Albuquerque's Model Pharmacy is
an anachronism--a genuine throwback to the days in which old fashioned
drug counters shared retail space with lunch counters and soda
fountains.
In every sense, the Model Pharmacy is chronologically
out of place as an independently owned, family operated business in a
world of corporate conglomerations that dominate the pharmaceutical
business (such as the megalithic Walgreen's store directly across the
street).
The pharmacy's
apothecaries still prescribe and dispense drugs, but an even bigger draw
than sundry medicines are the high-end European beauty products and
perfumes on the venerable pharmacy's shelves.
Renown food author
Jane Stern indicates on the Web
site she and her husband Michael have made a foodie standard
that Model Pharmacy stocks "rare items she's seen in no pharmacies
anywhere else in the world."
The store's retail
section is a paradise for curiosity seekers who can spend hours browsing
through hand-made cards, journals and stationary or scour the glass
cases for Swiss Army knives, fine pens, coin purses and women's jewelry.
It wasn't these curiosities or the pharmaceuticals that brought the
Sterns to the Model Pharmacy. It was the lunch counter.
The lunch counter
offers several very creative sandwiches and salads along with daily
specials. Much of the menu seems to focus on entrees for
health-conscious patrons, but with absolutely no degradation in taste
and quality. The menu's motto even reads "Taste is a matter of
choice. Quality is a matter of fact."
A top quality salad
that tastes great is the salad sampler plate in which you receive
a generous sampling of chicken, egg and tuna salads on a generous bed of
lettuce, red cabbage and other leafy legumes. The salad is served
with some of the best vinaigrette in town.
Creativity and fun seem
to define many of the sandwich options, even the healthy ones.
There aren't many restaurants which still offer peanut butter and jelly,
but the Model Pharmacy does, albeit served on whole wheat (or you can
opt for rye or French baguette). Some sandwiches come with potato
chips, a pickle and apple sauce.
Carnivores won't find
beef laden burgers on the menu and probably wouldn't deign to try the gardenburger.
There's really no veracity to the claim by some vegetarians that this
meatless substitute tastes just as good as the old-fashioned American
burger, but it's not a bad burger overall. Dressed with
caramelized onions and red chile mayonnaise on a French roll, it's more
than palatable.
Aficionados of piquant green
chile stew might not find the searing green chile taste they crave
in the Model Pharmacy's version of this New Mexico staple, but they will
find large chunks of cubed pork treading a thick broth along with
potato, tomato and carrot. While not particularly piquant,
it is a delicious, hearty stew you will appreciate greatly on a cold
winter day.
If you've ever spent a
balmy day in New York City or Boston and have received much-welcome
respite from the sun's scorching rays at a soda fountain, you'll love
the Model Pharmacy's authentic soda fountain. It's one of the few
Duke City venues in which you can still find not only have sundaes,
banana splits, floats, ice cream, milk shakes and malts but phosphates,
egg creams, rickeys and ades. Wow!
In 1978, I was
introduced in the Bronx to egg creams, a New York City soda
fountain drink. Egg cream is a misnomer because these refreshing,
frothy drinks contain nary a speck of egg. They're made with a
mixture of milk and chocolate syrup into which seltzer water is spritzed,
causing a foamy drink that resembles the concoction you often see mad
scientists drink on old movies. The Model Pharmacy's version of
egg creams takes me back to those innocent days of my youth in Gotham
City. Similarly, the chocolate and dreamcicle shakes
explode with the flavor of quality ice cream.
For dessert, the hot
fruit cobblers (in particular the cherry and blackberry alamode) are
exceptional! Fresh fruitiness exudes from the crust with every
bite.
Although a few blocks
north of where Route 66 meandered through Albuquerque, the Model
Pharmacy is a living remnant of America's highway which connected
Chicago to Los Angeles and made transcontinental travel fun. While
still embracing the best values and traditions of half a century ago
when it first launched operations, the Model Pharmacy has certainly kept
up with the times menu-wise.
Because its eleven
tables and even fewer counter stools fill up quickly, even on Saturdays,
you're well advised to get your seat at the Model Pharmacy's lunch
counter early or you'll miss out on a great part of America's past.
