Category: Rating: N/R (Not Rated)

2024 James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Southwest" Semifinalist2024: James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Southwest" Finalist2026 James beard Foundation: "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistAlbuquerqueFarm to TableFine DiningJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Mesa Provisions – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

When I started Gil’s Thrilling…way back in 1996, my goals were to celebrate New Mexico’s restaurant scene and to provide an escape from the mean-spirited dialogue so prevalent among petulant politicians who have long forgotten they work for us.  I’ve tried not to lash out against politics through this medium I’m privileged to steward, but sometimes my frustration leaks out.  For those occasions I apologize.  I promise to try harder to focus on the joy I experience every time I dine with good friends.   When I’m upset with the latest shenanigans in Washington, D.C. and Santa Fe, those friends…

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Joseph’s Culinary Pub – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Although ducks don’t have a church sanctioned patron saint, if the Catholic church ever deemed one worthy it would be Saint Cuthbert, a 12th Century Anglo-Saxon monk.  According to legend, Saint Cuthbert tamed a large population of nesting eider ducks so well that they would nest even next to the chapal altar without fear.  Cuthbert placed the ducks under his protective grace so that no one would eat or disturb them.  Monks who mocked (mocking monks) Cutbert’s curse and ate or harassed the eiders were said to have been struck down. It’s a good thing Chef Joseph Wrede didn’t ply…

ItalianNew MexicoPizzaRating: N/R (Not Rated)Santa Fe

Piccolino Italian Restaurant – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

When I asked Gaby (our server Gabriela) what the Italian name “Piccolino” translates to, she didn’t have a clue.  She asked Olga Tarango-Jimenez, the restaurant’s co-owner who also seemed at a loss, but shared the restaurant’s very interesting history.  When my Kim Googled “Piccolino, she found it translates to “little one” and has such slang alternatives as “teeny weeny.”  Talk about a fitting name.  I joked with Gaby that if she ever called her diminutive in stature boss “teeny weeny” she’d probably find out her boss has a giant temper. Just how small is Piccolino?  Before its transmogrification into one…

Dog FriendlyFusionNew MexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Tacos

The Skillet – Las Vegas, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

A man comes home after a long day.  His wife then hits him in the back of the head with a frying pan.  He clutches his head in pain asking her, “Honey why? Why did you do that?” She answers, “When I was doing your laundry I found a receipt in your pocket with a woman’s name on it.” He responds, “That’s why you hit me? Honey, Mary-Ann is a horse I bet on.  That’s the receipt for my bet.” She accepts that and apologizes and they make up.  Next week the same thing happens. He comes home and is…

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Bar Castañeda – Las Vegas, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Northern New Mexico’s highways and byways are incomparable for their scenic beauty.  From the historical High Road to Taos with its remnants of Spanish occupation to the spectacular Enchanted Circle which circles New Mexico’s highest mountain peak, this region is replete with awe and wonder.  Desiree Aguilar, my friend and former colleague at the University of New Mexico shares my opinion that even these two world-famous byways are eclipsed by a lesser known stretch of road.  We both believe the drive between Las Vegas, New Mexico and Taos is the state’s most enchanting.  Taking this route, you’ll traverse past ramshackle…

BakeryDog FriendlyNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)SandwichSanta Fe

Sage Bakehouse – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno11:24 AM

Bread.  We’ve been told it’s bad for our health, that it’s loaded with carbs and gluten.  Western doctors admonish caloric-overachievers to reduce our consumption of bread.  These dispensers of dietary information are at a loss to explain Emma Tillman.  When she passed away in 2007, the daughter of former slaves was an American supercentenarian and, for a few days, the world’s oldest living person.  She passed away at the young age of  114 years and 67 days.  Emma Tillman ran her own baking and catering service for about sixty years.  She prepared the staff of life for dignitaries in the…

Dog FriendlyFood TruckMexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Tacos

Tio’s Kitchen – Bernalillo, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

I may not have much respect for the national media or for politicians, but I sure do respect the elderly (unless they’re members of the media or politicians).  My parents engendered among their six children, respect for our elders.  None of us would ever consider addressing an elder by their first name.  We would never use the pronoun “tu” (you) when speaking with someone older than us.  We always use “usted,” also a Spanish term for “you,” but used in a formal manner for people we respect and always for our elders.  We were raised with the type of respect…

BurgersNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Big Mike’s Burgers & More – Belen, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

In 2014, Epicurious compiled a list of  crimes against burgers:  Hockey-puck patties, pressing down with a spatula, over-flipping, unmelted cheese and hard-as-a-rock buns.   For decades most burger aficionados followed these commandments as if their souls depended on them.  We cringed and bristled when burger flippers smashed down burger patties on a grill.  “There goes all the juices” we bemoaned.  “Here comes another dry as a New Mexico dust devil burger” we lamented.  Of all the felonious assaults against our beloved burger, pressing down the spatula was the most grievous, a crime that should be punishable by years of hard labor.…

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Zacatlán – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

As a naive and impressionable child with a vivid imagination, my most frightening weekly ordeal was walking home from Catechism, especially when teachings centered around the devil and his demons. For some reason we weren’t taught about a loving God. Instead it was drilled into us that if we’re not “good” we’d go to Hell.  Strangely such concepts as forgiveness and goodness were described rather abstractly while the devil (undoubtedly a progenitor of today’s elected officials) and sin were made real enough to traumatize us all.  The devil was everywhere waiting to ensnare us into sin and drag us (wailing…

AmericanBar & GrillColoradoDog FriendlyRating: N/R (Not Rated)SteakUnited States

The Rock Inn Mountain Tavern – Estes Park, Colorado

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

During my years at St. Anthony’s in Peñasco, I frequently tried the patience of the saintly nuns.   Thankfully capital punishment was not permissible or you wouldn’t be reading this.  It’s bad enough I wore out a few rulers and hopefully one elderly nun’s knuckles which often found their way to my head (that may explain a few things).  I wasn’t a malicious student, just one who didn’t always conform.  It wasn’t the age of “doing your own thing” though I certainly did my best to be an individual.  Albeit, I was an individual who didn’t do his homework or…

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The Post Chicken & Beer – Estes Park, Colorado

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

In 1974 prolific author Stephen King and his wife Tabitha spent a night in Room 217 of The Stanley, a a 140-room Colonial Revival hotel in Estes Park, about five miles from the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.  The hotel staff was preparing to close the hotel for the season so the Kings found themselves the only guests in the place.  King wrote about the experience on his website: “Wandering through its corridors, I thought that it seemed the perfect—maybe the archetypical—setting for a ghost story. That night I dreamed of my three-year-old son running through the corridors, looking…