Rodeo Grill – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)
“Who’s gonna fill their shoes?,” laments the legendary Country music crooner George Jones over the loudspeakers at the Rodeo Grill. “Who’s gonna stand that tall? Who’s gonna play the Opry and the Wabash Cannonball? Who’s gonna give their heart and soul to get to me and you? Lord I wonder, who’s gonna fill their shoes.” Ironically I was thinking something similar as we stepped into the kitschy and brash restaurant on Wyoming which purports to feature “nuevo vaquero chow.” My thoughts, though, were of the iconic figures of American pop culture and historical legacy–the cowboys portrayed in the movies of my youth by stalwart stanchions of masculinity and virtue such as John Wayne, Jimmy Steward, Henry Fonda and Robert Mitchum. I…