Month: February 2025

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Loro Asian Smokehouse & Bar – Austin, Texas

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

An average person spends 52 days of their life standing in line (queueing) and that not just at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). The most notorious offenders are, of course, supermarket lines, public transportation, the post office, airports and barbecue joints in the great state of Texas.  Okay, that last one may not be true though it certainly feels that way.  Franklin BBQ in Austin has nothing short of a cult following–and probably the longest lines of any barbecue joint in Texas.  Standing in line is part of the Franklin BBQ experience.  Online sites advise that “wait times during the week at Franklin Barbecue are typically 2-3 hours and on weekends closer to 4 or 5 hours.”  Smoked meat…

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Little Deli & Pizzeria – Austin, Texas

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

In the 1973 Woody Allen movie”Sleeper,” the neurotic comedian, writer, actor, and film director declaimed, “I believe there’s an intelligence to the universe, with the exception of certain parts of New Jersey.”  Comedian George Carlin pounced on New Jersey’s license plate, deriding the “Garden State” sobriquet, expressing that it should be “The Tollbooth State.”   In response to his son-in-law Michael “Meathead” Stivic’s “I hate Jersey” comment, Archie Bunker declared “Everybody hates Jersey! But somebody’s gotta live there.” New Jersey is the Rodney Dangerfield among the fifty states.  It gets no respect, especially when compared with its nextdoor neighbor New York.  Perceptions among some outsiders is that the population of New Jersey is replete with Italian-American Mafia types like Tony Soprano. …

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La Barbecue – Austin, Texas

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Every summer, a predictable ritual takes place. After hibernating comfortably since the previous autumn, men attired in aprons emblazoned with the slogan “kiss the cook” will selflessly volunteer to “cook” a meal. This, of course, means grilling, a decidedly masculine affectation and the only type of cooking most men can be entrusted to do. When this ritual is completed and guests are sated, lavish praise and thanks are heaped upon the “chef.” In truth, the only aspects of this ritual for which men are typically responsible is getting the grill lit, placing the meats on the grill and turning them (after our female better halves warn us that the meats are burning). Normally all the preparatory work—buying the food; preparing…

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JewBoy Burgers – Austin, Texas

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

With hordes of eager eaters forming lines around select restaurants–if not the block–you’d think those diners were gum-snapping Swifties clamoring to enter the venue of a Taylor Swift concert  That’s the case not only in barbecue joints anointed with Michelin star and James Beard Foundation honors, not to mention restaurants featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  Queues for ‘cue, lines for lasagna, cavalcades for calamari…that’s pretty much the way it is at all the time in Austin.  It is a foodie city after my own heart.  I loathe lines so much, I’d rather arrive half an hour early than to stand in a line for more than ten minutes. Alas, on a day in which drizzle spritzed city streets, I…

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Nixta Taqueria – Austin, Texas

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Man cannot live on barbecue alone–not even in Austin, Texas where the world’s very best barbecue is to be found.  To limit one’s self to barbecue–as transformative as it may be–is to deprive yourself of some of the best Mexican food and best fried chicken in the known world.  Though the primary purpose of my week-long visit to the City of the Violet Crown was to visit Michelin starred barbecue restaurants, to have done so have been “going deep,”  exploring just one segment of the Central Texas culinary Utopia.  “Going wide” meant exploring options beyond barbecue–options such as some of the aforementioned Mexican food joints for which Austin is renowned. At the very top of my list was Nixta Taqueria…

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LeRoy And Lewis Barbecue – Austin, Texas

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

What can you say about a wife who practically pushes her husband out the door so he can gallavant through the Lone Star State in pursuit of barbecue?  That’s precisely what my Kim did.  She didn’t do so out of malice or because she’s tired of me.  Far from it.  We’ve been together for four decades.  There’s no one whose company I enjoy more and it’s mutual.  Throughout my Air Force career, we were stationed far away from family and had only ourselves to rely on.  We’ve grown together both figuratively and literally (mostly me).  While I would love for my Kim to be by my side every moment of every day, she knows I sometimes need to explore culinary…

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InterStellar BBQ – Austin, Texas

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

With more than 2,500 purveyors of bodacious barbecue in the Lone Star State, Texas Monthly Magazine has increased the likelihood of smoked meat aficionados locating and enjoying the very best.  That’s largely because of Daniel Vaughn, the magazine’s “Barbecue Editor.”  Vaughn has traveled the world sampling smoked meats at over 1,800 barbecue joints, most of which are in Texas.  Texans making pilgrimages in pursuit of barbecue carry with them Vaughn’s tome The Prophets of Smoked Meat: A Journey Through Texas Barbecue.  They also take along Texas Monthly’s “The 50 Best Texas Barbecue Joints.” Vaughn’s Texas Monthly compilation, last published in 2021, will be updated in 2025.  These are the barbecue bibles to which believers are called. There’s only two jobs I’ve…

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The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

As a precocious stripling growing up long before Star Wars, Back to the Future and the Marvel Universe, my heroes were the gods of Mount Olympus.  In Greek mythology, the gods were incredibly powerful beings who controlled the forces of nature and human beings.  Their whims–often childish and unpredictable–dictated whether or not empires and human beings thrived or led lives replete with strife and woe.   These puerile gods possessed supernatural powers such as the ability to control the weather (Zeus), make others pregnant or get pregnant herself (Hera) and manipulate travel, paths, and sports (Hermes).  While Spiderman may have understood that with great power comes great responsibility, the gods were prone to fits of pique.  In such moments, they were…

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The Sandwich Company – Albuquerque, NE

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

In 1967, John Poppy introduced the term “generation gap” in Look magazine.  Still used widely, the term refers to the “the chasm that separates the beliefs and behaviors belonging to members of different generations. This gap often manifests in varying thoughts, actions, and preferences between younger and older generations.”  According to Investopedia, “Differences may exist in politics, values, pop culture, and other areas.”  Among the ways in which a generation gap exists is in culinary exploration. TouchBistro, “an all-in-one point of sale and restaurant management system that makes running a restaurant easier” conducted a survey of more than 2,600 diners which revealed a wide expanse between generations when it comes to dining out.  TouchBistro discovered that younger generations–“56% of Gen…

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The Pantry Dos – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

There’s no annual event I enjoy more than the Roadrunner Food Bank’s Souper Bowl which takes place one week before some ballyhooed football game.  That game is the National Football League’s Super Bowl, a star-studded event in which the celebrity with the best name (Taylor Swift) doesn’t even play football.  Celebrities abound at the Souper Bowl, too, but they’re real people, the type of which you would enjoy sharing a meal with.  During my twelvth year of serving as a judge at the Souper Bowl, I had the privilege and pleasure of spending time with several of those local celebrities.  I wouldn’t trade a minute with them for an hour with Kendrick Lamar (whoever he is) or Taylor Swift. For…

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Luigi’s Ristorante & Pizzeria – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno7:40 AM

Luigi’s is the eponymous brainchild of Luigi Napolitano whose very last name translates to citizen of Naples, the city from which his mother Tina emigrated more than four decades ago. Tina is the bread-baking, pasta-making dynamo in the kitchen and is also responsible for many of the restaurant’s homey touches.  Tina painstakingly hand-sewed the delicate lace covering over each lamp (below) as well as the curtains over each booth.  Other homey touches include viney plants hanging from pillars throughout the restaurant and a framed picture of the Mona Lisa hanging above the buffet. Tina, a spry octogenarian, is one of the sweetest, kindest restaurateurs you could ever hope to meet.  She’s cut down the hours she works and sometimes the…