Tag: Coffee

AmericanBreakfastBrunchDiners Drive-Ins and DivesDog FriendlyRating: N/R (Not Rated)United StatesWyoming

Cafe Genevieve – Jackson, Wyoming

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

My friend and former Intel colleague Steve Caine will forever rue the day he asked me to help him with an expense report for a business trip he made to Portland, Oregon. His itemized expense report indicated he had dined twice at Chevy’s, a middling quality Americanized Mexican restaurant which wouldn’t survive in the tough Albuquerque market. I teased him mercilessly. Worse, when my boss saw what the commotion was all about, he immediately put Steve on double-secret probation. Steve has never lived down visiting a Chevy’s in Portland where he could have had some of the country’s freshest and best seafood. When the din died down, Steve admitted somewhat sheepishly that after two days in Portland, he was missing New Mexican food so desperately that he visited the closed facsimile he could find. It was either Chevy’s or a restaurant named Machissimo Mouse (seriously). In truth, I’ve been there, too…well, not to Chevy’s and definitely not to Machissimo Mouse, but at a point in my business travels where the craving for New Mexico’s inimitable cuisine strikes like an addict’s need for a fix. My Kim and I had been away from New Mexico for eleven days during our June,…

AmericanCoffeeDog FriendlyFarm to TableIdahoRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Yellow Brick Cafe – Twin Falls, Idaho

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

In the Air Force, when you’re stationed at a base overseas, service members receive an orientation on how to comport ourselves (behave) in that country.  We’re cautioned about cultural do’s and don’ts.  We’re introduced to American terminology and conduct our host country members might find offensive.  Above all, it’s emphasized that we are ambassadors for the United States, that our behavior reflects on our country.  We’re admonished not to perpetrate the “ugly American” stereotype that some countries have about the fruited plain.  If you’re not familiar with the term, here’s how Wikipedia defines it: “Ugly American” is a stereotype depicting American citizens as exhibiting loud, arrogant, demeaning, thoughtless, ignorant, and ethnocentric behavior mainly abroad, but also at home. When my Kim and I travel under spacious skies, we see ourselves as ambassadors for the great state of New Mexico.  We’re kind to wait staff and other diners at every restaurant we frequent.  We engage “local indigenous personnel” (a term from MASH) in friendly conversation and express genuine interest when we ask questions about them, their restaurants and their cities.  Invariably not only do we get great service, but they reciprocate our interest.  Lately, however, it’s become more difficult to act…

2023 James Beard Foundation - "Best Baker" SemifinalistAlbuquerqueBakeryDog FriendlyJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Ihatov Bread and Coffee – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight.” ~ M.F.K. Fischer A colleague who was recently struck with a second bout of the Cabrona virus confided that while he could tolerate the malaise, coughing and body aches, what bothered him most was temporarily losing his sense of smell and taste.  He shared that he couldn’t live with not being able to imbibe the aroma of freshly baked bread right out of the oven.  That aroma is almost universally loved.  For many of us, it promotes a Pavlovian response and catapults us back to very specific points in our formative years.  These “odor-cued” memories may take place at a subconscious level, but they’re extremely powerful. A survey of 1,000 people which accompanied a Institute of Food and Health at the University College of Dublin revealed that 89-percent of their respondents indicated that the smell of bread made them happy with 63-percent saying it evoked happy memories.  Respondents were asked for a word they associate with those memories.  29-percent listed the word “mom” or “mother” while 20-percent associated aroma-triggered memories of bread to the word “childhood.”  The Institute was able…

AlbuquerqueBreakfastBrunchDog FriendlyGreekNew MexicoRating: Excellent

Meraki Coffee + Market – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“I saw Sisyphus in violent torment, seeking to raise a monstrous stone with both his hands. Verily he would brace himself with hands and feet, and thrust the stone toward the crest of a hill, but as often as he was about to heave it over the top, the weight would turn it back, and then down again to the plain would come rolling the ruthless stone. But he would strain again and thrust it back, and the sweat flowed down from his limbs, and dust rose up from his head.” ~Homer, The Odyssey Even those among us most satisfied with our jobs sometimes feel work is our personal Sisyphean ordeal.  That’s especially true on days in which work seems monotonous and meaningless, when it truly does feel as if we’ve been sentenced to push a boulder up Sandia Peak only to see it roll back to the Rio Grande at the end of the day then to repeat that ordeal the following day.  The drudgery of the incessant and assiduous labors of Sisyphus is one of life’s metaphors with which most of us can sometimes relate. Greek mythology is replete with the manifestation of vices, flaws and hubris in the…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBreakfastDog FriendlyNew MexicoRating: Very Good

Central Grill and Coffee House – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno9:26 AM

It’s been said that “when you feed those in need, you are feeding your soul.”  That is especially true when the giver is practicing selfless giving, a conscious, intentional approach to giving that not only benefits others, but comes during a time when the giver is in dire need of help as well.  When the New Mexico state government’s approach to the Cabrona Virus virtually closed down or limited restaurant operations across the state, it’s an understatement to say restaurateurs were really hurting.  Dozens of restaurants across the Land of Enchantment closed. Hundreds of employees were laid off.   It was during these trying times that several restaurateurs demonstrated truly heroic altruism, showing precisely what it means to be a great neighbor.   Among the most selfless givers were restaurateurs George and Alicia Griego, owners of Albuquerque’s Central Grill.   In 2020, George and Alicia were named the New Mexico Restaurant Association’s (NMRA) Restaurant Neighbor of the Year for 2020.  Though their popular eatery faced the same unpredictable operating conditions crippling other restaurants, George and Alicia looked for opportunities to help their neighbors.  In the spirit of Luke 10:25, they opened their hearts, providing thousands of boxes to feed school…