The Low ‘n Slow bar inside Santa Fe’s Hotel Chimayo (125 Washington Ave, Santa Fe; 505-216-1066; hotelchimayo.com) draws its inspiration from the Lowrider culture of northern New Mexico. Inside the bar, that translates into hot car artwork and chrome hub caps. The hotel’s own modified 1964 Chevy Impala might be parked out front. Hotel guests can climb in to cruise around town on a guided tour.

The bar isn’t just for drinking (though the Chimayóso Margarita rimmed with Chimayó red chile is certainly popular). Half the space is devoted to Hawt Pizza Co. The roughly 12-inch pies are adequate to feed two people with modest appetites. But they’re good enough that many folks want their own. As a nice stylistic compromise between New York thin crust and Neapolitan, the pies are cooked 90 seconds in a 850°F wood-fired oven.

But we doubt that either New York or Naples puts green chile on its pizzas. Honestly, it never occurred to us either. But Hawt Pizza obviously shares the hotel’s commitment to northern New Mexican culture and cuisine. In that vein, three of the most popular pizzas on the menu get a blast of sweet and delicious heat from a generous application of chopped hot green chile.

We considered the Norteño, which has tomato sauce, pepperoni, hot Italian sausage, mushroom, and basil along with the green chile. Ultimately, the locally made cured meats, while appealing, seemed a little too heavy for us. We also weighed having the Pesto, which has a pine nut-basil pesto, wood-fired chicken, feta, oven-roasted garlic, Kalamata olives, and basil with green chile. We finally settled on the extremely popular NM White because the green chile was the star. The base sauce is a garlic crema, topped with wood fired chicken, feta, green chile, oven roasted garlic, and basil. The green chile was easily some of the hottest we’d encountered so far in our Green Chile Chronicles journey. Sierra Brewing Company’s draft called Low ‘n Slow Drop Top Lager cooled our mouths just enough.