Category: Sandwich

AlbuquerqueNew MexicoRating: Very GoodSandwich

Relish Gourmet Sandwiches – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno2:34 AM

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steve Jobs, Eddie Murphy, Jessie Jackson, entire NBA rosters.  Often missing from scandal sheets outing male celebrities who have fathered love children is the name of one Dagwood Bumstead.  From all outward appearances, Bumstead is an average white collar employee and loving family man with a penchant for taking naps, luxuriating in a bubble bath and constructing and consuming tall, multi-layered, poly-ingredient sandwiches of gravity defying height topped with an olive on a toothpick.  Appearances can be deceiving.  You’re reading it here first.  Dagwood Bumstead’s illegitimate son is (brace yourself) Norville “Shaggy” Rogers, a lanky would-be hipster who always seems to have the munchies.  Shaggy is a nimble contortionist with a penchant for hiding (cowering) in impossibly small…

ArizonaDog FriendlyRating: OutstandingSandwichUnited States

PANE BIANCO – Phoenix, Arizona

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

When she lived in Tucson, Arizona Republic dining critic Andi Berlin would drive nearly two hours  to Phoenix to enjoy foods that can’t be found anywhere else in Arizona.  One of the five held such sway over her that she actually moved to the Valley of the Sun so that she could enjoy it more often.  Now that’s a gastronome after my own heart!  Among the cinquefoil restaurants was Pane Bianco, whose sandwiches Andi says “are so perfect that they’ve achieved cult status.”  Perfect sandwiches!  Hmm, that’s a good reason to relocate and maybe the reason the Phoenix real estate market is among the nation’s top 10 hottest markets.   During dozens of trips to Phoenix over my eighteen-year tenure at Intel, I would…

ArizonaDog FriendlyMediterraneanRating: N/R (Not Rated)SandwichUnited States

Pa’La – Phoenix, Arizona

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Is there anything more relaxing than a wood fire: its mesmerizing orange and blue flames as they lick the air, the warmth and comfort of heat as it overcomes weather’s chilling bite, the meditative timbre of wood crackling  over the flames, the spitting and hissing of red-orange embers and especially aromas which trigger heart-rending reminiscences of childhood days sitting around a fire with family and friends.  Just the thought of a wood fire is therapeutic, imparting benefits that are both salubrious and soothing. My attempts  at transporting you to a time and place in which wood fire helped transcend life’s vicissitudes are likely feeble, but let me add another element that might do the trick.  Now imagine the yeasty bouquet…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBreakfastClosed in 2024Dog FriendlyDonutsGone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoSandwich

Kickstand Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

In 2016, The Plough Hotel in North Canterbury, New Zealand banned Lycra-clad customers in an attempt to remove any “unsightly bumps and bulges.”  The hotel owner declared Lycra “unsuitable,” explaining “We get a nice group of customers out here, some elderly folk. When you’re trying to concentrate on your breakfast you just want to see the sausages on your plate.” Then as if expecting a confrontation from the lumpy, bumpy bikers, he issued a challenge: “If there’s hordes of cyclists outside threatening to bash us with their bike pumps we can always barricade ourselves in, we’ve got a bit of food and drink here so we should be able to outlast them.” Lycra bike wear may not be de rigueur…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBurgersClosed in 2024Dog FriendlyGone But Not ForgottenSandwich

Fork & Fig – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno9:06 PM

FROM THE FORK & FIG FACEBOOK PAGE (November, 2024): Thank you Albuquerque for 10 wonderful years! Skyrocketing rent and food costs have really impacted us. We have loved serving you. We are moving to a private chef/catering model. Stay tuned for our next adventure. Listen to Billy Joel’s 1983 doo wop hit Uptown Girl and you’ll probably get the impression that uptown is synonymous with uppity or at least upscale. The lyrics describe a working-class downtown man (ostensibly Joel himself who’s originally from blue-collar Long Island) trying to win the heart of a wealthy, white bred uptown girl (Joel’s future wife Christie Brinkley). The perception of uptown’s haughtiness were reenforced in “The Contest” episode of Seinfeld in which John F.…

Dog FriendlyRating: N/R (Not Rated)SandwichSeafoodUnited StatesUtah

Freshie’s Lobster Co. – Salt Lake City, Utah

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

The best lobster in the world?  In Salt Lake City?  That’s as improbable as the Detroit Lions winning a Super Bowl, as unlikely as drivers in New Mexico developing the motor skills to use turn signals, as far-fetched as a conservative NRA member driving a Subaru in Santa Fe.  As a landlocked state some two-thousand miles from the cold New England waters that produce the world’s most delicious lobsters, the notion that a Salt Lake City restaurant would be acclaimed as home of the “world’s best lobster roll” seems quite implausible indeed.  Even the concept that a lobster restaurant (other than Red Lobster) would experience wild success in Salt Lake City could be construed as rather fantastical.  Utah isn’t exactly…

AlbuquerqueDog FriendlyHot DogsNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Sandwich

Clowndog Hot Dog Parlor – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno11:22 PM

Remember the good old days when the only taboo related to the All American hot dog was the felonious act of adding ketchup.   In the movie “Sudden Impact,”  Clint Eastwood as “Dirty Harry” Callahan declared rather emphatically “Nobody, I mean nobody puts ketchup on a hot dog.”  Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States was nearly as ardent, asserting that ketchup on a hot dog is “not acceptable past the age of 8.” Not that much later, diehards still consider it a mortal sin to add ketchup to a hot dog.  Nary a dissenting voice, however, is raised at today’s “anything goes” attitude toward hot dog toppings. Well, maybe almost anything goes.  When I shared Clowndog Hot…

Rating: Very GoodRio RanchoSandwich

Alicea’s NY Bagels & Subs – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil Garduno2:43 PM

Imagine a world without sandwiches! That daunting premise would make a pretty fatalistic post-apocalyptic movie in which Dystopian societies exist in a nightmare of deprivation, hopelessness, terror and processed food rations (Soylent Green anyone?). No sandwiches–it’s just too incomprehensible to imagine, especially considering everywhere you turn there’s another Subway. Frankly, my own post-apocalyptic nightmare would be a world in which Subway and other restaurants of that ilk are the only option for sandwiches. Like the indestructible roach, chain restaurants would survive even a nuclear cataclysm. Alas, my personal post-apocalyptic hell is closer to reality than you might suspect. CHD Expert, the worldwide leader in collecting, managing and analyzing food service industry data reports that the sacrosanct sandwich, one of America’s…

ArizonaDog FriendlyHot DogsIllinoisRating: Very GoodSandwichUnited States

Portillo’s Hot Dogs – Tempe, Arizona

Gil Garduno3:24 AM

Portillo’s story is the story of the American dream, a rags to riches saga that began with a single hot dog stand opening in 1963. That single investment has blossomed into a multi-million per year chain with six different concepts and more than 40 restaurants in the Chicago area alone. The Portillo’s Restaurant Group has become, in fact, the largest privately-owned restaurant company in the Midwest. Among Chicagoland expatriates with whom I’ve worked (and one whom I married) Portillos is consistently named as one of the things they miss most about living in the Windy City. Expatriates like my Kim know there isn’t anything like Portillo’s anywhere else in America.  Other than frequent trips to the Chicago area, their only…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2022Gone But Not ForgottenHot DogsNew MexicoPizzaSandwich

AK Pizza – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:36 AM

“I hate it. I think it’s an abomination. There are so many awesome things here, I don’t know why that should be featured. It’s leading with your weakness. So much other great stuff.” ~Anthony Bourdain What could have rankled the ire of the world renowned celebrity chef, master raconteur and social activist?  Was it an injustice in dire need of exorcising?  Dystopian horrors in a faraway third-world country?  Devaluation of life?  Bringing to light those suffering in the dark?  No, my friends.  It wasn’t the broken world Bourdain railed against.  It was something much more apolitical…unless you’re talking about the politics of pizza, specifically between the warring factions of New York and Chicago.  What Bourdain found so appalling was Chicago’s…

AlbuquerqueDog FriendlyNew MexicoSandwichTacos

Street Food Sensations – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Restaurant Insider, which touts itself as “your source for restaurant news, trends, information, tools and conversation” has observed that one of the catalysts most instrumental in driving a changing culinary landscape are Generation Z (anyone born between 1997 and 2010) diners.  With a spending power of over $29 Billion, Gen Z diners make up a quarter of all the people going out to eat, accounting for 14.6 billion restaurant visits in 2018.  Gen Z is increasingly influencing restaurant industry trends, prompting savvy restaurateurs to take a real hard look at their current menus. And just what do Gen Z diners want?  According to Technomic’s  2019 College & University Consumer Trend Report, “42 percent of Gen Z-ers want street food on…