Category: Closed in 2016

Closed in 2016GermanGone But Not Forgotten

Heimat House and Beer Garden – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno10:51 AM

“We’re not normal people. We’re the Griswolds.” Laughs abound in National Lampoon’s European Vacation, the 1985 movie which follows the antics of well-meaning blunderer Clark W. Griswold and his equally inept family. In a television game show called “Pig In a Polk,” the Griswold family accidentally wins a trip to Europe where they leave a trail of destruction everywhere they go (who can forget when Clark knocked down Stonehenge by accidentally backing into it with a rented car?). The family foray into Germany was no less fraught with hapless humor. In a German village, the Griswolds burst in on “Fritz and Helga”, a bewildered elderly couple whom they mistakenly believe are long-lost relatives. Though language barrier issues prevent any mutual dialogue, the Griswolds never quite seem to grasp that all conversations are one-sided and avail themselves of all the hospitality–including large bowls of sausage and sauerkraut with plenty of German rye bread–befitting family ties. Like Clark W. Griswold (who’s intensely proud, but blissfully ignorant of his Germanic heritage), many New Mexicans haven’t cut through the sauerkraut and remain unaware of the diversity and deliciousness of German cuisine. Ask your friends and colleagues what dishes comprise German cuisine and they’ll probably…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2016Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoPizza

Gioco – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno10:23 AM

Archaeologists in Spain have unearthed the original man cave. What is most remarkable about this finding is how very similar Neanderthal man and contemporary man are. Men, it seems, have not evolved much. Neanderthals were hairy and brutish in appearance, much like the New York Giants. They spoke in guttural grunts, similar to today’s politicians. Neanderthals scrawled their art on cave walls; contemporary man expresses himself artistically on bridges, underpasses and walls. Neanderthal man used tools: hammers and axes; contemporary man uses tools: television remote controls and iPhones. Cultural anthropologists (and Barbara Streisand) have long posited that throughout evolutionary history, man has had an inherent need for belonging to a social group. We are driven to form and maintain at least a few lasting, positive and significant interpersonal relationships. For many men, one of the most powerful bonding agents is sports. We derive a sense of belonging through our affiliation with the sports teams we like–to the extent that we wear team apparel which encases us like engorged sausages. We like to get together to cheer our teams and express our contempt and ridicule for teams we dislike (think UNLV Rutting Rebels and other miscreants of that ilk). Our man…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2016Gone But Not ForgottenNepaleseNew Mexico

Taste of Himalayas – Los Ranchos De Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno5:39 PM

At 40,000 1/2 feet, the imposing Rum Doodle is the highest mountain in the world, surpassing even Mount Everest, its alpine neighbor on the Himalayas. Surmounted only by a group of audacious British mountaineers and their Yogastani porters in an odyssey fraught with misadventure, its ascent is the stuff of which mountaineering legends are made. As if scaling the perilous precipice wasn’t dangerous enough, the intrepid climbers had to endure the inedible culinary miscreations of Pong, the expedition’s sadistic cook. While Rum Doodle the mountain exists only in the 1956 novel The Ascent of Rum Doodle, there’s an immensely popular bar in Kathmandu named for the fictitious mountain. The Rum Doodle Bar is legendary as the gathering place and watering hole of outdoor adventurers who visit prior to mountaineering expeditions on the nearby Himalayas. The very best of them return after successfully ascending Everest, only one-hundred miles away. They return to cement their place among a very exclusive club of climbers. Beginning with Sir Edmund Hillary, the first climber to summit Everest, climbers have returned to the Rum Doodle Bar to sign a summit register of the select few who have successfully climbed the highest mountain in the world. The…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2016Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicanNew Mexico

Patricia’s Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:00 PM

For nearly twenty years–from 1954 to 1972–newspaper, magazine, radio and television advertisements for Winston cigarettes deliberated whether American smokers wanted good grammar or good taste. This was in response to catchy jingles (and if you’re over 40, get ready for an ear worm) claiming that “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should.” Grammarians took umbrage with the solecism, arguing that the word “as” was more appropriate than the word “like.” From 1974 to 1991 the advertising world introduced another vexing debate: “tastes great” or “less filling.” To entice “Joe Sixpack”‘ to Lite Beer from Miller, television ads featured retired athletes, coaches and celebrities in spirited debate as to the primary benefit of the less caloric, but ostensibly still great-tasting alternative. Using the term “light” instead of “diet” appealed to the two-fisted drinkers seeking to avoid the metamorphosis of their six-pack abs into a keg-shaped beer belly. For much longer than the advertising world has manufactured good-natured debates intended ultimately to sell a product, residents of and visitors to the Land of Enchantment have been asked to declare their preference for “red or green.” So much so that several years ago, a state legislator submitted a resolution to declare “red or…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2016Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoSandwich

Adieux Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno10:56 AM

For restaurants located in downtown Albuquerque’s Arts and Entertainment district, centered along Central Avenue and Gold Avenue west of First Street, downtown revitalization, a ten million dollar infusion of energy and creativity, has been both a dichotomy and a dilemma. Daylight hours bring a diverse swathe of white- and blue-collar diners to those restaurants, but after dusk, the downtown demographic is more of a “20-something” crowd, many of whom are more interested in the area’s bustling nightlife and youth-oriented clubs than they are in dining. While many downtown restaurants shutter their doors at dusk, others have embraced the youthful energy of the nocturnal crowd and their pursuit of bar-hopping, live music and social discourse. Among them is Adieux Cafe, a gastropub which opened its doors in June, 2013. Adjacent to the Effex nightclub, Adieux’s hours of operation–11AM to 2AM Monday through Friday and 5PM to 3AM on Saturdays–are convenient to the most energetic of party-goers and day workers as well. A shared door between Effex and Adieux allows revelers to access the gastropub when the munchies strike at unholy hours (at my age, that’s anything past 10:30). From street level, Adieux isn’t much to look at. In fact, you might…

BarbecueClosed in 2016Gone But Not ForgottenRio Rancho

Rub-N-Wood BBQ – Rio Rancho, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno7:01 AM

“Beam me up Scotty. There is no good barbecue on this planet.” ~James T. Kirk Captain James Tiberius Kirk of the United Starship Enterprise never actually uttered those words, but had he visited Rio Rancho between June 22nd and August 2nd, 2013, he would have found NO barbecue–good or bad–in Rio Rancho. No barbecue in the City of Barbecue…er, Vision, is akin to no Subarus in Santa Fe. Rio Rancho, after all, is home to the annual Pork & Brew, the state barbecue championship sanctioned by the prestigious Kansas City Barbecue Society. Rio Rancho has also been the home–for nearly a quarter of a century—of the legendary Smokehouse. When the Smokehouse shuttered its doors on June 22nd, its loyal patrons were torn between wanting to fly the flag at half-mast or flying it upside down as a sign of distress. The Smokehouse’s affable proprietor Gary West urged calm, assuaging those of us whose blood is the color of barbecue sauce with news that we would be without barbecue for only a short while. He told us a competitive barbecue team called Rub-N-Wood would be filling the void soon. Having sampled Rub-N-Wood’s ‘cue, Gary was excited that Rio Rancho would be…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2016Fine DiningGone But Not ForgottenRating: Outstanding

JENNIFER JAMES 101 – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno6:06 AM

The number 101 has some very interesting connotations. If you grew up in the 60s, you might remember the Benson & Hedges cigarette jingle, “One, oh, one, one, oh, one, a silly little millimeter longer one, oh, one, a silly millimeter longer.” Talk about ear wax. That jingle was like It’s A Small World and the Gilligan’s Island theme. Once you got it into your head, you couldn’t get rid of it. My brainiac mathematician friend Bill Resnik appreciates that 101 is the 26th prime number. He points out that it’s also a palindromic number (a sequence that reads the same forward and backwards) or rather a palindromic prime. Geekier friends like Craig Stegman and Kenny Sanchez, developers extraordinaire, know 101 as a dreaded “fatal error” status code. In academics, 101 connotes a beginning or basic-level course number taught in universities in many English speaking countries. English 101, for example, is typically a remedial English course (not that I’d personally know anything about that). It’s where students brush up on the basics to prepare themselves for upper level courses. So why would Jennifer James, arguably Albuquerque’s very best chef, choose the number 101 to share her name on her restaurant’s…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2016Gone But Not ForgottenSandwich

Prime – Los Ranchos De Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno2:20 AM

What kind of foods and food-related activities do white people like? According to New York Times best-selling author Christian Lander, white people like picking their own fruit, sea salt, hummus, dinner parties, bottles of water, kitchen gadgets, Whole Foods and grocery co-ops, Asian fusion food, sushi, breakfast places, vegan or vegetarianism, wine, micro-breweries, tea, organic food, farmer’s markets, coffee and expensive sandwiches. Lander compiled a list, wrote a book and created a blog listing 134 things (and not just food) white people like. So, what constitutes an expensive sandwich? According to Lander, the expensive sandwiches liked by white people start at $8.99, but you’re looking at at least a $15 outlay after tip and drink. The shops which serve the sandwiches liked by white people generally “aren’t open for dinner, have a panini press and are famous for their bread. There are always vegan options and the selection of meats and cheeses are strongly European.” By the standards of today’s economy-driven inflation, $8.99 is starting to sound more like the median price of a sandwich, not the starting point for an expensive sandwich. In fact, $8.99 is a mere pittance compared to the most expensive sandwich in the world which…

AlbuquerqueBakeryBreakfastClosed in 2016Gone But Not ForgottenJewishNew Mexico

Nosh Jewish Delicatessen & Bakery – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:01 PM

You see, Elaine, the key to eating a black and white cookie is that you wanna get some black and some white in each bite. Nothing mixes better than vanilla and chocolate. And yet still somehow racial harmony eludes us. If people would only look to the cookie, all our problems would be solved. ~Jerry Seinfeld While creative personnel and television promos touted Seinfeld as the “show about nothing,” the truth is every episode of the half-hour comedy offered a number of complex plots, sub-plots and plot twists. So much of the hilarity centered around food moments that readers of Chow declared Seinfeld the “show about food.” It makes sense. In its nine year run, Seinfeld introduced or reintroduced into American pop culture and vernacular such foods and food terms as pastrami, the most sensual of all the salted, cured meats; the really big salad; make and bake our own pizza; vegetable lasagna; Papaya King hot dogs; the soup Nazi and many, many more. While Albuquerque has become increasingly cosmopolitan, it wasn’t until the August, 2013 launch of Nosh Jewish Delicatessen & Bakery that Duke City diners could discover for themselves some of the iconic foods mentioned on the “show…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2016DonutsGone But Not ForgottenSpecialty

Duke City Donuts – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:37 PM

If you love donuts (and who doesn’t), you might want to consider being just a bit more generous when you see the ubiquitous Salvation Army bell-ringers and their familiar kettles standing in the chilly winter air to solicit donations.  The Salvation Army didn’t invent the first donut, but you can certainly credit much of their popularity to this philanthropic group. During World War I, the “lassies” in the Salvation Army prepared donuts for thousands of soldiers, an act which along with their compassion endeared the group to the American public.  It also stimulated a taste for donuts which hadn’t existed before the war among the American public. In 1938, the first Friday in June was established as “Salvation Army Donut Day” in Chicago, not only to honor the Salvation Army but to help raise much-needed operating funds for the group.  It was also set aside as a tribute to the Salvation Army lassies who made and served the donuts during World War I.  Although the spelling has been shortened from “doughnut” to “donut” over the years, by any spelling the donut has been the Salvation Army’s trademark since World War I. In recent years, donuts and their high-carb brethren have…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2016Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoRating: OutstandingVietnamese

May Hong – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno2:39 AM

In late 2002, long-time proprietor and friend James Nguyen sold May Hong.  Fortunately he kept this wonderful jewel in the family, selling it to his lovely and talented sister-in-law. Best of all, he didn’t relinquish ownership until fully ensuring she could perfectly prepare the recipes that have made May Hong one of the two or three best Vietnamese restaurants in the Duke City.  That short list, by the way, includes James’ second restaurant Cafe Dalat. May Hong (along with Saigon Vietnamese Restaurant) is somewhat of an anomaly in that it’s not located anywhere near Albuquerque’s tightly-knit Vietnamese neighborhoods, most of which seem to be concentrated on the city’s southeast quadrant.   Though situated on bustling Montgomery Avenue, you’ll forget the cares of the world the minute you step into the dimly lit restaurant, take in the dulcet tones of a very soothing Vietnamese music track and sit in one of the comfortable and enveloping booths.  Roughly translated as “Pink Horizon,” May Hong interestingly has a color palate of red, white and green, the colors of the Italian flag.  White walls trimmed in red and green are festooned with Vietnamese artifacts and framed prints depicting life in Vietnam.  Large tropical plants add to…