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AlbuquerqueClosed in 2011Gone But Not ForgottenNew Mexican

Las Mañanitas – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:45 AM

Estas son las mañanitas, que cantaba el Rey David, Hoy por ser día de tu santo, te las cantamos a ti, Despierta, mi bien, despierta, mira que ya amaneció, Ya los pajarillos cantan, la luna ya se metió. This is the morning song that King David sang Because today is your saint’s day we’re singing it for you Wake up, my dear, wake up, look it is already dawn The birds are already singing and the moon has set Las Mañanitas, the traditional Mexican birthday song often sung in Catholic churches and birthday parties is one of my very favorite…

ArizonaBurgersClosed in 2018Gone But Not ForgottenUnited States

The Original Wineburger – Phoenix, Arizona (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno2:37 AM

Every year, children of all ages fall in love all over again with the heart-warming 1947 Christmas movie, Miracle on 34th Street. We’re aghast when the district attorney demands that defense lawyer Fred Gailey provide “authoritative proof” that Kris Kringle is “the one and only Santa Claus.” We share Gailey’s seeming desperation when he offers as evidence, a solitary letter addressed to Santa Claus at the NYC Courthouse. We’re enraged when the D.A. retorts that one letter is hardly enough proof, and are proudly vindicated when Gailey has guards march in with huge bags overflowing with letters. We revel in…

CaliforniaRating: Very GoodSeafoodUnited States

Crab House at Pier 39 – San Francisco, California

Gil Garduno7:09 PM

Every town has them–the touristy attractions every out-of-town visitor wants to hit and locals avoid like a Lobo basketball team coached by Ritchie McKay. To visitors, these attractions represent what your town is all about and nothing you tell them will dissuade them from thinking so.  After all, your local Chamber of Commerce paints these attractions as “can’t miss” and “absolutely must see.” Generally packaged with these touristy attractions are  dining destinations that promise to deliver authentic local flavor–the cuisine de culture so to speak. In Albuquerque that generally means a meal at a New Mexican restaurant–usually one with the…

Ice CreamNevadaRating: Excellent

Ghirardelli Chocolate Shop & Soda Fountain – Las Vegas, Nevada

Gil Garduno2:03 PM

While Ghirardelli chocolate is available worldwide, there are only a few shop locations–mostly in California with outliers in Las Vegas, Chicago and in two Florida cities. Named after Italian chocolatier Domingo Ghirardelli who brought his chocolate from Peru to San Francisco, Ghirardelli Shops are a true chocoholics dream where you can purchase a tempting assortment of chocolate confections and gifts. The San Francisco location on Ghirardelli Square is a historical site near Pier 39 (where the pictures on this review were taken) that is even equipped with chocolate making equipment so you can see artistry at work. Truly one of…

CaliforniaClosed in 2020Gone But Not ForgottenPeruvianUnited States

Destino Nuevo Latino Bistro – San Francisco, California (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno4:39 AM

In 2004, The Economist (a British weekly news publication) proclaimed that “Peru can lay claim to one of the world’s dozen or so great cuisines.” In 2005, Bon Appetit declared Peruvian “the next hot cuisine,” extolling its “vibrant ceviches, crispy, spiced rotisserie chickens and packed-with-flavor empanadas” then encapsulating its declaration with “this is one cuisine we could eat every day.”  A year later, at the world’s premier gastronomic forum, the International Summit of Gastronomy, Lima (the coastal nation’s capital city) was touted as the “gastronomic capital of the Americas.” What’s surprising is not that the culture-rich cuisine of a small,…

AmericanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Santa Fe

Blue Heron Restaurant at Sunrise Springs – La Cienega, New Mexico

Gil Garduno6:39 AM

Fewer than ten miles separate the historic Spanish village of La Ciénega from Santa Fe, and though both have largely retained vestiges of their storied and proud histories, the differences that set them apart are as vast as El Camino Real, the Royal Road that has connected them for centuries. While Santa Fe has entered the 21st century as a burgeoning cosmopolitan city, La >Ciénega remains a rural enclave, parts of which have remained unchanged for generations–that despite becoming somewhat of a bedroom community for Santa Feans. Once a rural Indian pueblo outpost, La Ciénega  was abandoned in the seventeenth…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2009Gone But Not ForgottenGreek

Athens Eclectic Greek – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:52 AM

There’s an expression in Greece that all roads lead to Athens. If restaurateur Gus Petropoulos has his way, all Albuquerque streets will take diners to Athens Eclectic Greek Cuisine, the restaurant he launched in August, 2007. Petropoulos is a veteran of culinary competition, having owned six restaurants in Florida before setting up shop in the Duke City. His new venture is located in the Far North Shopping Center where, just scant years ago, this was about as far north as you could go in Albuquerque. The eclectic in the restaurant’s name means you’ll find so much more than gyros, Kalamata…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBreakfastClosed in 2010Gone But Not Forgotten

Chef Jim White’s Cafe & Catering – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:43 AM

Long before the Food Network made chefs legitimate on-air celebrity icons, Albuquerque had its own larger-than-life, media-savvy celebrity chef who, it seemed, spent almost as much time on the airwaves as behind the stove. Chef Jim White was a peripatetic presence on television where he hosted short cooking segments on two Duke City television news programs in addition to having a three-minute format airing in a San Diego station. He also wrote a highly-regarded food column for the Albuquerque Journal. So well known was (and is) Chef Jim White that in Albuquerque his name is always prefaced with his title,…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2008Gone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

Downtown Gourmet – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:01 AM

“People who know nothing about cheeses reel away from Camembert, Roquefort, and Stilton because the plebeian proboscis is not equipped to differentiate between the sordid and the sublime.” – Harvey Day I don’t know whether or not Mr. Day intended his quote as a condescending affront toward those lacking appreciation for some of the world’s most fetid fromage, but the truth is, not everyone really “gets it” when it comes to stinky cheeses. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. That’s because there really is a cheese for everyone. It’s one of the world’s most versatile and beloved foods and it…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBakeryClosed in 2008Gone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

Have Your Cake Bakery & Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:20 AM

Leave it to the wonderfully irascible and irreverent comedian George Carlin to put things in perspective in his retort to a popular English idiom. “When people say, ‘Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too.’ What good is a cake you can’t eat? What should I eat, someone else’s cake instead?“. The idiom “to have one’s cake and eat it, too or simply have one’s cake and eat it” actually means wanting more than one can handle or deserves, or to trying to have two incompatible things. Still, Carlin makes a sage point. In Albuquerque’s Far…

AlbuquerqueNew MexicanRating: Good

El Charritos – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno10:32 PM

New Mexico born Hispanics of my generation grew up watching not only American “shoot ’em up” Westerns featuring rugged cowboys, rowdy rustlers, round-ups and home on the range, but the Mexican equivalent–movies featuring the exploits of charros, the traditional cowboys of central and northern Mexico. Despite my admiration for the charros of the cinema, it took more than 20 years before my first visit to a restaurant named for the dashing Mexican horsemen who were equally adept with a lasso as they were with a gun. I had driven past the Central Avenue location of El Charritos for years, first…