Quick,
name the oldest neighborhood in Albuquerque. Most people would say
Old Town which was settled in 1706 near the banks of the Rio Grande.
Most people would be wrong.
The
oldest neighborhood in Albuquerque is actually the Barelas neighborhood,
formally established as a ranching settlement in the late 1600s.
The history of the central Rio Grande region began at and expanded from
Barelas, once a thriving hub of commerce bustling with activity.
Both
the Camino Real, the royal road to Mexico City and Route 66, America's
mother road passed through the Barelas neighborhood. Barelas was
the seat of a flourishing railroad enterprise which facilitated a
burgeoning economy.
The
neighborhood began a precipitous decline in the 1950s when odoriferous
emanations from an area sewage treatment plant drove people
away. Then in the 1960s, shopping mall developments proved too
formidable competition for long-established mom and pop businesses, the
economic heart of the community.
Before
long, the federal government was calling Barelas a "pocket of poverty"
and what was once a thriving neighborhood languished.
By the
1970s, Barelas was all but forgotten--perhaps a blessing in disguise
because that allowed the preservation of historic buildings for which
the community is best known today.
The
1978 launch of the Barelas Coffee House predates by almost a decade the
revitalization of what has once again become a thriving neighborhood.
A government neighborhood revitalization program later provided the
means by which the restaurant could update its facade while retaining
the look and feel that has made it a very popular dining destination.
Today,
if you want to take the pulse of the city, you go to Barelas Coffee
House where Albuquerque's movers and shakers congregate for a great
meal. They go there not only because the restaurant serves
their favorite New Mexican food entrees, but because it's where they can mingle with
their constituency or with tourists exploring the off-the-beaten path
charm of the neighborhood.
Everyone from corpulent Presidents (Clinton) to corpulent governors
(Richardson) has broken bread (tortillas) at the Barelas Coffee House.
Despite hosting political and professional glitterati, this modest,
maybe even self-effacing restaurant, remains a seat-yourself, absolutely
no reservations, dining establishment in which long lines of
frothing-at-the-mouth hungry diners are commonplace.
Vintage signage for carbonated beverages of "back in the day" adorns the
walls. Who can forget Nehi Grape (Radar O'Reilley's favorite) or
Orange sodas? If you grew up quenching your thirst with these
sweet, bubbly sodas, you'll reflect nostalgically upon seeing this soda
celebrated on the walls at Barelas.
If you're New Mexican, your
heart might swell with pride as you gaze at framed posters by Corrales
artist
Edward Gonzales,
a rare talent whose depictions of New Mexico's Hispanic peoples
celebrate the Chicano experience in New Mexico and the Southwest.
The
menu proclaims Barelas to be the "Land of Mi Chante," chante being a
colloquial New Mexican term for home. To area residents, this
restaurant is like being home.
Once
you're seated, the menu is replete with popular New Mexican favorites
calling for your rapt attention. Will it be huevos rancheros, a
steaming bowl of beans and green chile, maybe menudo? The
pinto beans--in a bowl by themselves or smothered in red or green
chile--are among the very best in the city.
New
Mexican plates are served with beans, rice, a tortilla and pork
embellished chile. As with an increasing number of New Mexican
restaurants, Barelas Coffee House charges for salsa and chips, but in
this case, the cost is worth it. The chips are out-of-the-bag and
unremarkable save for the fact that they don't collapse under the weight
of the salsa. The salsa is a highlight; it is unfailingly fresh
and delicious at about medium on the piquancy scale. It's a chunky
jalapeno based salsa made with white onions, jalapenos and cilantro in
proportions that make it memorable.
All
plates arrive at your table steaming hot--not hot enough to scald your
tongue, but at an optimum temperature to facilitate enjoyment. Few
things are worse than New Mexican food served lukewarm.
The
temperature, however, is the only thing that might be considered "hot"
in some entrees. Neither the green or red chile are particularly
piquant. They aren't especially memorable either. It's hard
to discern anything either good or bad in the chile; it's just there
like the lettuce and tomato garnish no one requests.
A
combination enchilada plate featuring a beef, carne adovada and
chicken enchilada served Christmas style (pictured at left) is a thing
of beauty with white and yellow cheese melting on top of the enchilada
trio. Like a vain and shallow pulchritudinous woman, the best thing
about the enchiladas is that they're hot.
It's
not rare that beans and rice stand out in a combination plate, but along
with tortillas, they do at Barelas. The tortillas arrive
at your table just off-the-comal. These are substantial tortillas,
not the paper-thin, assembly line tortillas some restaurants serve.
Confirming
my observations on the chile is my Comptroller friend Ruben, a
perfectionist who, in quest of the perfect carne adovada, painstakingly
experimented with that dish to the point that his wife began to consider
adovada a possessive mistress.
To say
Ruben's adovada is better than Barrelas' rendition is a vast
understatement. Some of that has to do with chile we both found
uninspiring, but also has to do with the pork which didn't shred easily
at the press of a fork. We were also underwhelmed at the sans
chile flavor of
the cubed pork which just didn't titillate our taste buds as great
adovada is apt to do.
Another
entree on the menu I won't soon try again is the
chicharonnes burrito. In New Mexico, chicharones are pieces of
pork crackling cooked until crunchy with just a miniscule amount of fat
for a crunchy tenderness. During
a 2007 visit to the Barelas Coffee House, the chicharonnes were chewy
and brittle, making them difficult to masticate.
My two
most recent visits to the Barelas Coffee House were hopefully an
anomaly. After all, the restaurant has been going strong for more than a quarter
century with no surcease to its popularity in sight. It is
considered a landmark and local treasure just like the neighborhood that
houses it.
