Albuquerque's Nob Hill
district largely owes its emergence as the city's first
"suburb" to Route 66, the great Mother Road which carried
Americans westward.
Because of Route 66, the Nob Hill area has
been, since before World War II, a thriving residential community
complete with restaurants, motels, a modern movie theater, pharmacies
and restaurants.
Today it remains the city's cultural heart and,
thanks to the preservation of Route 66 era architecture, retains much of
the charm that captivated west bound sojourners.
New tenants such as Zinc
Wine Bar & Bistro which launched in 2003 hold court in well preserved brick
buildings and seem completely at home.
Antique mirrors, distressed
wood floors, stained glass and warm colors coalesce with intoxicating
aromas to make this classy bistro one of the city's best launches (and
lunches) of the new millennium.
The French rotisserie, visible
from the main floor and the open mezzanine above, turns out some of the
best meals in the city.
While considered a
premium fine dining destination, Zinc's generous portions are
comparatively value priced--your bill may approach three figures, but
you'll feel you got your money's worth.
Meals are well paced with
appetizers and entrees brought to your table at seemingly prescribed
intervals that allow you to savor and reflect on the quality of the
former without pining for the latter. Portion sizes are
reasonable--generous, but not profuse.
There are nearly as
many floor levels at Zinc as there are layers of flavor in some of its
terrific food. There's a downstairs bar with a lighter menu, a
street-level dining room and a mezzanine floor that provides perhaps the
best vantage point of any floor. Comfortable spacing between
tables is available at all three levels.
Zinc is the brainchild
of twin brothers Kevin and Keith Roessler, two veteran restaurateurs who
for years ran Season's Rotisserie & Grill on the northern outskirts of
Old Town. They also own Savoy, a Swanky fine-dining restaurant
launched in 2007 in
Albuquerque's Northeast Heights.
The menu at Zinc seems
to be a fusion of eclectic American comfort food with departures into
New Mexican and French cuisine. The menu is inventive and inspired
with something for everyone, including a nice selection of vegetarian
entrees.
The
clientele isn't quite as eclectic as the menu. At any given meal,
you'll see young urban professionals climbing the ladder and more
seasoned and affluent diners who have already ascended to or near the
top of the ladder. Most will order wine with their dinner and will
linger in conversation long after their meal is over.
The wait staff is
attentive without hovering and informative without being pedantic.
They are well-versed in their craft and capable of clearly describing
the nuances of the restaurant's menu. Their recommendations don't
necessarily lean toward the most expensive items on the menu.
One item everyone at
Zinc recommends are the crispy duck confit eggrolls served with peanut curry and
chile-lime dipping sauces. The duck is amazingly tender, the
result of slow-cooking. It is wrapped in a won-ton type wrapper
and is sliced diagonally (giving it the appearance of four egg rolls).
Other components of
this delicious appetizer are ginger, mushrooms, sesame oil, scallions,
chopped peanuts. soy sauce, spinach and carrots though it is the duck
itself that will win you over.
These are easily among the best egg rolls in the
city and are outstanding even without the dipping sauces. The peanut curry sauce
stands out. It's entirely unlike and better than the peanut sauce
served with satay at most Thai restaurants. Unlike the Thai peanut
sauce, it's not cloying. It's a savory sauce with a piquant punch
to it.
Another excellent value
appetizer are the two pounds of steamed Maine black mussels for
only ten dollars. Bathed in a basil-chardonnay broth and crowned
with colorful julienne vegetables, these mussels are top tier.
You'll want to sop up the broth with the restaurant's wonderful
hard-crusted yet yeasty bread.
Lest I forget, the
complementary basket of bread is among the city's best. I believe
the bread is made by Albuquerque's Fano Bakery, one of the very best
bread-making companies in the state. At any rate, it's the type of
bread you could eat by the loaf--with or without butter.
As for entrees, you'll
be hard-pressed to make up your mind. The options all sound
fabulous.
If the slowly roasted medallions
of lamb are on the menu, they are a must have. Prepared
slightly above medium, they are as tender as any lamb you'll find in the
state and are absolved of the gaminess for which lamb is known.
Goat cheese roasted potatoes, sweet baby carrots and snap pea pods are
a worthy accompaniment.
If you want something
more lively, the seared flank steak Au Poivre will invigorate
your taste buds with a pronounced black peppercorn taste. A nine
ounce steak seared in a cast iron pan, it is served with buttermilk
mashed potatoes, fried mushrooms and onions, all of which are wonderful. 
Sunday brunch is an
event worth getting up for at Zinc. The menu is only somewhat
abbreviated, including more dining options than just about any brunch
menu in town. The dulcet tones of soothing guitar music playing
soft and low may just make the rest of the world seem so far away and
small.
An eye-opening roasted
chicken and cashew salad is a great way to start. This
superstar salad features sugar snap peas, sweet n' sour red onions and
baby carrots mixed with field greens and a sharp Maytag blue dressing
that emboldens the salad. It's one of several inventive and
delicious salad options available for brunch.
Also worth getting up
for is Zinc's house-made
pork sausage patty (a carnivore's dream), which along with the sausage served at the San
Marcos Cafe, may be the best sausage in New Mexico.
It's got the perfect balance of piquant bite and savory flavor sausage lovers appreciate.
Zinc's fresh
ground angus burger, while inflating my waistline, deflated my
opinion of Zinc only slightly. Attended by apple smoked bacon, Gruyere cheese, a
green chile-Dijonnaise mayo on potato bread Kaiser, the burger is
prodigious in size but not quite as big on flavor.
The burger's prevalent
tastes are the bread which has the consistency of a toasted
bagel (meaning it's tough to chew) and the beef itself which was
charred on the outside and pink in the middle. We were
hard-pressed to discern any taste of the mayo or even the cheese.
That I didn't love this burger may be an anomaly because it's the only
thing on Zinc's menu that hasn't impressed me. 
More than making up for
the burger are Zinc's baked chicken and chorizo sausage enchiladas
topped with two eggs over easy and red chile then finished with sour
cream, guacamole and breakfast potatoes.
Wow! If you're
expecting "gringo" chile, you're in for a pleasant and piquant surprise.
This is red chile with bite! It's also delicious--perfectly
seasoned and wholly sans cumin. It's better--and more piquant--red
chile than you'll find at 80 percent of the New Mexican restaurants in
the Duke City.
Our waitress told us
that some visiting tourists can't handle its heat and send it back.
What a shame they don't have the heat tolerance of New Mexicans.
What a shame that they miss out on enchiladas engorged with absolutely
delicious chorizo sausage and baked chicken.
Perhaps more to their
heat tolerance level would be Zinc's rendition of stuffed sopaipillas
which aren't served with chile. Instead, two puffy sopaipillas are
filled with lemon-blueberry custard then finished with Bosque Farms
BeeSweet honey drizzle.
If you love
lip-puckering lemon with real blueberries, this is the appetizer for
you. If you love real honey, you'll love BeeSweet and you'll
lament the fact that far too many New Mexican restaurants fill their
squeeze bottles with "sopaipilla syrup," the honey flavored syrup that
pales in comparison to real honey.
Zinc upholds the
Nob Hill tradition and has itself become a destination worthy of the
Mother Road. It's a Santa Fe quality restaurant in the Duke City
without the steep bill of fare.
