Category: Italian

AlbuquerqueDog FriendlyNew MexicoPizzaRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Gimani: A Slice Bar – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“You better cut the pizza in four pieces. I’m not hungry enough to eat six.” ~Yogi Berra In New York City, pizza by the slice is as ubiquitous as towering skyscrapers. Many of the city’s nearly 2,000 pizzerias serve pizza by the slice. Most have been doing so since the end of World War II when recently returned American veterans who had served in Italy craved the sliced pizza they had enjoyed during their service. Heck, in the Big Apple, you can even find pizza by the slice proffered by sidewalk vendors. According to my friend, the late, great Italian…

AlbuquerqueItalianPizzaRating: Excellent

Giovanni’s Pizza & Subs – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno5:46 PM

Frequent and lengthy business trips to California in 1997 nearly ruined me forever for a food that belongs on America’s food pyramid (never mind the government’s nutritional aspects)–pizza. Despite an open mind and willingness to try anything, the heretical toppings adorning Golden State pizzas quelled and quashed what I had thought to be an everlasting love. Even today, I’m traumatized by nightmares of pesto impregnated crust desecrated with sushi grade sashimi, artichoke and the designer vegetable de jour. Returning to the Land of Enchantment with the taste of pizza parodies fresh on my mind, it was weeks before I could…

AlbuquerqueBakeryItalianNew MexicoRating: Very Good

Saratori’s Italian Bakery – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno11:48 AM

In 2007 serendipity had a hand in one of the most delicious additions to the Tully’s deli fortunes, an addition that had nothing to do with sandwiches, meats, pastas or other deli deliciousness. Rather than find a new tenant for the recently vacated shop in the same strip mall, Tully’s Deli & Italian Meats owner Johnny Carmuglia converted it into an Italian Pastry Shop which he named by combining the names of his two daughters Sara and Tori. Thus was born Saratori di Tully (since renamed to Saratori Italian Bakery).  In 2023, the Carmuglia family obtained even more space in…

AlbuquerqueBakeryItalianRating: ExcellentSandwich

Tully’s Italian Deli & Meats – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:19 AM

The sense of smell, more than any of our other senses, influences our ability to recall past events and experience. From among the five senses, fragrance is considered the most potent medium for conjuring up memories. True enough, some of the most enduring sensory memories of my years in the Boston area are reawakened thanks to the amazing aromas that greet me each time I visit Tully’s Italian Deli & Meats on San Mateo. It is with increased rarity that you find an authentic Italian deli which greets you at the door with the incomparable aroma of pastas, meatballs or…

BrunchCorralesDog FriendlyMexicanNew MexicanNew MexicoPizzaRating: N/R (Not Rated)Spanish

Mulas – Corrales, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

How many times have you heard an elected official referred to as a “jackass?”  In the village of Corrales, that term could conceivably not be used as a pejorative.  Every year during the last weekend of the Corrales Harvest Festival, a pet mayor is named.  If the newly elected mayor is unable to fulfill his or her duties, a pet mayor pro tem is named to assume the duties of the mayoral office.  Corrales has long prided itself on being a paragon of democratic values and inclusivity though the winning candidate is usually a dog or a horse.  In 2022,…

AlbuquerqueDog FriendlyNew MexicoPizza

Restoration Pizza – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:02 AM

My dad taught me very early on that all people have inherent worth and dignity and are deserving of respect and kindness. A lifelong educator, he had a knack for reaching students deemed incorrigible or unteachable–students the “system” would just as soon discard. During his funeral nearly forty-five years ago, these were the students who cried hardest. They had just lost their biggest advocate, a teacher who believed in them, at times more than they believed in themselves. What set my dad apart from other teachers is that he demanded–and consequently received– no less than the best effort a student…

ArizonaPizzaRating: OutstandingUnited States

Grimaldi’s Pizzeria – Scottsdale, Arizona

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

I don’t often refer to myself as a “restaurant critic” or “restaurant reviewer.” My preferred gloss is “observer and essayer on the culinary condition.”   Yep, that’s a high falutin bit of ego-stroking, but it’s accurate.  One of the things I’ve observed during frequent trips to the Phoenix area–both while employed at Intel and while snowbirding over the Christmas and Festivus holidays–is that middling quality chain restaurants tend to find a home in the Valley of the Sun an year or two before figuring out they would be smash successes in Albuquerque. Another salient obseration is that some pretty highly…

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 FriendlyItalianPolishRating: N/R (Not Rated)United StatesWyoming

Miazga’s – Jackson, Wyoming

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

The Jackson Hole Valley is so breathtaking that in the 1970s when the US launched Voyager II into space, scientists attached an Ansel Adams photograph of the valley as a representation of life on Earth in the event aliens discovered the vessel.  Spanning two spectacular mountain ranges (the Grand Tetons and Grand Ventres), Jackson Hole just may be the most picturesque valley on the planet.  It’s an Eden with winter.  It’s also among the most expensive and desirable havens in the universe.  Space aliens captivated by the Ansel Adams photograph and wanting to visit had better up the credit limits…

Dog FriendlyItalianRating: OutstandingSandwichUnited StatesUtah

TONY CAPUTO’S MARKET & DELI – Salt Lake City, Utah

Gil Garduno12:02 AM

Most of us know someone like Lucy Van Pelt, the irascible, bossy, highly opinionated diva in the syndicated Peanuts comic strip.   Since her debut in 1952, Lucy has been the perpetrator of two long-running gags.  One involves her holding the football (ostensibly so that Charlie Brown can kick a field goal or extra point) and pulling the ball away because she doesn’t want Charlie Brown to get it dirty.  The second gag parodies the lemonade stand operated by many young children under spacious skies.  Instead of a lemonade stand, she operates a psychiatric booth where she offers advice and…

AmericanDiners Drive-Ins and DivesDog FriendlyFood Network Eats New MexicoPizzaRating: ExcellentSanta Fe

Dr. Field Goods Kitchen – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno7:55 AM

At first contemplation, Dr. Field Goods sounds like a strange name for a restaurant. To the lexicologist in me, it brought to mind the Hippocrates missive “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” To the white-coat-syndrome suffering, borderline iatrophobe in me, the name sent shivers down my spine. To the gastronome in me who finally realized the emphasis is on “field goods” and not on “Doctor,” the name elicited a curiosity that wouldn’t be sated, especially after an effusive recommendation from the Lobo Lair (good luck finding the specific post). As you’ve probably surmised, Dr. Field Goods…