Category: Gone But Not Forgotten

AlbuquerqueAmericanBreakfastClosed in 2010Gone But Not Forgotten

Chef Jim White’s Cafe & Catering – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:43 AM

Long before the Food Network made chefs legitimate on-air celebrity icons, Albuquerque had its own larger-than-life, media-savvy celebrity chef who, it seemed, spent almost as much time on the airwaves as behind the stove. Chef Jim White was a peripatetic presence on television where he hosted short cooking segments on two Duke City television news programs in addition to having a three-minute format airing in a San Diego station. He also wrote a highly-regarded food column for the Albuquerque Journal. So well known was (and is) Chef Jim White that in Albuquerque his name is always prefaced with his title, “Chef.” In society, only doctors and professors seem to earn that level of respect and in Hollywood, the celebrity equivalent might be being known by first name (i.e., Oprah, Beyonce). Chef Jim White was everywhere. He had the energy, enthusiasm and credentials (graduating no less than at the top of his class at the Culinary Institute of America) to carry off bona fide celebrity. He also had an endearing effusive personality that engendered genuine affection among many loyal patrons. From 1999 until July, 2005, the indefatigable chef also owned Casa Vieja, a venerable Corrales restaurant. At Casa Vieja he popularized…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2008Gone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

Downtown Gourmet – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:01 AM

“People who know nothing about cheeses reel away from Camembert, Roquefort, and Stilton because the plebeian proboscis is not equipped to differentiate between the sordid and the sublime.” – Harvey Day I don’t know whether or not Mr. Day intended his quote as a condescending affront toward those lacking appreciation for some of the world’s most fetid fromage, but the truth is, not everyone really “gets it” when it comes to stinky cheeses. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. That’s because there really is a cheese for everyone. It’s one of the world’s most versatile and beloved foods and it has been since the very first cheese was made somewhere in the Middle East around 6000 B.C. Its versatility ranges from overwhelming (to some) to subtle. In taste, it can range from bland to sharp, from buttery and rich to light and delicate and from pleasantly astringent, even mild, to powerful and assertive. The texture of cheese can range from the softness of melting butter (such as a fine Burrata) to a crumbly firmness that makes it literally flake off in pieces when you cut or bite into it (think Leicester cheese). The aroma of some cheeses can clear a…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBakeryClosed in 2008Gone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

Have Your Cake Bakery & Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:20 AM

Leave it to the wonderfully irascible and irreverent comedian George Carlin to put things in perspective in his retort to a popular English idiom. “When people say, ‘Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too.’ What good is a cake you can’t eat? What should I eat, someone else’s cake instead?“. The idiom “to have one’s cake and eat it, too or simply have one’s cake and eat it” actually means wanting more than one can handle or deserves, or to trying to have two incompatible things. Still, Carlin makes a sage point. In Albuquerque’s Far North Valley, Albuquerque diners can have their cake and they can eat it, too. They can also have and eat delicious sandwiches, salads, cupcakes, empanadas, pies and other wonderful breakfast and lunch treats. This is all courtesy of the Have Your Cake Bakery & Cafe which opened in December, 2007 in a hundred year old adobe building just south of the capacious El Pinto New Mexican restaurant. The bakery/cafe is owned by Kathy Medero, an Albuquerque native who trained at the French Culinary Institute of New York. The century plus old building previously housed other restaurants as well as a…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2009Gone But Not ForgottenMariscosMexican

Villa del Mar – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno4:46 AM

Who hasn’t dreamt of a luxurious Mexican Villa overlooking pristine sandy beaches and translucent blue waters–a distinguished gate, thriving gardens and a capacious floor plan with earth-toned terracotta and ochre floors and walls festooned in vibrant colors? Think of it–your own personal chef preparing the briny delicacies of the sea for your every meal, the soulful voice of a Mexican singer plumbing the depths of your emotions, a fresh Pacific breeze negating the balmy climate.  It would be an idyllic life. The Villa del Mar restaurant on Albuquerque’s Central Avenue won’t make all these dreams a reality, but it will serve you a meal that–maybe just for a moment–will transport you to that villa of your dreams. Villa del Mar, launched in April, 2007, gained notoriety before it even opened when several palm trees were planted in front of the restaurant.  While Albuquerque may be in the desert, our winters tend to be too severe for most palm trees. Sanibel Island, Florida we’re not. Atop the Spanish tiled building and impaled on a pole is a large blue marlin, a large sporting fish that is rarely, if ever, table fare. Aside from the usual table condiments, each table is decorated…

Closed in 2008CubanGone But Not ForgottenMadridNew Mexico

Tocororo Cafe – Madrid, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:14 PM

New Mexico is a dichotomous land, a land which welcomes contrast and diversity, where the state-of-the-art trappings of modern society are juxtaposed against ancient cultures with traditions that have gone largely unchanged for centuries. It’s a land in which the sophisticated and the rustic are equally at home. It’s a land in which the best New Mexican cuisine might just be found in Cuba (that would be El Bruno and the best Cuban food could well be the one served in Madrid’s Tocororo Cafe. Cuban food in Madrid, you ask. Many people assume (incorrectly) that there are only two restaurants in Madrid–the Mine Shaft Tavern and Maggie’s Main Street Diner, a storefront prop built for the movie “Wild Hogs” and its all-star cast of John Travolta, William H. Macy, Tim Allen, Ray Liotta and Martin Lawrence. You know what has been said about assuming. In this case, an incorrect assumption means missing out on two fabulous cafes: Mama Lisa’s Ghost Town Kitchen and the Tocororo Cafe which has been blowing patrons away since it opened in 2006. The restaurant is named for the tocororo, the national bird of Cuba whose plumage exhibits the colors of the Cuban flag: red, blue…

Closed in 2008Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicanNew MexicoSanta Fe

Cafe San Estevan – Santa Fe, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno9:40 AM

In 1598, don Juan de Oñate led an expedition of Spanish colonists–including eight Franciscan friars–to the east bank of the Rio Grande near its confluence with the Chama River. There they founded San Gabriel, New Mexico’s first capital at a site close to present day Okay Owingeh, one of New Mexico’s great Tewa speaking Northern New Mexico Pueblos. Nine years later Don Pedro de Peralta, established as New Mexico’s capital, “La Villa Real de Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asisi,” or “The Royal City of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi.” Spanish explorers and the sandal-shod sons of Saint Francis of Assisi who accompanied them planted the seeds of Catholicism by evangelizing to a large population of native Americans and to other colonists who migrated to the new country. The seeds they planted took root and have flourished for more than 400 years. Today, despite he incursion of contemporary secularism, Santa Fe remains the “City of Holy Faith” established by Peralta. It is the seat of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe which counts among its faithful, more than 300,000 Roman Catholics. The Archdiocese of Santa Fe covers an area of more than 60,000 square miles and includes…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBakeryBreakfastClosed in 2009Gone But Not Forgotten

Painted Horse Coffeehouse – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno6:10 PM

In the summer of 2000, prominent artists throughout the Southwest resoundingly answered the call to submit their design ideas for painting on an unconventional medium–a horse cast in a durable resin blend. This particular canvas was chosen to commemorate the introduction to North America of the horse. More than five centuries ago, Spanish Conquistadores explored New Mexico astride the noble beast. The painted ponies were intended to promote artistic excellence and for about a year, the “trail of painted ponies” led art aficionados to various galleries throughout the state where the equine masterpieces were on display. In the fall of 2001, the ponies were sold and garnered over half a million dollars for altruistic causes.Fast forward to March, 2006 when culinary pioneers Debbie and Jud Lewis-Mahon, blazed their own trail on painted ponies of their own, albeit gleaming metal steeds with considerably more horsepower than the Conquistadores’ horses. That’s when they launched the Painted Horse Coffeehouse in the Paseo del Norte Shopping Center on Albuquerque’s far Northwest corner. Like the Spanish explorers, the Lewis-Mahons have had to surmount vast expanses of wasteland–in this case, a plethora of chain restaurant mediocrity. The Painted Horse Coffeehouse is a rarity in this part…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2008FrenchGone But Not Forgotten

Cafe Voila – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno4:16 AM

Mon ami Francophile who spends months vacationing in France likes to talk about his dining experiences in the land of haute cuisine and haughty waiters, regaling anyone who will listen with tales of surliness, scorn and condescension the likes of which Americans are unused to. His favorite tales of woe involve a churlish waiter at a sidewalk cafe in Paris adept at ignoring customers to the full extent of their patience then tossing menus at them. When taking their order, he will roll his eyes and tap his pencil on the menu as if aggravated that his valuable time is being wasted. Leaving the table, he will swing the menu around and hit at least one customer on the head (an eye on a good day). Invariably he will deliver the wrong entrees and blame the mistake on the patron’s horrendous French pronunciation of simple dishes. My Francophile friend (whom I suspect has more than a little mean streak) sees such surliness as part of the charm of the stereotypical French waiter. He says they’re in a hurry and if you leave in a dither, someone else will take your place who won’t be so sensitive about “a little” abruptness.…

Closed in 2012Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoPizza

Sandia Crust Pizza Company – Cedar Crest, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:16 AM

Deadheads and pizza have been inextricably tied since 1993 when (legend has it) an audacious pizza delivery boy absconded with several cassette tapes from Jerry Garcia’s kitchen counter.  It didn’t take long before late-night Grateful Dead radio programs around the country were playing second- and third-generation “dubs” of the rough mixes that have come to be known as “The Pizza Tapes.” The Pizza tapes featured the collaboration of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia, mandolinist David Grisman and guitarist Tony Rice, all legendary figures in the music world.  The 12-song improvisation gives every indication that the session was warm, intimate and replete with the joyful spontaneity and rapport of friends not used to playing together but having a genuinely good time nonetheless. In 2000 the Pizza Tapes were released as an album with all its warts and blemishes (talking between musicians, false starts and mistakes).  Alisa Young, who hardly looks old enough to have been born in the 70s (much less the 60s), saw her first Grateful Dead concert in 1978.  Today Sandia Crust, the restaurant she and her husband Jamie, launched in December, 2005 celebrates the Grateful Dead and both the unique music and culture (or counterculture depending on your…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2008Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoThai

Tawan Thai Cuisine – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno4:14 AM

Note: This review was written about a Tawan Thai Cuisine location in Rio Rancho that no longer exists. The original Tawan Thai at 200 Wyoming Blvd, S.E., also closed in late 2008. For Rio Rancho’s Thai cuisine aficionados the sky was bleak only briefly. The despair they felt after the closure of Hong Thai was replaced scant weeks later by elation at the August, 2007 launch of Tawan Thai Cuisine. With that launch, the sun began shining brightly as City of Vision residents could once again Thai one on. Tawan, the Thai word for sun, is quickly becoming a shining star (a sun) in the City of Vision’s restaurant scene. Ensconced in the nondescript Lujan Plaza, it is, for many reasons, appropriately named for the sun. One of those reasons is that the sun might be high in the sky when you get there and behind the horizon when you leave, a testament to service as slow as an Alaskan sunset in June…but I digress. Rio Rancho’s Tawan Thai Cuisine restaurant is the second restaurant by that name in the Albuquerque metropolitan area. The first is on Wyoming Boulevard about a mile north of the Kirtland Air Force Base entrance.…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2008Gone But Not ForgottenItalianNew MexicoSandwich

Deli Mart West – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno10:45 AM

The human capacity for developing attachments can be a bit of a conundrum. Although my very being is eternally rooted in New Mexico, returning to America in 1987 after three years in England made me feel as if I had left my home behind. Similarly after two years in Massachusetts, I returned in 1979 to my beloved New Mexico with a huge hole in my heart, pining for so many things about my first home as an adult. One of the things I missed most about the Bay State was the tremendously creative things that could be generously crammed inside a sub (make that “grinder”) roll. The polished art of crafting a sensational stuffed sandwich had not made its way to the Land of Enchantment. I commiserated frequently with my great friend, New York native Adelchi Parisella who also longed for the incomparable sandwiches uniquely fashioned in the East Coast. Fortunately in 1980, we discovered Deli Mart, a New York style deli and market on Juan Tabo just north of Menaul. The lingering aroma of fine deli meats and cheeses was so familiar, our olfactory senses went into overdrive trying to ingest them all. The well-stocked shelves offered culinary treasures…