Category: New Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2011

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The Owl Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Shortly before 6AM. on July 16, 1945, some of the world’s most brilliant minds ushered in the nuclear age with the detonation of the first atomic bomb, an occasion which later prompted Los Alamos Laboratory head J. Robert Oppenheimer to declare “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.” The transformative event occurred in a dry, desolate locale approximately 35 miles from bucolic San Antonio, New Mexico, the gateway to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. The scientists who developed the top-secret bomb had been staying nearby in cabins rented from J.E. Miera, proprietor of Miera’s Owl Bar and Cafe. Posing as “prospectors,” the scientists frequented Miera’s for enthusiastic card games, cold beer and grilled cheeseburgers. In time,…

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Sugar’s BBQ & Burgers – Embudo, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

The winding highway meandering along the murky Rio Grande through Embudo is among the most scenic in the state, particularly in mid-autumn when leaves turn a vibrant shade of gold. You’ll want to drive slowly to take in the foliage, but especially to make sure you imbibe the hazy smoke plumes emanating from Sugar’s BBQ & Burgers which waft into your motorized conveyance like a sweet Texas smoke signal beckoning you to try a combo platter. The first time we met owners Nancy and Neil Nobles, we were blown away by their genuine humility. Until we told them, the genial proprietors of this corrugated tin shack and kitchen only a couple of hundred feet from the serpentine Rio Grande had…

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Bob’s Burgers – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

“Bob.” Advertisers (as well as television and movie producers) realize there probably isn’t a better example of an “every man” name, typically portraying Bob as the average wage-earning man about town. Few would argue that Bob, a diminutive of Robert, isn’t a very vanilla and common name. In fact, according to Social Security Administration data it was the fourth most common name in the United States with 9.5 instances per 1,000 people as of 2013. Despite that popularity, advertisers seem to prefer naming the metrosexual males they portray something like Brad or Troy (sorry BOTVOLR). Bob’s Burgers in Albuquerque, Los Lunas, Las Cruces and Rio Rancho precedes the animated television program by that name by 48 years. Brothers Tom and…

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Sadie’s Dining Room – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Albuquerque and Sadie’s Dining Room have come a long way since 1950. Back then the Duke City’s population was 96,815, up 173% from 1940. Sadie Koury, the oldest child of Lebanese immigrants, was four years away from launching her first Albuquerque restaurant. Located on Second and Osuna, the first Sadie’s was housed in a Lilliputian edifice not much bigger than the restrooms at the Fourth Street restaurant which today bears her name. The Duke City was much more pastoral in the early 50s and Sadie’s restaurant was but a diminutive nine-stool diner on what was then one of the city’s most busy thoroughfares (though not quite as busy as Fourth Street which in 1954, was already seventeen years removed from…

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Laguna Burger (66 Pit Stop) – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

In 2016 and 2017 my review of the Laguna Burger was the most frequently visited post on Gil’s Thrilling…  In 2015 and 2014, only one restaurant (Down N’ Dirty Seafood Boil) received more blog visits than Laguna Burger.  If even a small number of the visitors to the review actually also visited the restaurant, that’s thousands of visitors to Laguna Burger.  It’s probably safe to assume hundreds of thousands of visitors who haven’t read Gil’s Thrilling review have made their way to one of the four Laguna Burger locations, three of which are definitely off-the-beaten path.  In November, 2017, Laguna Burger established a presence at a 3,000 square-foot space on Avanyu Plaza on 12th Street near the Indian Pueblo Cultural…

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Lucky Boy – Albuquerque, New Mexican

Gil Garduno

During its seventh season, the X Files television series in which FBI agents investigated paranormal phenomena featured an episode in which a ravenous Lucky Boy employee in California struggled against his craving for human brain matter (almost anything goes in the Golden state). The most paranormal thing about the Duke City Lucky Boy is its “east meets west” dining concept. Nowhere else in town can you order Chinese and American food so inexpensively and from the very same menu. If you think about it, ordering inexpensive Chinese and American food from within one menu shouldn’t be such an anomalous event–especially when you consider that many of Lucky Boy’s patrons are UNM students, many of whom know how to stretch a…

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The Mine Shaft Tavern – Madrid, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

“You load sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter, don’t you call me cause I can’t go. I owe my soul to the company store.” Those immortal lyrics, hauntingly performed by crooner Tennessee Ernie Ford describe with a poignant reality, the plight of the American miner even onto the 20th century. By payday, which came at month’s end, miners did indeed owe their souls to the company–for the company house in which they were living, for groceries to feed their families, for doctor bills and even for the tools they used to mine. They were paid in scrip which could only be spent at the company store, leaving them no choice…

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Stray Dog Cantina – Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

There’s a rather ominous sign on the base of the Taos Ski Valley. In bold red uppercase print, the sign reads “DON’T PANIC!,” a preface for somewhat more reassuring text: “YOU’RE LOOKING AT ONLY 1/30 OF TAOS SKI VALLEY. WE HAVE MANY EASY RUNS TOO!” To novice skiers, the steepness of the ski runs visible from the base may as well be the “I’d turn back if I were you” sign Dorothy and her friends encountered when they entered the Haunted Forest on the way to the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West. No doubt the less skilled schussers turn tail like the Cowardly Lion and head for flatter topography. There’s another boldface type warning at another Taos…

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Magdalena Cafe – Magdalena, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

In 1863 during the height of the Civil War, soldiers on leave from Fort Craig staked claims to silver strikes in the Magdalena Mountains. Within a few years, the boom towns of Kelly and Magdalena had sprung up, eventually achieving a population surpassing even Socorro, the county seat. The first veins of metal ore given up by the rocky promontories were lead and zinc, but ultimately silver became the principal source of wealth. With the arrival of the railroad in 1884, Magdalena became a rowdy frontier mining town and one of the Southwest’s largest cattle shipping centers with its stockyards processing thousands of cattle and sheep. Magdalena became known as the “Trails End” because the spur line which originated in…

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Clancy’s Pub – Farmington, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Characterized by writer Tom Wolfe as the “Me Decade” and derided by cynics as the “Disco Era,” the 1970s witnessed an explosion of copycat fast food chain restaurants and the birth of innovative fusion cuisine in many contemporary restaurants. Fusion cuisine is the inventive combination of diverse, sometimes disparate culinary traditions, techniques and ingredients to form an entirely new genre. In large metropolitan areas, particularly throughout California, the fusion of different cuisines became commonplace. Restaurants featuring the melding of French and Chinese cuisine were especially popular. Still other restaurants had their own ideas as to what constituted fusion cuisine. Instead of intermixing ingredients, they featured menus showcasing the cuisine of several genres. One such restaurant is Clancy’s Pub in Farmington,…

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Badlands Burgers & Tortas – Grants, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

Out through the back door of Rosa’s I ran, Out where the horses were tied. I caught a good one. It looked like it could run. Up on its back and away I did ride, Just as fast as I could from the West Texas town of El Paso Out to the badlands of New Mexico. ~El Paso by Marty Robbins From the Texas cowboy immortalized in the Marty Robbins ballad to Walter White, Albuquerque’s favorite meth maker, through time immemorial whenever circumstances in the wild and rugged west have been at their most grim and perilous, even the most intrepid of heroes have escaped to the badlands of New Mexico. The badlands of New Mexico are an other-worldly expanse…