Herb Godak Cohen

On Thursday April 26th, Herb Godak Cohen, passed peacefully at the age of 84 in his Santa Fe home surrounded by family. Herb is best known for the Steaksmith restaurant, a local favorite he created and ran for more than 3 decades, starting out downtown and later out at El Gancho. His guiding philosophy was, “Keep it simple and make people happy.” The Steaksmith was an instant success with its limited menu and the first salad bar in Santa Fe. Yet Herb’s success as a restaurateur is just one essential part of everything Herb represents for family, friends, and the community. He lived to make the world a little better locally and globally through community service, strived to improve himself as a human being through almost 30 yrs in the men’s wellness movement, and enjoyed “just being” at “the ranch” on Cow Creek.
Herb’s commitment to service in the restaurant business extended to decades of giving to others in need in Santa Fe. He served on the board of La Clinica de la Gente, one of the first free health services for impoverished families, gave 18 years of service to La Nueva Vida, an organization that assisted troubled youth, and worked hard as a Santa Fe Rotarian where he was nominated for a term as his club’s President. Herb cared deeply about working for peace and justice in Israeli-Palestine, volunteering his time with the NGO Tikkun and visiting with Palestinian families on his last trip to the region. In recent years he was deeply committed to national campaign finance reform through his work on the board of Common Cause New Mexico. Most importantly, Herb, dad, also gave a lot of himself to his children.
Herb was born and raised in Binghamton, New York by his parents Anne Resnick and Benjamin F. Cohen. He lettered in multiple sports at Millbrook High School and graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1956, where he played on the Hopkins football team and went by the nickname Turk. He served in the Marines and was blessed to never be in combat. Instead he was based in several beautiful “party” settings, such as Laguna Beach, CA. In the early 60’s he lived and worked in Japan and Southeast Asia, developing a love for travel that led to such adventures as solo hiking the Inca trail, narrowly escaping a giant crocodile on the shores of Lake Turkana Kenya, and many whitewater rafting excursions with family and friends.
In 1966, Herb met Annette Hillman, mother to Seth and Ana, in New York City. They moved to Buffalo, NY where Herb built his first restaurant, The Scotch and Sirloin. But it wasn’t long before they decided to leave the bitter cold in a motor home for the high desert beauty of NM in search of a “semi-hippy” lifestyle. They stayed at Black Canyon Campground for about 6 months and Herb took a blacksmithing course. He claimed he had no interest in opening a restaurant again, but his passion for new projects soon led him to take on the challenge of turning a run-down space into an inviting and unique downtown eatery, with a dark, “blacksmith shop-like” ambiance that was quickly the hip place to be.
Herb is survived by his loving partner of 7 years, Barbara “Bobbie” Brown, his brother Larry Cohen and wife Marsha, his daughter Ana, son Seth and wife Shirley, and his grand-dogs Mojave, Cece, Orie, and Skylar. We are so very thankful for the caring support from Ambercare hospice staff and the Coming Home Connection caregivers who helped dad, and us, these past few months. We are also thankful for his close friends and the support they provided. A memorial service will be held as Rivera Funeral Home’s Kiva Chapel, 417 East Rodeo Rd, at 2:30pm Sunday May 20th, a Reception will follow outside the chapel.