu, he said, but come Thanksgiving Day, he will be at the helm of The Coyote.

Charles Thompson, his sous chef at Geronimo, will keep that restaurant humming, DiStefano said, as he has while DiStefano has been working in Arizona.

DiStefano plans to take his highly visible place behind the open chef's counter at The Coyote Cafe on Monday — "but tell everyone not to come in for a few weeks until I get my menu in place," he said. As soon as he gets everything organized in the kitchen, he said, the partners plan to open the cafe for lunch as well as for dinner.

"The Coyote has always been an icon, a special place for the four of us," DiStefano said, "and we are going to concentrate on being really hospitable and making it a fun experience."

The menu will remain Southwestern, he said, but with the kind of global fusion of flavors for which he is known. For example, DiStefano's been experimenting with a preparation he calls "Coyote Hot Rock" — a Southwestern variation on Japanese ishiyaki, in which thin cuts of meat are cooked at the table on a superheated rock.

Chapman, who is married to DiStefano, hopes that having the chef working in the restaurant's highly visible open kitchen helps revive the heyday of The Coyote, when Miller was cooking there and there was standing-room-only in the bar.

"One of our strongest assets," DiStefano said, "is that we (the managing partners) will be on the premises all the time. When you come into the restaurant," he said with a laugh, "I'll be there making your salad."

Contact Pat West-Barker at 986-3085 or pwest@sfnewmexican.com.