Category: Burgers

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Sugar’s BBQ & Burgers – Embudo, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:52 AM

The winding highway meandering along the murky Rio Grande through Embudo is among the most scenic in the state, particularly in mid-autumn when leaves turn a vibrant shade of gold. You’ll want to drive slowly to take in the foliage, but especially to make sure you imbibe the hazy smoke plumes emanating from Sugar’s BBQ & Burgers which waft into your motorized conveyance like a sweet Texas smoke signal beckoning you to try a combo platter. The first time we met owners Nancy and Neil Nobles, we were blown away by their genuine humility. Until we told them, the genial proprietors of this corrugated tin shack and kitchen only a couple of hundred feet from the serpentine Rio Grande had…

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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…

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Grassburger – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno1:20 PM

For nearly a decade, television viewers have been subjected to a very successful advertising campaign depicting contented cows talking and singing about the pleasures of life in sunny and warm California. The slogan for the “happy cows” campaign’ is “Great cheese comes from happy cows. Happy cows come from California.” The campaign would have you believe the cows are happy because they feast and frolic on a diet of delicious grass from verdant hillsides and not on troughs full of grains which don’t taste quite as good. I don’t know about cows being happier because they graze on grass, but can certainly attest to being a happier diner when enjoying a diet of grass-fed beef. Generations of New Mexicans, particularly…

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Rustic On The Green & Rustic Star – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno8:13 PM

Pop culture’s most famous exemplar of teenage angst may have been Napoleon Dynamite, a socially awkward daydreamer constantly tormented by bullies. Napoleon frequently lamented his ineptitude: “I don’t even have any good skills. You know, like nunchuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills. Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.” Napoleon’s best friend Pedro, on the other hand, possessed skills Napoleon coveted: “Well, you have a sweet ride. And you’re really good at hooking up with chicks. Plus you’re the only guy at school who has a mustache.” In a previous review I bemoaned my lack of skills in the manly art of grilling (though not nearly as much as my dear Kim bemoaned my having ruined thousands…

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Green Chile Cheeseburger Smackdown 2018 – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno7:15 PM

New Mexico’s storied history will recall that 2009 was the year of the green chile cheeseburger.  It all started in May when Bobby Olguin, the gregarious owner of San Antonio’s Buckhorn Tavern bested Food Network celebrity chef Bobby Flay in a “green chile cheeseburger throwdown.”  Capitalizing on the momentum, Governor Bill Richardson called for a statewide green chile cheeseburger challenge to be held at the New Mexico State Fair in September.  Two months later, four-time James Beard award-winning author, the scintillating Cheryl Jamison spearheaded the development of the New Mexico  Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail, the first of the state Tourism Department’s Culinary Trails initiatives designed to further attract savvy visitors who make travel choices based on food. Not only did…

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Bosque Burger – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno5:01 PM

As much a social commentary as a realist novel, Grapes of Wrath by author John Steinbeck immortalized Route 66 as “The Mother Road”  and “the road to flight.”  The latter and lesser known sobriquet recalls the epic odyssey of nearly a quarter of a million people migrating to California to escape the despair of the Dust Bowl.  Route 66 not only succored Americans, it symbolized a renewed spirit of optimism and beginning anew just as the nation was coming off the Great Depression and World War I.  The 2,448 mile stretch of asphalt which traversed eight states connected remote and sparsely-populated regions with Chicago and Los Angeles, two of America’s most vital economic engines.  “The Main Street of America” also…

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Bob’s Burgers – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:23 AM

“Bob.” Advertisers (as well as television and movie producers) realize there probably isn’t a better example of an “every man” name, typically portraying Bob as the average wage-earning man about town. Few would argue that Bob, a diminutive of Robert, isn’t a very vanilla and common name. In fact, according to Social Security Administration data it was the fourth most common name in the United States with 9.5 instances per 1,000 people as of 2013. Despite that popularity, advertisers seem to prefer naming the metrosexual males they portray something like Brad or Troy (sorry BOTVOLR). Bob’s Burgers in Albuquerque, Los Lunas, Las Cruces and Rio Rancho precedes the animated television program by that name by 48 years. Brothers Tom and…

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Black Bird Saloon – Los Cerrillos, New Mexico

Gil Garduno8:57 PM

On a journey by train to San Francisco, New Mexico’s legendary award-winning author Tony Hillerman shared an observation car with businessmen from the East. As the spectacular Zuni Buttes, majestic Mount Taylor, breathtaking mesas and skies resplendent with monsoon thunderclouds passed in review, his heart was lifted and his worries dissipated. He then overheard one of the Easterners remark to the other, “My God, why would anybody live out here?” Hillerman’s immediate (though unspoken) thought was, “My God, why wouldn’t everyone want to live out here?” As Hillerman’s experience clearly illustrates, one person’s “middle of nowhere” is another person’s idyllic paradise. Similarly, what some consider “nothing to do here” is the pace of life others spend their life pursuing. It’s…

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Big D’s Downtown Dive – Roswell, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

During a March, 2012 trip to Roswell, New Mexico President Barack Obama made the following opening remarks to his speech. “We had landed in Roswell. I announced to people when I landed that I had come in peace. (Laughter) Let me tell you – there are more nine and ten year old boys around the country when I meet them – they ask me, “Have you been to Roswell and is it true what they say? And I tell them, ‘If I told you I would have to kill you.’ So their eyes get all big…so…we’re going to keep our secrets here.” To many, his comment was just an innocent joke, but to passionate conspiracy theorists, Obama’s remarks were further…

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Groundstone – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:59 PM

Kids say the darnedest things. That was the premise of popular radio and television shows hosted by Art Linkletter from the mid 1940s through 1969. Linkletter would engage children (usually aged three to eight) in casual conversation. Humor–often laced with double entendre–would often ensue out of the children’s naive and silly responses. Once, for example, he asked a little girl to spell Art, his name. She proceeded to spell the host’s name R-A-T. Most parents can relate to the unpredictable nature of what their children say. More often than not, it resonates with child-like innocence, but every once in a while an utterly unintentional and unfiltered zinger sneaks out that will make parents want to slink away and hide. When…

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Papaburgers – Los Ranchos De Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno2:18 AM

Back in the 1960s, A&W’s Papa Burger was a rite of passage for me. By age nine, I had surmounted the phased progression through A&Ws burger family–Baby Burger, Mama Burger and Teen Burger–and was ready to prove my mettle with the largest of A&Ws burger family, one beefy behemoth only my dad, a paragon of masculinity, had ever ordered. Earning the right to order one was acknowledgement that I was growing into a man. Polishing one off brought newfound respect from my younger brothers, both of whom longed for the day my dad would order a Papa Burger for them. In the 1960s, A&W’s burger family signified a formidable line-up of burgers served in more than 2,000 A&W restaurants throughout…