Category: Rating: N/R (Not Rated)

ArizonaDog FriendlyItalianPizzaRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Pomo Pizzeria – Scottsdale, Arizona

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

When you visit the Valley of the Sun, the very last thing you expect is a record-setting, all-day rain that keeps you indoors most of the day.    An all-day rain in December, however, is infinitely preferable to an all-day rain during monsoon season when the occasional deluge in 100-degree weather is exacerbated by humidity equalled only in a steam bath.  Staying indoors isn’t a bad thing.  It gave us the opportunity to study where we should enjoy dinner on Christmas Eve 2021.  My sister Anita, the only other gourmand in the family, had some recommendations which will have to…

2026 James beard Foundation: "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistArizonaBarbecueDog FriendlyJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Little Miss BBQ – Phoenix, Arizona

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

If you grew up in New Mexico, you’ve likely heard some variation of that tired old epigram “The reason New Mexico is so windy is because it’s bordered by Arizona which sucks and Texas which blows.”   If any truth whatsoever can be ascribed to that witticism, New Mexico should have fabulous barbecue because it’s bordered by Arizona which has great barbecue and Texas which has the best barbecue in the universe.  Alas, virtually every barbecue aficionado I know agrees that the Land of Enchantment’s barbecue has a lot to be desired.  It’s “good” most will agree, “better than it…

ArizonaDog FriendlyRating: N/R (Not Rated)SpanishTapasTapasUnited States

Tapas Papa Frita – Scottsdale, Arizona

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

While dining at a restaurant in Phoenix, our stomachs roiled a bit as a pesky fly took a nosedive into my glass of Mexican Coca Cola.  By the time our server returned, the acid in the Coke had completely dissolved the fly.  There was no evidence remaining that a fly had drowned in the carbonated water.  If anything, that little escapade gave credence to one of two stories that explain the origin of Spanish tapas.  In this particular origin story, the genesis of tapas was in the working class taverns of Andalusia where field workers used slices of bread and…

AlbuquerqueBreakfastBrunchDog FriendlyNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Southern

Biscuit Boy – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

In Boris Pasternak’s Dr Zhivago, a sagacious old Russian czarist caught up in the communist revolution lamented “Scratch a Russian and you will find a peasant.”  To paraphrase that immortal line “Scratch a cook and you’ll find a chemist.”  Think I’ve been ingesting pharmaceuticals?  Maybe you should ask Deonte “Dee” Halsey, the affable owner of Biscuit Boy about the influence of chemistry in cooking.  He would know!  Dee was actually a research scientist working for the U.S. Department of Architecture before figuring out teaching science actually pays more than doing science.  Dee has been teaching science and math for more than…

Dog FriendlyPizzaRating: N/R (Not Rated)United StatesUtah

Nomad East – Salt Lake City, Utah

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

A-Team leader “Hannibal” Smith (George Peppard) used to say, “I love it when a plan comes together.”  We learned during our trip to Salt Lake City that sometimes baking in a little flexibility into a well thought-out plan can produce results even better than expected.  Such was the case with our trip to Salt Lake City.   Capably assisted by my dear friend Becky Mercuri,  I did a lot of research on the Salt Lake City area restaurant scene, compiling a list of dozens of prospective restaurants.  We literally didn’t even begin winnowing down that list until just before setting…

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…

BurgersDiners Drive-Ins and DivesDog FriendlyRating: N/R (Not Rated)United StatesUtah

Proper Burger – Salt Lake City, Utah

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Television would have you believe Mars and Venus have different ideas as to what constitutes the proper way to eat a burger.  Representing Venus (women), as depicted in a Wendy’s commercial from the 1980s, is a geriatrically advanced woman who takes a small bite of her juicy burger then daintily wipes off the detritis with a napkin.  Representing Mars (men) is Food Network superstar Guy Fieri.  The platinum-coiffed restaurant impressario’s approach to properly eating a burger is mirrored by most of us Martians.  It’s not for the faint of heart or children and you shouldn’t attempt it without a net.…

AmericanDog FriendlyRating: N/R (Not Rated)SouthernUnited StatesUtah

Sweet Lake Biscuits & Limeaid

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

In 2008, Natchez, Mississippi, was officially named the Biscuit Capital of the World, a process which took three years of research by Chef Regina Charboneau.  Just our luck, the Natchez native and French-trained chef began serving her famous biscuits at her Twin Oaks Bed & Breakfast in Natchez a decade after our last visit to the “Antebellum Capital of the World.”  While we didn’t get to partake of Chef Charboneau’s celebrated biscuits (revered by the Rolling Stones), our breakfasts in Natchez were memorable because biscuits in the Mississippi River town are truly “biscuit capital” worthy. In the quarter-century plus since we…

Dog FriendlyFine DiningRating: N/R (Not Rated)United StatesUtah

Desert Bistro – Moab, Utah

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

My Kim didn’t buy my explanation that Moab is an acronym standing for “Mother Of All Buffets.”  She did find my legitimate explanation viable.  I explained that Moab means “a land just short of the Promised Land,” a name bestowed  because the Moab valley was a verdant oasis in the middle of a desert.  Moab first appears in the Old Testament book of Genesis and is situated in ancient Palestine just east of the Dead Sea where Jordan now lies.  Because of the physical similarities to the desert jewel of the Old Testament, the small Utah town founded by Mormon…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBreakfastBrunchDog FriendlyNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Curious Toast Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“Toasting makes me uncomfortable, but toast I love. Never start the day without a good piece of toast. In fact, let’s toast to toast.” ~George Costanza You might think that only a short, stocky, slow witted bald man would live a life so mundane as to even consider making a toast to a good piece of toast.  That may have been the case even just a few years ago when many of us languished under the covers until the very last second then wolfed down a dry and uninspiring piece of toast while gulping a scalding cup of coffee.  With…

AlbuquerqueFood TruckMexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Tacos

Taco Bus – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Perhaps no mobile conveyance in the Land of Enchantment has ferried as many interesting people on as many colorful journeys as the “Road Hog,” the psychedelic bus which shuttled its passengers from Haight-Ashbury to Woodstock to Llano Largo, New Mexico. The Road Hog’s 1969 arrival in Llano Largo heralded the start of the “summer of the hippie invasion” as The Taos News called it. There unwashed masses settled into a Utopian agrarian commune they called the Hog Farm. The Road Hog with its familiar duck hood ornament and Grateful Dead-style tie-dyed design became a common sight in Peñasco, my childhood…