{"id":2194,"date":"2012-08-04T15:53:32","date_gmt":"2012-08-04T21:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=2194"},"modified":"2018-12-11T09:51:18","modified_gmt":"2018-12-11T15:51:18","slug":"the-townhouse-lounge-dining-room-albuquerque-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=2194","title":{"rendered":"The Town House Restaurant – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
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The fatted cow lets you know you’ve arrived<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

America’s highway system expansion which began in the 1930s not only “shrank” America, it introduced the entertaining, educational–some might say bizarre–phenomenon of the roadside attraction.\u00a0 Entrepreneurs competed with each other to create gawk-inspiring, curiosity motivating, must-see-to-believe attractions to snare the attention of motorists and motivate them to part with some of their money.\u00a0 Neon lights festooned Route 66 while fiberglass and concrete statues became part-and-parcel of America’s highways and byways.\u00a0 This was true roadside art which became a part of the fabric of Americana, albeit a kitschy tradition fading with the passage of time (which aptly describes many of the statues themselves).\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Among the most famous statuary art are life-sized fiberglass statues of stocky steers (corpulent cows and beefy bulls, if you prefer) which became the symbol of steakhouses along the motorways and byways.\u00a0 Ironically, this statuary was not designed for use as symbology for restaurants.\u00a0 In the 1950s, Bob Prewitt, a manufacturer of fiberglass trailers created life-sized fiberglass animals to prove the trailers were large enough to accommodate the real thing.\u00a0 Soon the manufacture of animals became the primary focus of his business.\u00a0 He created almost as many types of animals as Noah took on board his ark.\u00a0 The steer became one of the most popular.\u00a0 Restaurants such as the Hilltop Steak House<\/a> in Saugus, Massachusetts actually have corrals full of Hereford and black Angus statues on display.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Townhouse Dining Room on Central Avenue just east of Wyoming<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the Duke City’s\u00a0 longest-standing and most famous steers served as a beacon for 45 years to Albuquerque diners, letting them know that they were within steak sniffing, sizzling sound hearing distance of the Town House Lounge & Restaurant on Central Avenue just west of Washington.\u00a0 To detractors, the steer on the roof helped reinforce the stereotype that Albuquerque is a “cow town,” but to its many long-time diners, it was an open invitation to dine on grilled steak and lamb, prime rib and chops, hamburgers and salads as well as many popular American and Greek favorites.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The Town House was just as welcoming once you stepped inside its friendly confines and were enveloped by its oversized tuck-and-roll Naugahyde booths.\u00a0 The Town House had all the stereotypical trappings of steak houses launched in the 1960s including the use of anthropomorphic adult beverage decanters as decorative touches.\u00a0 Amber sconces provided a low lighting milieu that helped ensure privacy. Service was attentive and personable with frequent visits by your server assured during every visit.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Texas toast and an olive oil-feta cheese dip<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Town House was founded by George Argyres, a Greek immigrant who<\/span> opened his restaurant in 1962 and was a ubiquitous presence until its closing on Saturday, May 5th, 2007.\u00a0 His success followed<\/span> in the long tradition of successful Greek restaurateurs in the Land of Enchantment, many of whom still own and operate some of the state’s most popular eateries.\u00a0 When Argyres closed the Town House, it was a sad day for generations who had spent many a special occasion within its comfy confines. \u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sadness turned to joy with the announcement that the Town House would reopen in November, 2011, albeit in a different location several blocks east of the original venue.\u00a0 Alas, because of permit issues, the opening date was pushed out several times and several months until finally the restaurant\u00a0 reopened on Thursday, February 16, 2012.\u00a0 The restaurant’s new owner as well as its chef is Dino Argyres, scion of the restaurant’s founder.\u00a0 Even long-time Duke City denizens might not recognize the Town House’s new digs as once having been home to The Mint, a restaurant which served the most piquant chile in the city.\u00a0 That’s how remarkable the transformation of a once dark and dank edifice has been.\u00a0 The new Town House is bright and airy, also quite unlike its own former instantiation.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Townhouse Combination Platter (Antipasto): Stuffed Grape Leaves, Olives, Mild Peppers, Greek Feta Cheese, Casseri, Ham, Salami, Garlic Dip, Taramosalata (fish roe spread)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At first browse, the menu may appear to be solely a carnivore’s delight, a meat fest and protein party, but there’s actually something for everyone.\u00a0 Only four of the dozen appetizers include meat or fish based dishes and three of five a la carte salads also include meat.\u00a0 A number of sandwich and burger specialties can be had as well as several low-calorie items.\u00a0 The “From the Lakes and Seas” menu includes a number of seafood items, including market priced twin lobster tails while the surf and turf combinations give you the best meat and seafood items.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Most guests, however, visit for the “from the broiler” selections including the house specialty, an all beef shish ka-bob, chunks of lean top sirloin, chicken and pork tenderloin marinated in the Town House’s special marinade and prepared to your exacting specifications.\u00a0 Steaks and chops and choice prime rib with au jus round out the broiler menu.\u00a0 Entrees and luncheon specials, served from 11AM to 2PM, are served with a tossed salad (with your choice of dressing from among Bleu Cheese, 1000 Island, French, Vinegar and Oil, Feta or Ranch), bread and your choice of baked potato, rice pilaf, French fries or oven-roasted Greek potatoes.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Choice spring lamb chops (four chops, 16-18 ounces) Greek style with a baked potato and mint sauce<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shortly after the menu is brought to your table, a basket with Texas toast and a bowl of olive oil and feta cheese is delivered to your waiting hands.\u00a0 It’s a refreshing change from the de rigueur bread and olive oil-Balsamic vinegar offering at many restaurants.\u00a0 The Texas toast is lightly toasted and thick with absorbing qualities which make it a perfect for sopping up the olive oil and feta mix.\u00a0 It’s an excellent introduction to the Town House and you’re likely to be tempted to request a second helping.\u00a0 Do so at your peril because you’ll want to save room for either the restaurant’s sumptuous soups (the soup-of-the-day is always tempting) or amazing appetizers.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the items for which the Town House has been and will be best known is a behemoth combination antipasto platter<\/em> the cognoscenti once considered the very best in town–for good reason.\u00a0 You might visit with carnivorous cravings, but you’ll fall in love with the antipasto combination plate, the restaurant’s star attraction.\u00a0 By definition if not function, antipasto is meant to pique one’s appetite, not sate it; however, at the Town House, the antipasto plate is an oversized appetizer for two or a gargantuan meal with for one.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Rib Eye with Mushroom Marsala Sauce and Baked Potato<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The antipasto plate has a bit of everything and then some: stuffed grape leaves, Kalamata olives, Pepperonici, feta cheese, Kasseri cheese (a sharp, salty and hard cheese with a Cheddar-like texture made from sheep or goat’s milk), ham, salami, garlic dip, pita bread, and taramosalata as well as a number of pickled vegetables (carrots, artichokes, cauliflower and more).\u00a0 If you’ve never had taramasalata, you’re in for a treat. It’s a Greek style “poor man’s” caviar traditionally served as an appetizer. Consisting of carp roe, breadcrumbs soaked in milk, olive oil and more, it is whipped until light and fluffy. It’s wonderful on its own or spread onto the restaurant’s signature pita bread. <\/span><\/p>\n

Chops connoisseurs generally agree that the best degree of “doneness” for lamb chops is always to let the chef prepare them to his or her preference as ostensibly the chef should best know what the optimum doneness is for the restaurant’s chops.\u00a0 For the most part, lamb chops seem to be prepared at medium rare with a warm red center and copious juiciness.\u00a0 It takes a very confident and skilled chef to serve lamb chops well done.\u00a0 That’s how my lamb chops were delivered.\u00a0 Well done is not synonymous with desiccated at the Town House.\u00a0 In fact, these chops are wonderfully delicious–four chops, each at least four ounces, with a surprising degree of juiciness despite an exterior char.\u00a0 The chops are served with a mint sauce the color of lime Kool Aid.\u00a0 The mint sauce doesn’t have herbaceous qualities that make it “minty.”\u00a0 Instead it’s quite sweet, a nice contrast to the slight gaminess of the chops.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Char Burger with Baked Potato<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The luncheon special on the day of our inaugural visit was a rib eye steak with a mushroom Marsala sauce<\/em>.\u00a0 This is one of those specials so special it should be part of the daily menu.\u00a0 A twelve-ounce rib eye as tender and juicy as possible is topped with a mushrooms sauteed in a Marsala wine.\u00a0 Unlike some Marsala sauce, the Town House’s rendition isn’t gravy-like in texture or flavor.\u00a0 You can actually appreciate the wine reduction, a dry sweet flavor that punctuates each of the thinly shaved mushrooms and permeates into the steak.\u00a0 It’s a very good steak!\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Opt for a baked potato instead of rice pilaf, French fries or oven-roasted Greek potatoes and you’ll be rewarded with a football-sized potato baked to absolute perfection.\u00a0 It’s served with butter, sour cream and chives, but an equally good topping is the aforementioned olive oil and feta mixture.\u00a0 The accompanying salads are anachronisms, the type of salads which might have been served in the\u00a0 60s when the Town House first opened.\u00a0 That means iceberg lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, croutons and lots of dressing.\u00a0 The feta and bleu cheese dressings are quite good, albeit thin and light.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Shish Ka-Bob<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A house specialty is an \u201call meat\u201d shish ka-bob, chunks of lean meat (your choice of top sirloin, chicken or pork tenderloin) marinated in the Townhouse\u2019s special marinade. Unfortunately you have to select only one of the three meats and can\u2019t have a mix of all three. Nor does the shish ka-bob include grilled onions and bell peppers, two seemingly de rigueur shish ka-bob standards. This is a meatfest, a carnivore\u2019s delight. The marinade appears to be a fairly standard Greek recipe that includes lemon and olive oil. The broiler sears in a light char that gives the bite-sized ka-bobs a slight crust, but doesn\u2019t detract from the moistness of the top sirloin. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Townhouse also offers a \u201cChar-Burger\u201d that has no bun and isn\u2019t accompanied by the burger toppings to which we\u2019re all accustomed. The char-burger is a half-pound of choice ground round stuffed with the Townhouse\u2019s cheese mixture (primarily Cheddar) broiled to your exacting degree of doneness. At medium, the exterior has a seared-in crust while the interior is moist with a barely bubbling cheese interior. There\u2019s not as much cheese as you\u2019ll find in the stuffed Cheddar burger at Maria\u2019s of Santa Fe<\/a> where the cheese is molten and positively erupts out. Still, it\u2019s a nice round slab of chopped steak that probably could use a steak sauce of some sort. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Chocolate Layered Cake and Baklava<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Desserts are made in-house save for the spumoni ice cream.\u00a0 There are five dessert items and unless you’ve asked for a doggie bag or three, you’re not likely to have room for them.\u00a0 Make sure to leave room because these desserts are terrific.\u00a0 The baklava<\/em> is layers of flaky\u00a0phyllo pastry, ground pistachios and of course lots of rich honey.\u00a0 It’s nearly cloying in its sweetness, but absolutely delicious.\u00a0 According to Dino Argyres, if you offer someone in Greece a slice of chocolate cake, you might be asked why you’re handing out bread.\u00a0 Ironically, the Town House serves one of the very best layered chocolate cakes in the Duke City.\u00a0 It’s the antithesis of the store-bought cakes and their thick, cloying frosting.\u00a0 This cake is rich and moist, but not overly sweet.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

If anything, the near five-year hiatus may actually have improved the Town House Restaurant or maybe that’s just its new bright and airy ambiance.\u00a0 Though its new digs bear little resemblance to its former home, a visit to the Town House is like coming home.\u00a0 You’ll be welcome.\u00a0 You’ll be well-fed.\u00a0 You’ll leave happy.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The Town House Restaurant<\/strong>
\n9019 Central, N.E.
\nAlbuquerque, New Mexico
\n<\/strong>LATEST VISIT<\/strong>: 4 August 2012
\n1st VISIT<\/strong>: 18 February 2012
\n# OF VISITS<\/strong>: 2
\nRATING<\/strong>: 17
\nCOST<\/strong>: $$$ – $$$$
\nBEST BET<\/strong>: Antipasto, Lamb Chops, Rib Eye with Mushroom Marsala Sauce, Baklava, Chocolate Layered Cake <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Town<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America’s highway system expansion which began in the 1930s not only “shrank” America, it introduced the entertaining, educational–some might say bizarre–phenomenon of the roadside attraction.\u00a0 Entrepreneurs competed with each other to create gawk-inspiring, curiosity motivating, must-see-to-believe attractions to snare the attention of motorists and motivate them to part with some of their money.\u00a0 Neon lights festooned Route 66 while fiberglass and concrete statues became part-and-parcel of America’s highways and byways.\u00a0 This was true roadside art which became a part of the fabric of Americana, albeit a kitschy tradition fading with the passage of time (which aptly describes many of the statues themselves).\u00a0 Among the most famous statuary art are life-sized fiberglass statues of stocky steers (corpulent cows and beefy bulls,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[440,708,262,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-albuquerque","category-closed-in-2018","category-closed","category-steak"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Town House Restaurant - 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