Breakfast Archives - Page 13 of 15 - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog

American Breakfast Brunch Closed in 2011 Gone But Not Forgotten Rio Rancho

Outlook Cafe – Rio Rancho, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoJanuary 13, 2011July 19, 20181:25 PM

Some would argue that the city of Rio Rancho was spawned as a dubious marketing ploy designed to bilk gullible New Yorkers out of their savings by enticing them to a vast wasteland under the pretext that their “lucrative investment” would ensure a comfortable retirement in “among the greenest, most fertile valleys in the world.” Others see those pioneers who sought to civilize the wilderness on the plateaus west of Albuquerque as visionaries possessing a clarity and prescience that escapes most of us. Frankly, on our inaugural trek to the Outlook Cafe, we began to question our own sanity as we traversed what seemed to be an endlessly empty enormity of sage and sand beyond any vestige of civilization save…

Breakfast Española New Mexican Rating: Very Good

JoAnn’s Ranch O Casados Restaurant – Española, New Mexico

Gil GardunoAugust 8, 2010April 5, 202612:18 PM

Shortly after it was announced that Mary & Tito’s was selected as a 2010 recipient of the James Beard Foundation’s “Americas Classic” award, the brilliant Albuquerque Journal columnist Leslie Linthicum wrote a gilt-edged tribute to my very favorite New Mexican restaurant. Indicating “the red chile at Mary & Tito’s Cafe brings grown men to poetic fevers,” she quoted something I wrote in my review which she must have found to be sufficiently rhapsodic to warrant mention. For anything I write to be considered even remotely “poetic” by the scintillating columnist is a great honor. Compared to the spell-binding prose and incisive insight which typify Leslie’s columns, my writing is prosaic and dim-witted. It’s akin to comparing Michelangelo’s work on the…

Albuquerque Breakfast Closed in 2010 Gone But Not Forgotten New Mexican

Blue Cactus Grill – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoMay 15, 2010July 19, 20181:26 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…

American Breakfast Brunch Closed in 2012 Gone But Not Forgotten

Cafe Green – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoMarch 28, 2010July 7, 20188:45 PM

Brunch is the best of two worlds–not quite breakfast and not quite lunch, but the best of both. It’s a leisurely weekend repast which makes you feel you’re getting away with something, as if you’re defying your mom’s mandate not to have dessert before the main entree. The feeling that you’re getting away with something delightfully illicit is reenforced as you lap up mimosas and Bloody Marys as fast as the wait staff can bring them to you. Brunch even allows you to get away with laziness at least once a year when you have the excuse to drag mom to a restaurant where she and countless other moms can be pampered on their special day. Americans have loved brunch…

Albuquerque American Breakfast Brunch Closed in 2017 Dog Friendly Gone But Not Forgotten

Gold Street Caffe – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoFebruary 6, 2010July 7, 20185:51 PM

When you’re alone and life is making you lonely You can always go – downtown When you’ve got worries, all the noise and the hurry Seems to help, I know – downtown Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty How can you lose? The lights are much brighter there You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares So go downtown, things’ll be great when you’re Downtown – no finer place, for sure Downtown – everything’s waiting for you. Just a few years ago, the lyrics to Petula Clark’s January, 1965 number one single, would not have been used to describe Albuquerque’s downtown area. In…

American Breakfast Closed in 2016 Gone But Not Forgotten New Mexico New Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2009

Harla May’s Fat Boy Grill – Belen, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoNovember 21, 2009July 21, 20187:22 PM

Many of us who grew up in small town America during the 60s sometimes pine for the more innocent days of our youth–the days before cable television gave us hundreds of channels (and nothing to watch) and video games became the only form of exercise (albeit, of their thumbs) our children get. Back then, the movie theater was the town’s cultural center. It was where small-town America congregated to see Hollywood blockbusters (about two years after they hit the big cities) as well as movies which introduced our innocents to the Hell’s Angels, Bruce Lee, Godzilla and campy Sonny and Cher movies. The small-town American theater in New Mexico also meant Cantinflas, the campesino once referred to by Charlie Chaplin…

Breakfast Brunch Food Network Eats New Mexico James Beard Foundation Americas Classic Award Winner New Mexico Rating: Outstanding Santa Fe Southwestern The Best Thing I Ever Ate

Cafe Pasqual’s – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil GardunoNovember 8, 2009March 31, 20266:36 PM

Pasqual Baylon’s devotion to the Mass and the Holy Eucharist was so fervent that when assigned kitchen duty, angels had to stir the pots to keep them from burning. It’s ironic therefore that San Pasqual is the recognized patron saint of Mexican and New Mexican kitchens, a beloved saint whose smiling countenance in the form of various art forms graces many a kitchen, including Katharine Kagel’s kitchen in the world famous Cafe Pasqual, one of Santa Fe’s most popular restaurants. Cafe Pasqual is a very small cafe with seating for only 50 patrons sitting in very close quarters. Prospective diners place their names on a waiting list then typically wait half an hour or more to be seated, usually longer…

Barbecue Breakfast Closed in 2010 New Mexico Rating: Excellent Rio Rancho

Mad Max’s BBQ – Rio Rancho, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoAugust 27, 2009March 31, 20264:44 PM

NOTE: In March, 2010, Max and Fran Montano entered into a lease to buy agreement with an enthusiastic owner who continued to use the recipes which made Mad Max’s the very best barbecue in the Albuquerque area. By September, 2010 the restaurant was closed. Max and Fran will continue competing in competitions throughout the region and will also cater events. They will be missed as much for their warmth and great humor as for their outstanding barbecue. Since the discovery of fire, man has viewed his domain as the great outdoors. The outdoors is from where man brought home the day’s victuals for early woman to prepare. As the centuries progressed, descendents of troglodytic man (many of whom haven’t evolved…

American Bakery Breakfast Closed in 2011 Gone But Not Forgotten Los Ranchos de Albuquerque

Calico Cantina & Cafe – Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoJuly 20, 2009July 21, 201812:22 AM

The first time my friends and I visited the Calico Cafe at its original Corrales location, we wondered if the restaurant suffered from an identity crisis. Exterior signage read “Calico Cafe” but the menus indicated we were dining at “Cowgirl’s.” Apparently the restaurant was initially christened Cowgirl’s, but a name change was court-ordered after a naming dispute with Santa Fe’s long-established Cowgirls BBQ restaurant. On December 2nd, 2004, the popular and intimate lunch and breakfast restaurant owned by Corrales residents Vernon and Angel Garcia, was consumed by fire. In 2006, the Calico Cantina & Cafe launched in a new and much expanded location, the 19,000 square foot Village Shops at Los Ranchos–in the heart of the original Route 66. Coupled…

Albuquerque Bakery Breakfast Closed in 2012 Donuts Gone But Not Forgotten Specialty

Paradise Donuts – Bosque Farms, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoDecember 27, 2008July 22, 20185:41 PM

Though often boorish and crude, America’s favorite everyman philosopher Homer Simpson is prone to occasional bouts of insight. Who can argue with such Homeric sagacity as, “donuts, is there anything they can’t do.” At first browse that statement may appear clouded, make that glazed, but it’s a statement replete with credibility–and not solely with police officers. Cultural anthropologist Paul R. Mullins posits that one of the best ways to examine a culture is by looking at its eating habits and regional cuisines. He reasons that Americans don’t really have a culinary culture we can call our own, that the American culinary experience is an amalgam of appropriated customs and cooking techniques. The best evidence of this, in his mind, is…

Breakfast Closed in 2017 Food Network Eats New Mexico Gone But Not Forgotten New Mexican Santa Fe

Guadalupe Cafe – Santa Fe, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil GardunoSeptember 13, 2008March 11, 20239:07 PM

1974, Mexico’s Nobel laureate Octavio Paz wrote that “the Mexican people, after more than two centuries of experiments, have faith only in the Virgin of Guadalupe and the National Lottery.” Though perhaps not to the same degree of reverence as people of Mexican descent have for Our Lady of Guadalupe, many diners literally make pilgrimages to Santa Fe’s Guadalupe Cafe. You might say they trek to this beloved institution with a type of fervor which could be considered almost spiritual. The Guadalupe Cafe, long removed from Santa Fe’s Guadalupe District and Guadalupe Street, does indeed inspire a fierce devotion. It is one of the most popular restaurants in Santa Fe, a venue often included in discussions about the best New…