Tag: Southern

ArizonaRating: N/R (Not Rated)SouthernUnited States

Mrs. White’s Golden Rule Cafe – Phoenix, Arizona

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

How do you become a centenarian?  For Elizabeth White, achieving 100 years of age may be attributed to living the Golden Rule (“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”).  She instilled that spirit into the restaurant she purchased from her brother in 1964.  Phoenix was a much more segregated city when Elizabeth White christened her eatery “The Golden Rule Cafe.” Despite the prevailing attitudes of the time, she believed in treating everyone with kindness and respect, a core tenet of the Golden Rule.  Her prominent prescence and welcoming spirit led to guests adding “Mrs. White’s” to the “Golden Rule Cafe.”  Like the wonderful woman who founded the restaurant, Mrs. White’s Golden Rule Cafe is an institution. Mrs. White’s Golden Rule Cafe is a home away from home for guests of all walks of life.  Famous clientele include Senator John NcCain, Jesse Jackson, James Brown and others.  Guests frequent Mrs. White’s for comfort food, but they return because of the hospitality.  You really are treated like a welcome guest.  A longtime community cornerstone, its kitchen serves up authentic Southern soul food reminiscent of grandma’s cooking.  Slow-cooked meals prepared to order hearken back to the days before homogenized food…

CajunDog FriendlyNew MexicoRating: ExcellentRio RanchoSoul FoodSouthern

K’Lynn’s Cuisine – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil Garduno5:29 PM

Before permanent signage was mounted, a tethered banner in front of K’Lynn’s Southern & Cajun Fusion in Rio Rancho listed a few of the delicious treasures available in the tiny restaurant: “catfish, BBQ, gumbo, po boys, jerk chicken, carne adovada fries & more!” Yeah, we did a double-take, too. One of those items just seemed a bit out-of-place? If you’re thinking “carne adovada fries” don’t belong on the list because they’re not Soul food, you’d be wrong. Carne adovada fries definitely belong on the list. So does jerk chicken which, by most conventional definitions, isn’t soul food either. The one item we thought to be out-of-place was “& more.” I mean what more could you possibly want listed on the banner. If it didn’t have you at “catfish” you probably haven’t had catfish down South…and if it didn’t seal the deal with “gumbo,” you definitely need an infusion of South in your mouth. Beyond catfish and gumbo, the rest is gravy and it’s absolutely delicious. Until the summer of 2016, restaurant-goers craving Southern cuisine had only one option for soul food, albeit a wonderful option in Bucket Headz (sadly now closed). For those of us on the “west side,” the…

AlbuquerqueCajunClosed in 2024Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoSouthern

Bama’s 1865 – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

When we tell people we lived in Mississippi for eight years their typical reaction is something akin to “OMG, that must have been terrible.”  Lumping Alabama and Louisiana into their diatribes, they typically perceive we lived in a poorly educated, mostly rural and unabashedly racist region.  It surprises them to learn that New Mexico ranks below those three states among the least educated states in the country (only West Virgina ranked lower).  We lived in Ocean Springs on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, an almost contiguous metropolitan area from New Orleans to Mobile.  It’s as modern as you can get.   In terms of racism, the Deep South has made significant strides and isn’t as racist as the Boston area was when I lived there. Tragically, racism has always been a way of life in the Deep South.  It made me wonder if Bama’s 1865, Albuquerque’s newest Creole-Southern restaurant, was named for the turmoil that ravaged Alabama that fateful year.  Not only was Alabama left virtually destroyed by Union Forces, poor decisions during “Reconstruction” brought consequences that plagued the state for more than a century.  In 1865, Alabama  signed the Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution abolishing slavery…