Month: April 2005

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2008Gone But Not ForgottenMediterranean

Mediterranean Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno2:50 AM

In ancient times, the Mediterranean Sea was a “superhighway” of transportation, facilitating cultural exchange and trade between the region that fashioned Western civilization as we recognize it today. As the sapphire heart that gives life to the countries surrounding her, the Mediterranean was the seat of empires for millennia. The countries bordering the Mediterranean share more than history. They also share culinary traditions which are celebrated in the Mediterranean Cafe, a diminutive restaurant specializing in the foods of North Africa and the Middle East with popular foods of Greece added because of popular demand. Proprietor Ridha Bouajila, a Tunisian by birth, previously owned the now defunct Marrakech restaurant near the University of New Mexico and after a three-year hiatus launched…

AlbuquerqueSteak

Gruet Steakhouse – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno2:34 AM

Is there anything finer than a sizzling, flame kissed slab of prime beef overfilling your plate at a fine high-end chop house? Steak used to define fine dining and wealth provided the delineation between the type of steak each patron could afford–select, choice or prime, a classification based on marbling (the more the marbling, the more tender the steak). The proliferation of inexpensive steak restaurants in the 1960s made steak readily available to the common man while the advent of technology has made it available over the Internet and even in mall stores throughout America. The tragic reality is that while ordinary steaks have become ubiquitous, truly memorable steaks are a rarity. March, 2005 saw the launch of the Gruet…