El Roi Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

You know you’ve been involved in project management for too long when the only thing that comes to mind when told about a restaurant named “El Roi” is “why would a restaurant be named for a Return on Investment (ROI).”  For those of us who have worked in Information Technology, ROI is a financial ratio used to calculate the benefit an investor will receive in relation to their investment cost.  Restaurants often have a poor return of investment–not just in financial capital, but in human capital.  Restaurants require a significant investment in time by owners as well as kitchen and “front of the house” staffs and the financial return isn’t exactly lucrative.  My Kim theorized that Roi is probably a preferred derivation of Roy.  “By poor spellers,” I chortled.  It turns out my brainy bride was correct…well, almost.  According to Namedat, a website which takes social security administration data and converts it to facts and stats about names of people in the United States, there are actually 8,706 humans in the country with the first name Roi.  Naturally one of the very first questions we asked when we finally made it to El Roi is just what does the name…

Ms. Gennie’s House of Chicken – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

My Air Force friend and colleague Al Garcia once shared one of those amusing anecdotes that will leave your head shaking in disbelief even as you’re practically rolling on the floor with laughter.  According to Al who grew up in the Socorro area, his parents had to make a daylong trip to the big city (Albuquerque), leaving him and his sister at home to finish their chores.  At around lunchtime, he and his sister got hungry and decided to prepare some rice.  Never having cooked rice before, they poured an entire bag of rice into a pot, added water and turned the stove on high.   In a few minutes, rice began spilling out over the pot like lava flowing from a volcano.  Cooked rice covered the kitchen floor.  Not wanting to anger their parents, Al and his sister decided to get rid of the evidence.  They scooped up all the rice and fed it to their chickens.  The chickens gorged themselves on the all-you-can-eat feast of rice, eating so much that they (and this is the part I found hard to believe) burst, fowl feathers exploding all over the yard.  When their parents got home, Al and his sister…