Category: New Mexican

AlbuquerqueBreakfastClosed in 2024Diners Drive-Ins and DivesFood Network Eats New MexicoGone But Not ForgottenNew MexicanRating: ExcellentTravel Channel Eats New Mexico

Cecilia’s Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno8:12 PM

FROM INSTAGRAM (December, 2024):  After 25 years on the corner of 6th & Silver, Cecilia’s Café has closed its doors. This New Mexican breakfast and lunch restaurant was once featured on the Food Network and was a beloved space for locals.  Owner Cecilia Baca cited persistent challenges with homeless people, issues finding employees, and the remote/hybrid work phenomenon as key reasons for closing. Since the pandemic, “customers aren’t working a full week,” she said. “Just a lot of little things that made me realize that Downtown will not come back to life the way it was before COVID.” Pasqual Baylon’s devotion to the Mass and the Holy Eucharist was so fervent that even when assigned kitchen duty, he remained so enraptured in adoration of the Eucharist that angels had to stir the pots to keep them from burning.  It’s deliciously ironic, therefore, that San Pasqual is the recognized patron saint of Mexican and New Mexican kitchens, a beloved saint whose smiling countenance graces many a kitchen, including the one in Cecilia’s Cafe, one of Albuquerque’s most authentic (and best) New Mexican restaurants. On the day Cecilia opened her cafe back in 1999, she found a small retablo (a painting with…

AlbuquerqueDog FriendlyFood Network Eats New MexicoNew MexicanNew Mexico Culinary Treasures TrailRating: GoodThe Secret Life OfTravel Channel Eats New Mexico

El Pinto – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:41 PM

Over the years, perhaps no restaurant across the Land of Enchantment has garnered as much recognition from the national media as has El Pinto.  Rather than recap all its accolades across the years, let’s focus on just one year: 2015.   For almost any other restaurant in New Mexico (or anywhere else for that matter), 2015 would be considered a banner year, an auspicious annum, the type of year for which every restaurateur aspires. For Albuquerque’s El Pinto, however, 2015 could be considered just another year in which praise and recognition–local and national–seem to be heaped on in abundance. It’s probably safe to say El Pinto is the most heralded and acclaimed dining establishment in the Land of Enchantment. Terms such as “institution,” “paragon” and “iconic” have been used to describe the sprawling restaurant at the terminus of 4th Street. El Pinto, in fact, started 2015 off by being declared New Mexico’s “most iconic restaurant.” That distinction was accorded by Thrillist, an online presence “obsessed with everything that’s worth caring about in food, drink.” Thrillist is unabashed about its love of El Pinto, also naming it one of the “best Mexican restaurants in America.” 2015 also saw filming begin for…

AlbuquerqueNew MexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Ana’s Kitchen – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:44 PM

Several ominous scenarios went through my mind when Ana told me, “I’m sorry.  We don’t accept credit cards.”  Would I be asked to wash dishes for a couple of hours to pay for my meal?  Would Ana ask me to leave my iPhone as collateral while I dashed to an automated teller machine?  Worse, would I be jailed?  Lest you think I’m joking, an Italian lawyer actually spent a night in a New York City jail because he didn’t have his wallet when his bill arrived.  Neither the New York Police department nor the restaurant would accept his offer of leaving his iPhone as collateral or sending a bus boy with him to retrieve the wallet. I need not have worried.  Ever gracious and kind, Ana told me I could pay her the next day.  She wasn’t on duty when I returned the following day, but her chef remembered me having complimented her on my meal.  Still, she was both surprised and happy that I would return to pay off a debt and to leave a doubly generous tip for having inconvenienced Ana’s Kitchen.  It pained me that anyone would skip out on a bill at a small cafe which…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBreakfastBurgersClosed in 2022Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicanNew Mexico

Duke City Kitchen – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:18 PM

In the 1970s and 1980s,  Reese’s Peanut Butter cups commercials consisted of a series of vignettes.  Each vignette depicted the collision of two daydreamers–one eating peanut butter and the other eating chocolate.  The peanut butter eater would exclaim “you got chocolate on my peanut butter.”  The one eating chocolate would retort “you got peanut butter on my chocolate.”  The two would then sample the mix of chocolate and peanut butter and burst out in wide-eyed surprise with “Delicious!”  A godlike narrator would then proclaim “Two great tastes that taste great together.” Reese’s has nothing on restaurant impresario Doug Weckerly, chef and proprietor of the Duke City Kitchen on Lomas just west of San Mateo.  Peruse his menu and you might get the impression he’s declared “why stop at two great tastes that taste great together when seven great tastes would taste even better.”  Some of the burgers are constructed of ingredient combinations so seemingly disparate, so wildly unconventional, so un-Albuquerque,  it’s as if he channeled renowned tinkerer Rube Goldberg.  When I asked the inventive chef how he comes up with such ingenious burgers, he told me “I guess I just march to the beat of a different drum.” Not only does…

AlbuquerqueBrunchClosed in 2019Dog FriendlyGone But Not ForgottenMexicanNew MexicanNew Mexico

Cantina Nueva – Garduños – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno6:34 PM

Garduños just can’t seem to keep up with the Joneses, at least in terms of familial propagation. The 2010 United States Census indicates more than a million instances (1,425,470 to be precise) of the surname Jones, making it the fifth most common among the 6.3 million surnames recorded. In comparison, the surname Garduño belonged to only 6,912 individuals, ranking it as the 5073rd most common surname under the spacious skies. Almost 93 percent of the individuals answering to the surname Garduño listed their ethnicity as Hispanic or Latino. It’s inherent in possessing a relatively scarce name that my Kim and I are often asked if we’re related to other people sporting that mellifluous patronym, usually Dave Garduño and his family who founded the Garduño’s dynastic restaurant empire. While there’s a strong likelihood we shared a common ancestor several generations ago, there is no shared direct family line. Call us cousins several times removed. Maybe because our surname is so uncommon, our eyes and ears perk up whenever the name Garduño is uttered or we see in print. That probably wouldn’t be the case if our surname was Jones. We were certainly excited to hear a new Garduño’s restaurant enterprise had…

AlbuquerqueNew MexicanRating: Good

Mac’s La Sierra – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno4:01 PM

But the Lights of Albuquerque, will soon be shining bright, Like a diamond in the desert, like a beacon in the night. And I wonder if she’ll take me back, will she understand? Will the Lights of Albuquerque, shine for me again? Jim Glaser: The Lights of Albuquerque Imagine yourself a weary traveler motoring along a two-lane blacktop half an hour west of Albuquerque. Moments ago, having espied a preternatural palette of colors on your mirror, you stopped to gaze in awe and wonder at the breathtaking sunset spraying the sky with vibrant reds, oranges, yellows and purples. Rejuvenated by the slow descent of the sun giving way to an ebony canopy speckled with twinkling stars, you resume your climb of Nine Mile Hill. At its summit, you’re rewarded with one of the most inspiring sights in the west as the lights of Albuquerque come into view. It’s a sight Elvis Presley enjoyed often during his travels across the country in his pink Cadillac. The year is 1952. The closer you get to Albuquerque, the more prominent the neon-spangled lights become. Vibrant neon signage cuts a luminous swath through the city, beckoning motorists with unique roadside architecture and welcoming motor…

AlbuquerqueBurgersClosed in 2021Gone But Not ForgottenNew Mexican

Red Ball Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno10:18 PM

From Red Ball Cafe’s Facebook Page (28 December 2021): It is with extreme sadness and difficulty to announce the Red Ball Cafe has officially closed its doors for good😢. With the building being as old as it is (impossible maintenance upkeep), plus trying to survive the pandemic has caused us to make the decision to close. 1922 was a year of firsts for Albuquerque an;d New Mexico.  At 15,462 citizens, Albuquerque’s population constituted for the first time ever, more than half the population of Bernalillo county.  The state’s first skyscraper, the nine-story First National Bank on Central Avenue was built.  Taking to the air waves for the very first time was New Mexico’s very first radio station, KOB which then broadcast at 833.3 on the AM dial.  Dr. William Lovelace co-founded the Lovelace Clinic, based on the Mayo clinic’s physician group practice model.  Albuquerque then was a mecca for people suffering from respiratory diseases and allergies seeking relief in the city’s warm, dry climate. 1922 also saw the launch of the Red Ball Cafe in the historic Barelas neighborhood.  It was primarily a neighborhood cafe back then, but four years later in 1926 the original Route 66 passed by its…

AlbuquerqueAmericanClosed in 2025Dog FriendlyGone But Not ForgottenNew MexicanNew MexicoSteak

Cafe 6855 – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

The cover page of the May 20, 2013 edition of Time Magazine depicts a twenty-something woman sprawled on the floor taking a selfie. In large type above the photo is the caption “The Me Me Me Generation” subtitled with “Millennials are lazy, entitled narcissists who still live with their parents.” If you believe the monolithic label “millennial” (typically assigned to a person born between 1981 and 2001) defines all young people and that popular characterizations and stereotypes about millennials are accurate, perhaps you’ll be interested in an oceanfront piece of real estate I’m selling in Arizona. If your perceptions of young people skew toward the negative, let me introduce you to Victoria and Julian Gonzales. Victoria and Julian are among the 80-million millennials across the fruited plain. As with many millennials, they’re technologically savvy, very civic-minded and conscious of health, environmental and socioeconomic issues. They’re confident and driven. They’ve got exceptional work ethics and value social connectedness very much…and not just online Both are very outgoing and friendly. They’ve had to be. We’ve known Victoria and Julian since they tagged along with their charismatic dad Michael as he launched Café Bella, his then-fledgling coffee empire in Rio Rancho. We’ve watched…

AlbuquerqueDog FriendlyFood TruckNew MexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Rollin’ On In Food Truck – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno1:44 PM

While their brick-and-mortar counterparts can afford to have multi-page menus to please a wide variety of palates, mobile food kitchens (that’s food trucks to you, Bob) are somewhat at a disadvantage. By sheer necessity, food trucks must be limited, well-defined, maybe even singularly focused.  The advantage the successful ones have is that they can concentrate on creating memorable dishes around their concept using a few common ingredients.  Rollin’ On In, for example, lists only four entrees on its menu: three tacos, a quesadilla, three enchiladas and a burrito. With those four entrees, however, there are an infinite number of “build-your-own” possibilities.  Your construction options include four fillings (shredded chicken, shredded pork, ground beef and potato and veggie mix), eleven fresh faves (cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, fresh jalapeño, grilled corn, green onion, red cabbage, cucumber, cilantro and lime) and four sauces (lime and cilantro ranch, salsa, red chile and green chile).  Okay, mathematically the number of options isn’t infinite, but with over 300 million possible combinations for each entree, (don’t ask me to show my math) that’s still an impressive number. Food Network celebrity chef Bobby Flay once lamented, “when people pile seven things onto one burger, it drives me nuts!.” …

AlbuquerqueAmericanNew MexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Copper Canyon Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno7:22 PM

“The Copper Canyon of northern Mexico–a place so huge and desolate that even today there are still some native people who have never seen an automobile.” ~Victor Villasenor Beyond Rain of Gold If you’ve ever watched the classic Humphrey Bogart movie Treasure of the Sierra Madre or read Victor Villasenor’s spell-binding tome, “Rain of Gold,” you’ve got at least a passing acquaintance with Mexico’s awe-inspiring Copper Canyon. Hidden in the Northern part of Mexico lies an astonishing system of gorges comprised of six vast canyons wider and deeper than the Grand Canyon. Although copper is mined in parts of the canyon, this geological wonder is named for the bronze-like patina of the canyon walls. The magnificent Copper Canyon landscape stretches 900 miles across Mexico and has become a very popular destination for adventurers.  Inquiries to friends and colleagues about the Duke City’s Copper Canyon Café gave me the impression it was as far distant and remote as the canyons for which it was named. My friend Bruce “Sr. Plata” Silver joked that perhaps because the Café is located in Albuquerque’s International District, diners may have surmised that a passport is needed to visit. A solid four star rating on 53…

BreakfastDog FriendlyNew MexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Santa Fe

Tortilla Flats – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno8:29 PM

“Beans are a warm cloak against economic cold.” ~John Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat In his 1935 novel Tortilla Flat, John Steinbeck introduced the literary world to the downtrodden denizens of Tortilla Flat, an impoverished barrio on the shabby hillside just outside the respectable city of Monterey, California. The quirky inhabitants of the ramshackle community were a dichotomous lot–hedonistic drunks, adulterers and thieves on one hand; on the other, paisanos with surprisingly kind-hearts who asked nothing more from life than loyal friends and a little wine. Unlike their stodgy, orthodox counterparts in Monterey, the men of Tortilla Flat defied social mores, conventions and expectations. They rebuffed the notion of holding down steady employment or paying rent. They had no qualms about cadging for food or purloining it from neighbors or restaurants. The paisanos of Tortilla Flat were carnal beings, happiest when their appetites (food, drink, women, music) were sated. They cared nothing for accumulating material possessions or the responsibilities inherent with ownership. Though Santa Fe’s touristy-artsy Plaza area and the city’s western fringes along Cerrillos are hardly Monterey and Tortilla Flats, there is a clear demarcation between the two, a distinctness that bespeaks of vast socioeconomic differences. My friend Carlos would argue…