Category: Gone But Not Forgotten

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…

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…

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…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2024Gone But Not ForgottenMexicanNew Mexico

Rincon Del Pollo – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:03 AM

In 1928, the presidential campaign featured several slogans and ads promising an era of prosperity.  The most memorable of these was a boast that the Republican administrations of Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge had “reduced hours and increased earning capacity, silenced discontent, and put the proverbial ‘chicken in every pot.’  And a car in every backyard, to boot.” If a chicken in every pot is a measure of prosperity, then the Rincon del Pollo (Chicken Corner) Mexican restaurant on North Fourth must epitomize success and affluence.  That’s because this diminutive eatery specializes in all things chicken, albeit al estilo Mexicano (Mexican style). The Rincon del Pollo launched in 2003 and was originally situated in the Northdale Shopping Center (which Duke…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2014Gone But Not ForgottenNational ChainPizza

RedBrick Pizza – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:41 AM

The American culture of instant gratification may be precipitating the decline of the independent neighborhood pizzeria. In recent years, this traditional bastion of pizza preparation has been largely supplanted by ubiquitous pizza delivery companies with their gratuitous gimmicks, copious coupons and promises of breakneck deliveries. Pizzaiolis, the artisans who deftly toss and craft prandial perfection in the form of circular, precisely seasoned and superbly sauced oven-baked flat-bread have been unseated by pimply teenagers slathering ketchup on cardboard spheres then setting land speed records to ensure the day’s special of five for the price of one reaches its intended destination within seconds after an order is placed. The American consumer seemingly prefers quick and cheap pizza of inferior quality and taste…

AlbuquerqueAmericanClosed in 2012Gone But Not ForgottenNational Chain

Zea Rotisserie & Grill – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno6:00 AM

Our first visit to Zea followed the day after it was savaged by an erstwhile Albuquerque Journal restaurant critic, but any trepidation we might have had quickly dissipated when we were greeted enthusiastically at the hostess station by Betty, the luminous former waitress at the incomparable and much missed (to this day, I dream of its timbale tuna) Nouveau Noodles restaurant in Tijeras. At Nouveau, Betty was a whirling dervish of perpetual motion and the restaurant’s consummate ambassador. As warm and effusive a waitress as you’ll find anywhere, Betty’s unabashed enthusiasm for Nouveau’s cuisine was evident in her flowingly eloquent descriptions of the restaurant’s menu items–polysyllabic descriptions which she peppered with adjectives synonymous with fabulous. We trusted her recommendations and…

Closed in 2020EspañolaGone But Not ForgottenNew MexicanNew Mexico

Angelina’s Restaurant – Espanola, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno7:40 PM

“I get no respect.”  Comedian Rodney Dangerfield parlayed that catch-phrase into a lengthy and lucrative career.  With his uniquely self-deprecating sense of humor, Rodney invariably made himself the butt of his own brilliant one-liners: “I could tell my parents hated me.  My bath toys were a toaster and a radio.”  Despite his schtick as a perpetual loser, Dangerfield was a beloved comedic icon about whom Jim Carrey once wrote, “Rodney is, without a doubt, as funny as a carbon-based life-form can be.”  True to the formula which made him a success in life, his tombstone is engraved, “there goes the neighborhood.” The citizenry of the beautiful Española valley can certainly empathize with Rodney Dangerfield.  Inexplicably, Española has, for decades, been…

AlbuquerqueBreakfastClosed in 2010Gone But Not ForgottenNew Mexican

Blue Cactus Grill – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:26 PM

In the early 80s I tried to impress my very traditional grandmother by taking her to a recently opened restaurant on Academy Boulevard.  What was not to like?  The restaurant shared the mellifluous name she had proudly worn for over fifty years.  It was a locally owned and operated and had earned several awards.  It boasted a multi-page menu.  Surely Garduno’s of Mexico offered something she would like. It turns out the restaurant’s name was the only thing she liked.  One nod of disapproval after the other ensued as she meticulously perused the menu, a compendium of Mexican and New Mexican appetizers, entrees and desserts.  Scanning the descriptions carefully, she dismissed the contemporary interpretations of the foods on which she was raised…

BernalilloClosed in 2013Gone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

La Casita Cafe – Bernalillo, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:13 AM

Is there still a place in the American restaurant scene for hometown mom and pop institutions? According to the Nation’s Restaurant News, a respected trade magazine, almost fifty percent of the 100 largest chains saw flat or declining growth rates in sales in 2006.  Those rates are largely attributed to the sheer volume of restaurant concepts (chains) cluttering the landscape. I like to think that another reason for the decline of the ubiquitous chains that blight American streets is the increasing realization among the dining public that better food, value and service can be found in mom and pop dining establishments.  La Casita Cafe in Bernalillo is one restaurant validating that contention as evidenced by the overflowing throngs that consider…

ArizonaClosed in 2020Fine DiningGone But Not ForgottenMexicanUnited States

Cafe Poca Cosa – Tucson, Arizona (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno8:48 PM

Stereotypes would have you believe English food and Mexican food are at the opposite end of the spectrum from one another…as different as day and night.  Those stereotypes paint English food as bland and unimaginative while Mexican food is depicted as spirited and exciting.  That makes it deliciously ironic that perhaps the foremost authority on Mexican food is an adventurous English woman named Diana Kennedy.  In 1957, she moved to Mexico and has spent most of her life since researching and documenting the culinary history of Mexican cuisine. For her inestimable contributions to the documentation of regional Mexican cuisine, the government of Mexico awarded her the “Order of the Aztec Eagle” award, the Mexican equivalent of knighthood while Queen Elizabeth…

AlbuquerqueAmericanClosed in 2012Gone But Not Forgotten

Chef’s Bistro – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno8:47 PM

It’s been called the “Harvard of cooking schools” and has been credited with having “changed the way Americans eat” by no less than the James Beard Foundation. World-reknowned French chef Paul Bocuse calls it “the best culinary school in the world.” It has trained more than forty-thousand culinary professionals and counts among its distinguished alumni such Food Network luminaries as Tony Bourdain, Anne Burrell, Cat Cora, Sara Moulton and Todd English. In the culinary world, the Central Intelligence Agency is known as “the other CIA.” The CIA is the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), a not-for-profit culinary school which confers Associate of Occupational Studies (A.O.S.) degrees in either Culinary Arts or Baking and Pastry Arts. Students don’t just receive hands-on…