Category: New Mexico

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Gimani: A Slice Bar – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

“You better cut the pizza in four pieces. I’m not hungry enough to eat six.” ~Yogi Berra In New York City, pizza by the slice is as ubiquitous as towering skyscrapers. Many of the city’s nearly 2,000 pizzerias serve pizza by the slice. Most have been doing so since the end of World War II when recently returned American veterans who had served in Italy craved the sliced pizza they had enjoyed during their service. Heck, in the Big Apple, you can even find pizza by the slice proffered by sidewalk vendors. According to my friend, the late, great Italian chef Mario D’Elia of Poppy’s Pizza & Italian Eatery, pizza is a street food.  “That’s so you can eat it…

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Joe’s Pasta House – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Much as they might wish for it to happen, no restaurateur can make their restaurant THE hometown favorite.  It happens organically and it happens only by the unanimous will and consent of the people.  Similarly, it takes the acclamation of the dining public for a restaurant to become THE heartbeat of a community–where residents go to interact with one another in a convivial spirit of sharing a great meal. A restaurant has to prove itself every single time with every single guest.  It must offer a combination of memorable food, a homey look and feel and mostly, personable, attentive service.  There can be no such thing as a “bad day.”  To find the template for how a restaurant becomes the…

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K Style Kitchen – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

If you’re susceptible to the power of suggestion–especially as it pertains to ear worms (recurring tunes that involuntarily pop up and stick in your mind)–you’re probably going to hate me (or you can skip this paragraph and continue to love me).  That’s because if you do read this paragraph you’re going to be humming to yourself one of the most annoying songs of all time–Gangnam Style.  Arguably, Gangnam Style is not as annoying as La Macarena or My Humps (which Rolling Stone declared “the most annoying song ever”). The more you try to suppress Gangnam Style, the more your impetus to hum it increases, a mental process known as ironic process theory.  By the way, those most at risk for…

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Kawaii Boba Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

I have a confession to make.  I just don’t get anime…and can’t figure out the pokemon craze.  That’s a rather starting admission for an Information Technology (IT) professional to make.  Maybe I need help?   After all, for your stereotypical male IT professional, anime and pokemon are just steps in the typical progression of IT affectations.  They’re the logical graduation that follows a rather unhealthy obsession with Princess Leia and all things Star Wars.  Which reminds me, I found Star Wars silly and boring.  Since I’m airing dirty laundry, I may as well admit I’d just as soon watch paint dry as play a video game.  Any video game. Nor do I ever celebrate Pi day (March 14th) and my…

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Pho #1 – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Beef.  How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my pho spoon can reach. Okay, I’m no Elizabeth Barrett Browning, but if I were to count the ways I love beef, the count might stop at seven–as in the special seven courses of beef offered at Pho #1.  Serving  the Duke City for more than two decades, Pho #1 makes an audacious claim by virtue of its name but it’s a claim with which loyalists will agree.  It’s an International District gem that continues to thrive in a neighborhood some diners eschew. With more than one-hundred items on the menu–not including the seven courses of beef–Pho #1 offers…

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Belle’s Urban Deli – Corrales, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Father Mark Schultz, the charismatic former priest at the Holy Ghost Parish in Albuquerque used to joke that the reason Catholics are required to abstain from eating meat on Fridays is not because there’s a shortage of cows. That’s certainly true. There is more beef on the hoof grazing on the Land of Enchantment’s green (and mostly brown) grass than there are tax-paying citizens.  That’s why it’s always puzzled me that sandwich restaurants in New Mexico are so chintzy with their meat portions. You’d think there really was a beef shortage (and a surfeit of bread and lettuce) considering many an Albuquerque restaurant sandwich is comprised of thin shards of meat buried under half a head of lettuce and enough…

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Los Felix – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

As we strode into Los Felix on a windy Saturday in May, we espied a very attractive young lady pointing an extendable selfie stick at her face as she spoke a thousand words a minute.  “Great,” we figured “another self-absorbed Gen Xer sharing the mundane details of her day on social media.”  Boy were we wrong.  That young lady turned out to be Gaby Camez, a social media influencer who posts restaurant reviews on Facebook.  Gaby’s site, Comiendo Rico en Albuquerque, is a celebration of the Duke City’s Mexican restaurants. Even if you’re not fortunate enough to speak and understand Spanish, you’ll love her site, especially the enthusiasm and respect with which she treats a restaurant’s bounty.   When we got…

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El Chile Toreado – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Until 2008, the notion of gourmet culinary offerings being proffered by a mobile conveyance was unheard of.  Prior to then, food trucks were (often rightfully so) known as “roach coaches” or even worse “barf buggies.”  Roach coaches were an eyesore, a medium of last resort usually parked at construction sites, manufacturing plants, public parks or basic military training bases where captive trainees had no alternative.  Roach coaches were a pure convenience with no pretense to gourmet (or even good) cuisine.  Most of them hawked simple fare such as hot dogs and tacos as well as potato chips, cigarettes, candy and chewing gum. During the era of “convenience stores on wheels,” food trucks weren’t worried about building a brand.  Nor were…

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Laguna Burger – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

For the second year in a row, Livability.com has named Rio Rancho as one of the “top 100 places to live in America.”  The City of Vision ranked 81st with a “LivScore” of 714.  That measure takes into consideration eight broad categories:  Economy, Housing  and Cost of Living, Amenities, Transportation, Environment, Safety, Education, and Health. Santa Fe was the only other city in New Mexico to make the top 100 list, ranking 98th with a LivScore of 694.  In 2023, the City of Vision earned a ranking as the 86th place to live based on the Livability’s quality of life score. Theories abound as to what accounts for the improvement–from 86th to 81st–in Rio Rancho’s ranking.  I’ve got my own…

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Il Localetto Rossi Italian Cuisine – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Academy Award-nominated actor Stanley Tucci and I share a selfsame perspective on eating well:  “To me, eating well is not just about what tastes good but about the connections that are made through the food itself. I am hardly saying anything new by stating that our links to what we eat have practically disappeared beneath sheets of plastic wrap. But what are also disappearing are the wonderful, vital human connections we’re able to make when we buy something we love to eat from someone who loves to sell it, who bought it from someone who loves to grow, catch, or raise it. Whether we know it or not, great comfort is found in these relationships, and they are very much…

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The Compound – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

“It’s good…New Mexico good.”  As a proud New Mexican, it galls me to hear apologists demean, denigrate and otherwise concede (quite erroneously) that restaurants  in the Land of Enchantment are good, but not as good as restaurants elsewhere.  It’s as if New Mexico’s restaurants can’t possibly be as good because…well, we’re New Mexico and we’re just not supposed to be very good.  Look at where we rank in so many quality of life categories.  It’s akin to University of New Mexico (UNM) Lobo basketball fans being content to make it to the “Sweet 16,” a goal no Lobos team has ever achieved. My counterargument is why the #$%*&! can’t a restaurant in New Mexico be considered one of, if not…