2024 James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistArizonaDog FriendlyJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersMediterraneanRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Source – Gilbert, Arizona

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

When Chef Claudio Urciuoli posed for a photograph with Source’s baker Ryan and chef Trevor, he sported a smile.  I joked with him about his stern countenance and he assured me that he really does have a sense of humor.  Despite the dissolution of his partnership at Pa’La, the acclaimed chef has every reason to smile.  He’s once again doing what he wants to do, operating a restaurant whose approach and raison d’etre are encapsulated in this statement from the restaurant’s website:  We are an ingredient driven, community centered, counter service restaurant, wine bar, and retail shop. Chef Urciuoli does indeed have a sense of humor and a personal warmth that really came across during our conversation.  He shared his vision for a casual Mediterranean restaurant where it’s all about the quality of ingredients.  He pointed out that Source is a counter-service affair with baked goods front and center at the counter and a menu suspended overhead.  All tableware is compostable save for wine glasses.  That speaks to his commitment to doing his part for the environment.  It irks him how relatively little the water-starved Valley is doing to conserve water.  He also believes much more could be done to…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBreakfastBrunchDog FriendlyRating: Excellent

Slate Street Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:42 AM

In 2005, Slate Street and an eponymous bistro just north of Lomas became the toast (a garlicky bruschetta) of the town. The Slate Street Cafe opened its doors in July, 2005 in a heretofore lightly trafficked, relatively unknown street north of Lomas. Nestled in the heart of the legal district, the Slate Street Cafe is so, make that Soho cool. Its sleek, modern, high-ceilinged dining room, looming wine bar and capacious patio is frequented by some of Albuquerque’s most hip and beautiful people. It’s a breath of fresh air in a burgeoning downtown district where revitalization doesn’t always appear to be working. The Slate Street Cafe is the braintrust of a proven and very successful pedigree whose bloodline includes founding chef Albert Bilotti (Al’s NYPD and Kanome) and owner Myra Ghattas whose family owns Duran’s Central Pharmacy. The menu might best be described as eclectic, contemporary and fun with a playful twist to American comfort food favorites such as buttermilk fried chicken, chicken soup, mac and cheese, fish and chips and even homemade cupcakes for dessert. For breakfast, green eggs and ham might just be what the doctor ordered–and not just if your physician is Doctor Seuss. Slate Street’s version…

AlbuquerqueBakeryNew MexicoRating: Very Good

Cake Fetish – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:09 AM

Americans are absolutely food obsessed!  It’s become alarmingly obvious in our culture of caloric overachievers that few of us miss any meals. It’s also telling (yet seemingly innocuous) that many of the terms of endearment we use for one another are related to food.  Terms such as honey, sugar, pumpkin and others are regularly used by sweet-talking lotharios of both genders. One term of endearment which has grown out of fashion is “cupcake” which in today’s vernacular refers to a woman whose front and back body fat hangs over the waistline, giving the woman the “top of the cupcake” look. While “cupcake” may have become an intended compliment which will get your face slapped, cupcakes themselves have been reestablished as a cool, viable and in-demand dessert option.  It should be pointed out that women aren’t the only gender who can acquire that “cupcake” shape (as I’m reminded when I eat too many cupcakes). The innovative Slate Street Cafe may have reinvigorated the “cupcakes as dessert” trend in Albuquerque, but with the March, 2006 launch of Cake Fetish, Carrie Mettling (formerly an architect later to launch the much missed  Rebel Donut) took it to the next step.  Her tiny gourmet cupcake…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBurgersNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

On The Flip – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Though I pride myself on having a sesquipedalian vocabulary, very often pop culture vernacular escapes me.  Even food memes borne of pop culture are well over my head.  If you’re familiar with or use such terms as “good soup,” “cheugy,” “phone eats first,” “glizzy” and “caviar bump,”  you must be from the Gen Z generation.  Were I to use these terms, it would make me seem like a patronizing old fossil trying to be cool. During a December, 2023 visit to the Tin Can Alley, my Kim and I came a restaurant with a curious name neither of us could comprehend.  We quickly dismissed the notion that “On The Flip” had something to do with Albuquerque drivers extending their middle fingers in a salute denoting that other drivers are number one.   We then agreed the name has something to do with food that’s flipped.  Pancakes maybe.  Burgers probably. It turns out On The Flip is subtitled “beach grub perfected.”  My first experience with beach grub came in Massachusetts where beach grub consisted of lobster rolls, fried clams and tuna grinders.  In Mississippi beach grub was oysters, shrimp and crab.  None of these sumptuous seaside favorites–perfected or otherwise–appear on On…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2024Dog FriendlyGone But Not ForgottenMiddle EasternNew Mexico

Habibi House – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Before Al Gore invented the internet, it wasn’t easy for logophiles (lovers of words) like me to figure out what some words meant.  “Lover of words,” in my case was an understatement.  I was obsessed about learning every new word–its etymology (origin, definition and context, even what it used to mean) I came across.  It’s a wonder my parents (both educators) didn’t put this precocious, pedantic child up for adoption. Dictionaries were of little help as their content was mostly limited to English words.  The Velazquez dictionary was helpful when I wanted to learn a new Spanish word, but that, too, was limiting.  Alas, no comprehensive resource seemed to exist to sate my curiosity. Here’s an example of my dilemma.  The popular 60’s television show I Dream of Jeanie was replete with Arabic words.  For most people being entertained was enough, but not for me.  When a new word was used, I wanted to know what it meant–even if it was a proper name.  Jeanie’s master (played by the altitudinous Ted Cassidy) was named Habib.  No source or person of my acquaintance had any idea what “Habib” meant.  Surely, when Jeanie’s master’s parents named their son Habib, it was because the…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBetter Call SaulBreakfastDog FriendlyNew MexicoRating: Excellent

Java Joe’s – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno9:17 PM

“I hate chile powder.” ~Tuco Salamanca Breaking Bad, Season 2 Duty-bound to make himself available to the citizenry of the fledgling United States, newly elected president George Washington spent the night in so many private homes and inns that “George Washington Slept Here” remains a real estate cliché and tourist draw centuries later. Perhaps the closest similarly celebrated landmarks in the Albuquerque metropolitan area are the filming sites for the 16-time Emmy Award-winning television series Breaking Bad. Never mind that Albuquerque recently celebrated its Tercentennial–three hundred years of history. History is not what visitors want to see. They want to see the Duke City of Breaking Bad. Albuquerque, which itself became a character in Breaking Bad, is the home of Walter White, the down-and-out chemistry teacher who metamorphosed into “Heisenberg,” the city’s meth kingpin. Five years after the series ended, pilgrimages to every Breaking Bad filming location remain a popular draw. During my inaugural visit to Downtown Java Joe’s, a number of tourists, not all of them millennials, were snapping selfies in front of the east wall where a towering graffiti-inspired tribute to city life dominates. One of them exclaimed “this used to be Tuco’s lair.” Another chimed in, “yeah,…

AlbuquerqueBurgersDog FriendlyNew Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2011Rating: Very GoodTaos County

Five Star Burgers – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno11:20 AM

On Friday, March 19th, 2010 and to surprisingly little fanfare, a locally owned and operated burger restaurant by the name of Five Star Burgers launched in Albuquerque’s North Towne Plaza at Academy and Wyoming. Its opening predated by about a week, the launch of a similarly named burger establishment, an east coast based interloper named Five Guys which has exploded across the country with nearly 600 locations in 39 states. The latter opening was greeted with ruffles and flourishes, pomp and circumstance and throngs of curiosity-seekers and “chain gangs.” Despite the relative lack of hype and brouhaha, Five Star Burgers won’t play second-fiddle to any burger restaurant. The name on the marquee will tell you that. That name is bold and maybe more than a bit audacious; some might say it borders on braggadocio. Five-star, after all, is a term used to denote the highest quality, something that is incomparable and absolutely without peer. In a rating system of one to five stars, it signifies the pinnacle, the top, the very best. My friends in Taos tell me the name fits. Taos is where owner Bob Gontram founded his first of five planned Five Star Burgers restaurants. The historical “Soul…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBreakfastBrunchDog FriendlyNew Mexico

Sunnyside Up Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side Keep on the sunny side of life It will help us ev’ry day, it will brighten all the way If we’ll keep on the sunny side of life.” ~Keep On The Sunny Side Lyrics According to Statistica, a leading provider of market and consumer data, in 2019 the per capita consumption of eggs in the United States was 207.1 eggs.  That’s up from 177.7 eggs per consumer in the year 2000.  In a 2019 survey conducted by YouGov, an international research data and analytics group, respondents indicated their most preferred way to consume eggs for breakfast is scrambled eggs (36%).  Other choices were eggs over easy (18%), sunny side up (12%), eggs over medium (11%) and hard-boiled eggs (6%). In 2021, Zippia, a resource for job-seekers, used Google Trends, to determine what egg preparation each state eats a disproportionate amount of (ostensibly the most popular way to eat eggs).  Google Trends showed that as the favorite egg dish in 18 states, scrambled eggs are the most popular way to eat eggs by far.  Sunny side up is second most popular among 14 states.  New Mexico was one of seven states…

2024 James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Southwest" Semifinalist2024: James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Southwest" Finalist2026 James beard Foundation: "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistAlbuquerqueFarm to TableFine DiningJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Mesa Provisions – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

When I started Gil’s Thrilling…way back in 1996, my goals were to celebrate New Mexico’s restaurant scene and to provide an escape from the mean-spirited dialogue so prevalent among petulant politicians who have long forgotten they work for us.  I’ve tried not to lash out against politics through this medium I’m privileged to steward, but sometimes my frustration leaks out.  For those occasions I apologize.  I promise to try harder to focus on the joy I experience every time I dine with good friends.   When I’m upset with the latest shenanigans in Washington, D.C. and Santa Fe, those friends buoy my spirits with convivial discourse over a great meal. Such was the case when I met Linda Johansen (my former boss and the doyenne of Information Technology at the University of New Mexico) for dinner at Mesa Provisions.  You might think when IT propeller heads get together we’d talk shop for hours on end, but that’s not the case when Linda and I break bread.  Linda may be even more passionate about gastronomy than this self-glossed gastronome.  As a certified Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS) judge, she recently had the privilege of judging at the American Royal World Series…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBurgersDog FriendlyMexicanNew MexicoTacos

Burger Bro’s – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Such advanced human traits as complex symbolic expression, art as an aesthetic visual form and elaborate cultural diversity emerged mainly during the past 100,000 years or so.  That’s more than four-million years after humans gained the ability to walk on two legs. By comparison, the ubiquitous All-American burger has evolved in the blink of time.  Most culinary historians believe the burger as we know it today was invented somewhere between 1885 and 1904. Even most of us who have lived three or more decades have seen significant changes in the burger.  Many of those changes have occurred during the 21st century–the last twenty years or so. Think about it.  For the most part, the predominant burger many “seasoned” eaters across the fruited plain enjoyed until recent years was relatively unadorned save for the burger’s essential and defining elements: a soft, toasted bun (sesame seed buns were popularized by the Golden Arches in the 60s); sweet, vine-ripened tomatoes; crisp, cool, crispy lettuce; a smear of pungent yellow mustard; maybe some chopped white onions and in the middle of it all, a juicy, seasoned all-beef patty.  To be sure, additional ingredients–cheese in the 1920s or 1930s and in New Mexico, green chile in the 1940s–eventually…

2025 James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistAmericanDiners Drive-Ins and DivesDog FriendlyFood Network Eats New MexicoJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Santa Fe

Joseph’s Culinary Pub – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Although ducks don’t have a church sanctioned patron saint, if the Catholic church ever deemed one worthy it would be Saint Cuthbert, a 12th Century Anglo-Saxon monk.  According to legend, Saint Cuthbert tamed a large population of nesting eider ducks so well that they would nest even next to the chapal altar without fear.  Cuthbert placed the ducks under his protective grace so that no one would eat or disturb them.  Monks who mocked (mocking monks) Cutbert’s curse and ate or harassed the eiders were said to have been struck down. It’s a good thing Chef Joseph Wrede didn’t ply his trade in proximity to Saint Cuthbert or he would probably have been struck down by Cuthbert’s curse.  Diners like me who have enjoyed Chef Wrede’s menu would have incurred a similar fate. Even if you’re not familiar with Chef Wrede or his menu, you’ve probably figured out that duck figures prominently on that menu.  We first learned that about the 2008 James Beard “Best Chef Southwest” nominee at Joseph’s Table, his eponymous restaurant on the Taos Plaza.  When we visited Joseph’s Table, the special of the day was a “seven way lucky duck” dinner entree that included duck breast,…