Category: American

AmericanArizonaBreakfastRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

El Tovar – Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

Gil Garduno9:57 PM

When Spanish explorer García López de Cárdenas first laid eyes on the Grand Canyon, surely his reaction wasn’t “it’s just a great big hole in the ground.” That was the reaction of a friend of mine, who much like other modern Americans is so caught up in the trappings of pop culture and “technolust” that he’s lost the ability to be impressed by what it has taken nature millions of years to produce. It took some six million years for the Colorado River to create the multi-hued, steep-sided gorge that is today considered one of the natural wonders of the…

AmericanBrunchClosed in 2010Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoSanta Fe

Lamy Station Cafe – Lamy, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:28 PM

History might best be defined as the interaction of people with one another and with their environments. Often those environments and the people indigenous to them are hardened by conditions and circumstances. Fewer than 200 years ago, French and American traders endured tremendous hardship and peril on the route that came to be known as the Santa Fe Trail which connected New Mexico’s capital with the United States. Large wagon trains ferried much coveted United States merchandise from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe, earning enormous profits in the process. Trade was made easier in the 1880s with the introduction of…

AlbuquerqueAmericanClosed in 2012Gone But Not Forgotten

Billet’s Grill – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno2:54 AM

Americana has spawned many unique cultures, counter-cultures and fringe groups. Some of those cultures operate equally well in any spectrum. Take for example the biker culture in which Fortune 500 executives as well as bandits, desperados and those in between are fervent in their pursuit of two-wheeled motorized activity. This is evidenced by the throngs of bikers on both sides of the law making annual pilgrimages to Sturgis, South Dakota with the same zeal as pilgrims headed to Mecca. Local bikers have made the Billet Grill (formerly known as the Easy Riders Grill) a favorite dining destination. When it first…

BurgersEspañolaNew MexicoNew Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2009Rating: Very Good

Stop And Eat Drive In – Española, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:46 AM

Stop And Eat–Although it seems this 50s style drive-in has always been at its Paseo De Oñate location, it hadn’t yet opened in 1598 when don Juan de Oñate led his expedition of Spanish colonists to the east bank of the Rio Grande near its confluence with the Chama River. That’s where they founded San Gabriel, New Mexico’s first capital at a site close to present day Española, home of the Stop And Eat restaurant. While Stop And Eat might sound like a mandate, it’s really more of a strong suggestion that will visit your brain every time you drive…

AlbuquerqueAmericanClosed in 2008Gone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

The Cup – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno10:05 AM

Back in the mid 70s, anyone in Albuquerque’s southeast quadrant who wanted privacy knew they could find it at the Burger Chef restaurant in the Gibson and San Mateo area. It was the place in which employees from nearby Sandia and Kirtland conducted one-on-one meetings when they didn’t want to be disturbed. Once a burgeoning franchise second only to McDonald’s in the fast food arena, Burger Chef was in a state of rapid decline and even during lunch hours, few diners patronized it. Our inaugural dining experience at The Cup awakened memories of Burger Chef and the sheer feeling of…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBreakfastClosed in 2017Gone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico Culinary Treasures Trail

Murphy’s Mule Barn – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno5:09 AM

A mule is an animal with long funny ears he kicks up at anything he hears His back is brawny but his brain is weak he’s just plain stupid with a stubborn streak and by the way if you hate to go to school You may grow up to be a mule. – Bing Crosby Murphy’s law, a popular adage in Western culture is commonly formulated as “if anything can go wrong, it will.”  Murphy’s Mule Barn, a popular North Valley restaurant, hasn’t posited any law that I know of, but if it did, the law might read something like…

AmericanClosed in 2008Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoTaos County

Altitudes Restaurant & Wine Bar – Red River, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno8:42 AM

No place is so dear to my childhood, As the little brown church in the vale. Step out of Altitudes Restaurant & Wine Bar on a dark moonlit night and the first thing you see is a large, illuminated alabaster cross atop a wooden church steeple. Directly beneath the cross is a colorful stained glass window depicting Christ, the Good Sheppard. It’s no wonder the popular gospel standard “The Church In The Wildwoods” is on our mind after each and every wonderful meal at what has long been the site of one of Red River’s dining treasures. Before the blue,…

AmericanClosed in 2008Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoSanta Fe

Dave’s Not Here – Santa Fe, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno10:34 AM

Dave’s not here. You really can’t blame him. After all, a Santa Fe district court judge issued (and later rescinded) a temporary restraining order alleging Dave (Letterman) had been tormenting a city resident for more than ten years by using coded words and signals to woo her on his television program. A better theory than mine is posited by David “Whochacha” Pederson, who points out that the line “Dave’s not year” is used repeatedly in a hilarious Cheech and Chong routine you’ve got to listen to. Wrong Daves? Maybe or maybe not. No one really seems to know for sure…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBreakfastBrunchClosed in 2010Gone But Not Forgotten

JB’s Restaurant – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno4:37 AM

The first thing that comes to mind when someone invites me to a buffet is a paragraph from E. B. White’s 1952 classic Charlotte Web.  In that paragraph, an old sheep describes the county fair to Templeton the lovingly irascible rat: “A fair is a rat’s paradise. Everybody spills food at a fair. A rat can creep out late at night and have a feast. In the horse barn you will find oats that the trotters and pacers have spilled. In the trampled grass of the infield you will find old discarded lunch boxes containing the foul remains of peanut…

AmericanBakeryClosed in 2008Food Network Eats New MexicoGone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoSanta Fe

Cloud Cliff Bakery & Cafe – Santa Fe, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno9:56 AM

In the 1880s, Northern New Mexico was a prolific wheat growing region. More than 250 varieties of wheat grew in its rocky but fecund soil. Thanks to a rural revitalization program called the Northern New Mexico Organic Wheat Project, the region’s wheat production is becoming genetic diverse once again. Today under the program’s auspices, more than 20 families are growing several heirloom wheat varieties which are marketed under the very popular Nativo label. The driving force behind the program is Willem Maltem, a former Zen monk who arrived in Santa Fe in the mid 1980s. To earn bread, Maltem sold…

BarbecueClosed in 2010Gone But Not ForgottenNevadaUnited States

Buckingham Smokehouse Bar-B-Q – Las Vegas, Nevada (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:53 PM

Las Vegas has established itself as one of America’s, if not the world’s, preeminent dining destinations. Many of the world’s most famous and successful chefs have launched flamboyant restaurants that celebrate their self-aggrandizing greatness in magnificent pantheons of gustatory grandeur. Fortunately for true gastronomes who don’t worship exclusively at the tables of gastronomic glitterati, Las Vegas has also attracted its share of chefs with whom those of us of the common clay can identify–chefs who didn’t refine their skills at a snooty culinary institute but in the backyard on the family grill. With a recent influx of pit masters migrating…