Category: New Mexico

AmericanClosed in 2011Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicanRio Rancho

Sevyn’s Cafe – Rio Rancho, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:15 AM

During a 1996 episode of Seinfeld, George Costanza, a self-proclaimed “short, balding, unattractive man” made the mistake of telling his fiancee he wanted to name his child “Seven” after his idol Mickey Mantle.  To George’s chagrin, his fiancee’s cousins liked the idea so much they decided to name their own child Seven.  Even as the female cousin was being wheeled by an orderly into the delivery room, George tried in vain to convince them to name the child something else.  Six,  Thirteen, Fourteen, even…Soda.  “it’s bubbly, it’s refreshing!,” he cried. Driving by the familiar yellow roofed building that previously housed the now defunct Mad Max’s BBQ, I couldn’t help but laugh while recalling that hilarious episode.  There on that yellow roof was new signage for a cafe named Sevyn’s Cafe–George Costanza’s coveted baby name only spelled differently.  Sevyn’s Cafe opened for business on Wednesday, November 5th, 2010, the retirement dream of Pamela and Ralph Hartsock.  Pamela, a nurse, and Ralph, who’s in the construction clean-up business, haven’t retired yet, but it’s never too early to start planning. Pamela explained that the cafe is named for her granddaughter, jokingly adding that her son picked the name in recognition of the seven…

AlbuquerqueIndianRating: ExcellentVegetarian/Vegan

Annapurna Ayurvedic Cuisine – Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno11:14 AM

“Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food.” Anthony Bourdain’s dour diatribe on the “evils” of vegeterians and vegans is hardly unwonted.  The internet is rife with mean-spirited assailments against people who choose a plant-based diet that includes fruits, cereal grains, seeds, nuts and vegetables and may or may not exclude dairy products and eggs.  Reciprocation in kind is also well represented on the Internet by vegetarians and vegans who lambast the carnivorous cravings of meat-eaters. This lack of civility and parochial discourse is usually reserved for politics and ideologues (on both sides of the aisle) who can’t concede any merit whatsoever about the opposing viewpoint.  It’s not enough to disagree with someone else’s opinion or choice, dissenters on both sides seem to have a base need to resort to derisive pejoratives. So, just how do you resolve differences of opinion without…

AmericanClosed in 2017Gone But Not ForgottenMadridNew Mexico

Mama Lisa’s Ghost Town Kitchen – Madrid, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno5:13 PM

Steeped in rich history dating from the early 1800s, Madrid has been transformed from a hard- and soft-coal mining town with shafts as deep as 2500 feet down into a distinctive artist’s community. In the 1970s, artists and craftspeople converted old company stores and houses into shops, galleries and services. In doing so, they transformed what might otherwise have become yet another storied New Mexico ghost town into a popular tourist destination. Situated on the storied Turquoise Trail, Madrid is today a beautiful Bohemian escape city dwellers like me really enjoy. Madrid’s unique charm and slow pace of life are infectious. It’s easy to imagine a carefree life away from the maddening crowds and hustle and bustle of modern metropolitan existence. The folly of modern existence is captured brilliantly in the wooden sign above the door to Mama Lisa’s Ghost Town Kitchen’s. The sign depicts a corpulent matron ladling soup into her mouth from an Indian pot while a sombrero and huarache wearing skeleton on bended knee begs for sustenance. It’s certainly Madrid’s citizens who represent the fatted woman while those of us envying that way of life are the skeletal beings. Had the skeleton depicted on the sign been…

AmericanNew MexicoNew Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2011Rating: N/R (Not Rated)Socorro

El Camino Family Restaurant – Socorro, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:59 AM

America’s oldest and longest continuously used “highway,” El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, (Spanish for the Royal Road of the Interior Land) includes a 404 mile stretch that bisects much of the Land of Enchantment  from south to north.  A large portion of that stretch is barren and desolate, one especially treacherous and dry section even designated by the Spanish conquistadores as the Jornada del Muerto, Spanish for “route of the dead man.”  For nearly 400 years–from 1598  (more than two decades before the Mayflower’s storied landing) to 1882–El Camino Real served as both a trade route and as the route taken by settlers and conquerors alike. For four centuries, thousands of intrepid Spanish and Mexican colonists, conquering warriors and evangelizing Franciscan priests and friars alike traversed the 1,600 mile route from Mexico City as far as San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico, many founding and settling villages along the route.  The direct descendants of these bold-spirited pioneers can be found living in those villages and cities today.  Vestiges of the unique culture, language, music, legends and faith founded by their ancestors exist into the 21st century. Spanish explorer Don Juan de Oñate, who today is both revered and reviled, led…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2010Gone But Not ForgottenSoul Food

A Taste of Soul – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno9:33 PM

“1 think it is important to point out that barbecued ribs, black-eyed peas, grits, and collards may, in fact, be a choice dish to many black Americans. But it also sounds pretty darn good to me, a white man. I grew up on soul food. We just called it country cooking. My grandmother cooked it. My mother cooked it. – Lewis Grizzard American writer and humorist Lewis Grizzard, a fiercely proud Southerner, delighted in assailing Yankees, liberal politics, feminists and political correctness.  It was the latter which rankled his ire and prompted a rather incisive diatribe from which the above quote is taken.  Grizzard, who even named his beloved Labrador “Catfish,” rose up in defense of barbecued ribs, black-eyed peas, grits and collards when they were pulled from the menu of an automobile plant in Illinois because of complaints that these dishes stereotyped “black dining habits.” Having lived in Mississippi for eight years (1987-1995), I can attest to the fact that these dishes stereotype the dining habits of most Southerners, not specifically those of black diners.  Those dishes were inculcated into our dining habits, too…and we didn’t care if the name on the restaurant’s marquee read “soul food,” “Southern food”…

Closed in 2012Fine DiningGone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoRating: Outstanding

Three Forks at Rancho De San Juan – Ojo Caliente, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno2:37 AM

Expansive views of the Jemez Mountains and of Georgia O’Keeffe country–whether bathed in pink, coral and gold sunset hues or under New Mexico’s incomparable cerulean skies–combine with the surreal topography of unnaturally contorted rock formations and juniper laden foothills to form the unique vistas which await guests at Rancho de San Juan, New Mexico’s premier country inn and restaurant.  At night those views are obfuscated by a canopy of stars spilling from  an ebony sky so clear and unencumbered that you might swear you can see forever. Secluded in an idyllic setting just off US Highway 285 between Española and Ojo Caliente, Rancho de San Juan pays loving tribute to its tranquil high desert surroundings, blending in as if positioned by nature itself amid the statuary sandstone cliffs.   The 225-acre complex is located at the confluence of three rivers: the Ojo Caliente, Rio Chama and Rio Grande.  It’s a veritable Eden for bon viveurs, a carefully planned escape to a transcendent world of luxurious pampering, exquisite dining and voluptuary accommodations. You’ll breathe long and deeply of the clean, crisp, salubrious air as you stroll leisurely from the parking lot to the inn.  It’s a short walk you’ll take slowly…

AlbuquerqueChickenClosed in 2011Gone But Not ForgottenSpecialty

Wings ‘N Things – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:00 AM

The “language of love.”  It can reduce the most eloquent of women to twaddling teeny boppers and the most macho of men to cooing grade schoolers.  It is most active–some would say most infantile–when the biochemical pathways of love are waxing to a peak during the relationship stages between infatuation and falling in love.  It’s when cute nicknames–those mushy, syrupy terms of endearment–are created and used in place of actual names, when phone calls don’t end because neither party can hang up. Not even Jerry Seinfeld was exempt from the language of love.   Renown for his cooly detached approach towards commitment and for breaking up with women for the the most picayune of reasons, Seinfeld may have, in fact, taken the language of love to new depths (or heights, depending on your perspective).  In his eponymous television sitcom, Seinfeld nauseated his friends George and Elaine with his openly affectionate behavior, baby talk and especially a term of endearment they found particularly offensive–Schmoopie. The only thing that could cool his ardor was a thickly-accented, stone-faced chef renown for enforcing a strict protocol of queuing, ordering and paying for Manhattan’s best soup.  Rather than incur the “Soup Nazi’s” ire and be…

AlbuquerqueAmericanClosed in 2011Gone But Not Forgotten

Rodeo Grill – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:32 AM

“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 wondered who, if anyone could possibly fill their shoes.  That led to contemplating what these rough-riding, tough-fighting, quick-shooting cowboys would think of the Rodeo Grill, a restaurant and cuisine they might consider “feminine.” Save for Gene Autry whose famous cowboy code advocated truthfulness, respect and patriotism, the cowboys of Western lore were certainly not politically correct, despite their other virtues.  Were one of them (I have John Wayne in mind) to write a review about the Rodeo Grill, I imagine…

BreakfastEspañolaNew MexicanRating: Very Good

JoAnn’s Ranch O Casados Restaurant – Española, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:18 PM

Shortly after it was announced that Mary & Tito’s was selected as a 2010 recipient of the James Beard Foundation’s “Americas Classic” award, the brilliant Albuquerque Journal columnist Leslie Linthicum wrote a gilt-edged tribute to my very favorite New Mexican restaurant.  Indicating “the red chile at Mary & Tito’s Cafe brings grown men to poetic fevers,” she quoted something I wrote in my review which she must have found to be sufficiently rhapsodic to warrant mention. For anything I write to be considered even remotely “poetic” by the scintillating columnist is a great honor.  Compared to the spell-binding prose and incisive insight which typify Leslie’s columns, my writing is prosaic and dim-witted.  It’s akin to comparing Michelangelo’s work on the Cistene Chapel to the asymmetrical graffiti under an overpass…with me the tagger.  i don’t always  start off agreeing with Leslie’s viewpoints, but  so admire her sharp wit and sound-reasoned logic in forming her positions that she often sways my position.  She is simply a magnificent writer, my favorite columnist on any periodical anywhere (with apologies to the great Tom Cole)! In a 2008 column published on Thanksgiving Day, Leslie waxed eloquent in her inimitable manner about some of the things…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2014Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicanNew Mexico Culinary Treasures Trail

Charlie’s Front Door – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:36 AM

For almost four and a half decades, Charlie Elias, an avuncular septuagenarian with the energy of a teenager,  has greeted his customers and treated them like welcome guests at his eponymous Northeast Heights restaurant and bar. Charlie doesn’t always make it to work nowadays, but his son Jamie, who’s probably the same age today that Charlie was when I first discovered this long-time family favorite, is now the restaurant’s official ambassador, a smiling presence who meets and greets all patrons with the same homespun, genuine friendliness as his father. Charlie was thirty-something when he launched his Front and Back Door operation in 1966.  That type of longevity is rare today and speaks volumes about the loyalty generations of patrons have for Charlie and his restaurant.  An elder statesman among the Duke City’s New Mexican restaurants, Charlie’s Front and Back Doors haven’t changed much over the years, offering the same menu and same friendly service diners have come to expect over the decades.  Newcomers still experience confusion as to the “Front” and “Back” door names, believing them to be the same restaurant, but with front and back door entrances. Charlie’s Front Door’s windowless frontage faces Menaul in the Hoffmantown Shopping Center. …

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2015Gone But Not ForgottenMexicanRating: Excellent

Los Equipales – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:27 AM

CLOSED ON FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 2015: Crafted from fibrous materials removed from maguey cactus and fixed with leather bands, equipales furniture graces the sala of many a New Mexican home and certainly many more homes south of the border. Originally produced for the comfort of Aztec landlords and priests, equipales furniture has been around since before Columbus. Even Montezuma, the nefarious ruler of Tenochtitlan, reputedly cherished a favorite equipale-type chair. It’s likely he sat on that chair while consuming a daily repast that may have included the traditional Aztec staples of the day: corn, chilies, beans, potatoes and other foods native to the Americas during his time. Legend has it that Montezuma’s daily constitution also included 50 golden goblets of thick, red dyed hot chocolate flavored with chili peppers. Los Equipales, a fabulous Mexican fine dining restaurant patterned after some of the fine cosmopolitan restaurants of Mexico City, serves many of the staples with which the Aztec despot may have been intimately familiar, albeit prepared and served within the temperature controlled climes of an attractive, modern edifice. It opened in December, 2005. Montezuma would have loved Los Equipales. You can bank on it! Well, almost literally. The commodious restaurant is…