Road Tips

Saggio's - Albuquerque, NM

During our vacation in New Mexico, we were sort of burned out on green chile sauce, fried potatoes and sopapillas (although I don't know if you could EVER get burned out on sopapillas).  We were talking with a waiter at a restaurant in Albuquerque one evening and I casually asked him where the best place to get a pizza in the city.  He didn't even flinch.  "Saggio's," he enthusiastically replied.  I told him that we had been seeing Saggio's when we would pass by it on Central Avenue.  "It's a little kitschy," he told us.  "But if you can get past that, they have the best pizza in town."  One night during our stay in Albuquerque, we ended up at Saggio's for dinner.  

Michel "Michael" Casale and his wife Francesca were Italian immigrants who landed in New York and lived in the Bronx.  Over time, Francesca gave birth to 3 boys - Frank, Nick and Tony - and the family had a small pizza place in the Bronx.  Looking to get to a warmer part of the country, the family settled in Albuquerque in the mid-70's and it wasn't long afterward when they opened Saggio's, a pizza-by-the-slice establishment near the University of New Mexico.  

Frank, Nick and Tony were the main players in Saggio's and it wasn't long before they had outgrown their little pizza shop.  They found a building near the corner of Cornell and Central Ave. just across from the University of New Mexico.  Over the years, the brothers added decorations, murals, statues and anything sort of off-kilter and funky to their restaurant making it a favorite of students and locals alike.  Today, Tony's son Gian is the managing partner in the restaurant which opened a 2nd location in the fall of 2021 in the Coronado Center shopping mall on the city's northeast side.

We actually went to the Saggio's on the northeast side first because I'm not big on restaurants with a lot of noisy kitsch.  But when we found that place was packed (it was a Saturday night), we decided to suck it up and go to the Cornell Dr. location back toward the center of Albuquerque. (see map) 

After finding a parking spot just down Cornell Dr. SE, we walked up the street to the colorful building that housed Saggio's.  Just inside the door was a life-sized statue of Babe Ruth, across the walkway was a life-sized statue of Muhammed Ali, and sort of tucked back into the corner was a life-sized statue of former Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr.  That one sort of puzzled me because while Babe Ruth and Muhammed Ali were thought of to be the best in their sports, Starr was a fine quarterback, but there were others - even in his day - who were better quarterbacks.  

Among the first thing kitschy thing we encountered - other than the statues - was a red Mercedes with its top sheared off.  It was a serving counter for desserts - named after the Saggio matriarch Francesca - with a glass case that held a few items.  While most people might think it was ingenious, novel or cute, I just sort of shrugged my shoulders.  

The dining area was a busy mix of plants including white columns with royal blue urns at the top filled with tropical plants.  Large spider plants, a banana plant, and other plants were hanging or in pots throughout the dining area.  Colorful lights, more kitschy items, and a ceiling mural hovered above the slat bench seats in the dining room.  

The center piece of the dining area is a pop art mural which depicts celebrities and historical figures in a colorful mélange.  The Beatles, Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe playing a guitar, The Three Stooges, John Wayne and The Supremes were all portrayed in the mural.  It gave us something to look at while we passed the time after ordering our pizza.  

Saggio's is counter service - counter ordering and counter pick-up - with the menu on the wall behind the front wall.  In addition to pizza, Saggio's tag line says "Italian Scratch Kitchen" and they had a number of pasta dishes on the menu, as well as salads, sandwiches and calzones.  

The thing I didn't like about Saggio's was that after we placed our order for food at the front counter, we had to go over to another counter in their bar area to order drinks.  That's two separate charges that I had to deal with rather than being able to order everything at one place.  My wife got a glass of chianti while I got a pint of the La Cumbre Elevated IPA.  

My wife needed some greens and she ordered a side Caesar salad to start out.  It was a basic romaine lettuce salad with croutons, shaved parmesan and some Italian seasoning sprinkled on top with a creamy Caesar dressing drizzled over the greens.  My wife thought it was fine for what it was.  

It was about 15 minutes after we ordered that our number was called for our pizza.  We went with our usual Italian sausage, mushroom and pepperoni.  We had a pretty big lunch earlier in the day and we weren't terribly hungry for dinner that night so we got a small thin crust.  It wasn't as thin as we like, but it was hand-tossed and the crust held up well with all the toppings.  Curiously, the sausage was shaved like they had shaved it off a spit like you would shave lamb meat for a gyro.  But we could tell the sausage had a spicy kick.  The mushrooms were fresh and earthy, and the pepperoni slices had a nice salty and spicy flavor.  

Was it a good pizza?  Sure, it was good.  The tangy tomato sauce and the mozzarella cheese coagulated well together with the toppings.  It was a filling pizza and we were glad we only got a small.  

While Saggio's came highly recommended by locals we talked with, it's evident that it was another instance of local bias where you like the pizza that you grew up with.  While Saggio's pizza was good, it didn't give us a jolt like we get with some of our favorite tavern-style pizzas in Chicago.  Everything about the pizza was fresh and it had good flavor.  I wouldn't call it a Top Ten pizza, but for Albuquerque I'm sure it was fine.  When we travel, we like to go where the locals go and it's wholly evident the locals go to Saggio's for their pizza.  Just remember - I warned you about the kitsch.  

Flying Star Cafe - Albuquerque, NM

During our time in Albuquerque last year, my wife wanted some breakfast.  We had researched some places and we were told by one of our waiters from a previous meal that quite probably the best - and most unique - place for breakfast was the Flying Star Cafe.  There were six locations to choose from around Albuquerque and we decided to drive out to the Paseo del Norte address to give Flying Star Cafe a try.  

Jean Bernstein was born into a family of entrepreneurs, so it was a natural move for her and her husband Mark to open a franchise of a popular San Francisco-based ice cream shop by the name of Double Rainbow.  In 1987, the Bernsteins opened Double Rainbow along Central Avenue in the Nob Hill neighborhood near the University of New Mexico.  8 years after opening Double Rainbow, the Bernsteins opened their second location in the Northeast Heights neighborhood along Juan Tabo Boulevard.  A third Double Rainbow location opened in 2000 in Albuquerque's Uptown area.  

By this time, the Bernsteins were looking to do more than ice cream.  They had been slowly working food in the mix - especially locally-sourced/farm-fresh breakfast items.  By the time the Bernsteins opened their fourth location in 2001 in the North Rio Grande area of Albuquerque, they mutually broke their franchise agreement with Double Rainbow and renamed their restaurant Flying Star Cafe - they got the Flying Star from a Chinese-manufactured aerial display rocket they saw in a fireworks magazine.  

The North Rio Grande location of Flying Star Cafe was unique in that it was near horse trails and they put in a hitching post for people traveling by horse could stop in for a meal.  It also featured a large outdoor patio - they called it the "Petio" - where patrons could eat along side their pets.  

Pictured at right - Jean and Mark Bernstein.  Photo courtesy The Flying Star & Satellite Coffee Blog

In 2002, Bon Appetit named Flying Star Cafe as one of the 10 Best Places in the United States to get breakfast.  They continued to expand their menu including sandwiches, pasta dishes, and Southwestern-regional cuisine.  They followed a philosophy of serving food that's "not fancy, but delicious and plentiful."

Buoyed by regional and national accolades, the Bernsteins and Flying Star Cafe were really on a roll.  In 2005, Flying Star Cafe opened their fifth location in downtown Albuquerque in what was the former Southern Union Gas Company Building, a 1930's modernism-designed structure that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Bernsteins remodeled the building to pay homage to the original modernistic-theme including colorful murals, brushed aluminum light fixtures, 1930's modern-style furnishings and a contemporary color scheme.  The downtown location was also unique in that they had individual meeting rooms where people could use for working lunches.  

Their prolific growth continued in 2006 when they opened their sixth location in the Albuquerque suburb of Corrales, then their 7th Flying Star opened the next year along Paseo del Norte in northeast Albuquerque. (This was the one we went to.)  2008 saw the opening of the eighth Flying Star in suburban Bernalillo, and the following year the Bernsteins ventured outside greater Albuquerque to open a Flying Star Cafe in the Railyard District up in Santa Fe.  

But as economics professors teach in college, rapid expansion doesn't always lead to rapid growth.  Flying Star Cafe began to garner a reputation for being too pricey, so the Bernsteins listened to their clientele and put in a "value" menu.  That helped for a while, but local economic conditions led to more setbacks for the Flying Star Cafe restaurants.  With some restaurants underperforming, the Bernsteins were forced to file a Chapter 11 business reorganization in 2014.  Within a year, Flying Star Cafe closed their downtown Albuquerque location, the one in suburban Bernalillo, and the lone non-Albuquerque area location up in Santa Fe. 

The reorganization worked and within three years Flying Star's cash flow was positive, the Bernsteins had paid off all unsecured creditors and the restaurant broke out of bankruptcy protection allowing the Bernsteins to continue to run the restaurants.   In addition to running the six Flying Star Cafe locations, since 1998 the Bernsteins have also owned Satellite Coffee, a five-location artisan coffee boutique that roasts its beans in small batches.      

The Flying Star Cafe location we went to was in a shopping complex at the southeast corner of Paseo Del Norte and Wyoming Blvd. NE on the northeast side of Albuquerque.  (see map)  The parking lot in front of the contemporary-designed building was packed and we had to park out a ways from the front door.  

And when we walked up to this Flying Star, the line was literally out the door - and this was at about 10:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning.  But the line was moving pretty quickly.  In all, it took us about 25 minutes from the time we queued up in line to when we were able to place our order at the counter.  Had the place not come so highly recommended we probably would have bagged it and sought another place to have breakfast.  But the wait gave us time to take a long look at the menu which was on a board above and behind the front counter area.     

It also gave us time to take a look at the delectable muffins, pastries, pies and cakes they had in the glassed in front counter.   They had a number of different cookies and treats on display - the espresso truffle brownie caught my eye.  My wife was pretty interested in the blueberry scone, as well as the salted almond crème caramel baked vanilla custard.  

The dining area was a splash of vibrant colors in a brightly naturally lit room.  The booth backs and banquette seats along the long wall were varieties of orange and bright red.  There was a small central area where there were small tables surrounding a four-sided banquette seating area.  The outdoor patio area was packed that day, so after we ordered at the counter, we decided to sit inside at a table near the door that opened up to the patio.  

It's breakfast all day at Flying Star Cafe which means you can get French toast with strawberries and bananas, blueberry pancakes, breakfast burritos and "make-your-own" omelets throughout the day.  But they also had a number of sandwiches, burgers made with grass-fed beef, soups, salads, protein bowls, and their house-made mac & cheese which has won several awards for being the best in Albuquerque.  The grilled fish tacos that I saw on the menu made me pause for a moment, but I was in the mood for breakfast.  

After 15 minutes after we ordered, our food showed up carried out to us by a cheerful young lady.  My wife and I both went with omelets that day and we both got a big glass of orange juice to chase the food.  I got the turkey sausage, mushrooms and pepper jack cheese omelet with a "side of green" - Flying Star Cafe's house-made green chile sauce.  The omelet came with home fries and a side of toast with some house-made jelly.  The green chile sauce was thick and chunky that was a wonderful complement to the turkey sausage, mushrooms and pepper jack cheese inside the omelet.  It was actually very good - and very filling.  

My wife got the spinach, bacon and Swiss cheese omelet.  She also had them add tomatoes and chopped onions in the omelet.  She got some salsa to pour onto the omelet.  Toast with the house-made jelly and home fries also came with her omelet.  My wife was more than happy with her omelet and while she wasn't able to eat the whole thing, she finished off most of it.  

Flying Star Cafe has won a number of national, regional and local awards over the years and given the popularity of the location we went to that beautiful Saturday morning it's no wonder.  Our omelets were very good - they didn't skimp on the ingredients and there was certainly a lot of home fries on the side.  We still had food on our plates and we noticed a lot of people taking "to-go" boxes with them that they could eat later on.  Since we were traveling, we couldn't do that.  But for a counter-serve place, the support staff was very helpful and friendly.   And the place was colorful, vibrant and bright.  Flying Star Cafe is a great place for breakfast for people of all ages.  

Church Street Cafe - Albuquerque, NM

For some unknown reason before we took our trip to New Mexico last year, my wife had it in her head that the Old Town section of Albuquerque was a pretty rough area.  However, we happened to drive through that part of Albuquerque one afternoon and found that it was full of shops, restaurants, galleries and museums.  As we drove around the Old Town Plaza, the birthplace of Albuquerque over 400 years ago, I was incredulous as to why my wife thought this area was not a place where people should be going.  "I honestly don't know what I was thinking," she said.  

The morning we were set to leave Albuquerque and fly back home, we decided to go to Old Town and look for a restaurant.  I parked on a side street and we got out and started walking around.  On an even smaller side street - almost an alleyway - we happened upon a restaurant in an adobe that was built in 1709, five years after Albuquerque was founded.  We opened the door and went inside to find a coffee shop.  But it also turned out that it was a restaurant.  After a quick glance at the menu, we decided to stay and have breakfast.  Here's the interesting story about the Church Street Cafe.  

As I said, the building that Church Street Cafe occupies is 415 years old.  That's right, FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN YEARS.  It's almost unfathomable to me that a building that is over 400 years old is still standing today.  But you have to admire the design and construction of New Mexican adobes.  The house - Casa de Ruiz - was built by the Ruiz family and is quite probably the oldest residence in Albuquerque and one of the oldest buildings in the state of New Mexico.  

Members of the Ruiz family lived in the house for over 375 years.  The last family member to live in the house - Ruffina Ruiz - died in 1991 at the age of 91.  While ancestry and historical records aren't complete, it could be that the Ruiz family were among the founders of Albuquerque over 400 years ago.  

After Ruffina Ruiz passed in 1991, the house fell into disrepair.  Ruiz family members were no longer in the area - part of them were in Arizona, others up in Oklahoma.  They had no use for the house, especially when it needed so much work to be done.  Enter a young woman by the name of Marie Coleman.  

Marie Coleman was going to school in Albuquerque and one day she was walking through the streets of Old Town to clear her head from a school project she was working on.  She came across the adobe building that she felt literally "melted into the ground".  She saw it was for sale and tried to look in the windows.  She saw some 2x4's holding up interior walls and realized that building was in dire need of repairs.  But there was something Marie liked about the old building with its 2-foot wide walls that kept the house warm in the winter and cool in the hot New Mexican summers.   

Pictured right - Marie Coleman.  Photo courtesy Big Blend Radio.

Marie went home and told her mother about the house.  She encouraged Marie to call up the realtor who was listing the property to see if she could get a tour of the place.  The realtor agreed to meet her there the next day.  The back door was the only way in and it was padlocked.  Once the realtor got her inside, Marie had to swat down spiderwebs and maneuver around obstacles as the building was so run down.  

Maria saw a lot of potential charm in the place which was originally built in the Mexican hacienda style with a courtyard surrounded by thick adobe walls.  However, a devastating flood in 1920 knocked down part of the structure and the Ruiz family never fully built the walls back up.  

After Marie was finished seeing the property, she asked the realtor how much the family wanted for the building.  She sort of choked when she was told how much they wanted. Marie said that since she was still in school she wouldn't be able to afford even close to that.  She thanked the realtor for their time and she went home to tell her mother.  

After telling her mother what the price was and how she knew she couldn't pull off purchasing the property.  But her mother - ever the eternal optimist - told Marie to go back to the realtor with a ridiculously low offer considering the amount of work that had to go into the place and that it had sat empty for nearly two years.  "After all," her mother said, "all they can say is 'no'."

So Marie went back to the realtor and gave the realtor an offer that was half of the asking price.  And she said it had to be on contract since she was still a student.  The realtor sort of shrugged their shoulders and told Marie that they'd ask the family.  

The next day, Marie was accompanying her aunt Reyna up to the Denver area to help her sell some Indian woven goods when they stopped at a gas station.  Since this was in the days before cell phones, she called the realtor from a payphone and she was told, "Well, Marie, you've got yourself a house!"  

After getting off the phone with the realtor, she told her aunt that she had just bought a house in Old Town.  In early 1993, Old Town wasn't quite the destination that it was today.  Aunt Reyna proceeded to tell her that she had made a big mistake, property in Old Town wasn't a good investment, and there was going to be way too much work to turn the place into a habitable living space.  By the time she got to the market to sell the woven goods, Marie was starting to doubt her purchase.

However, when she got home, her mother - once again, the eternal optimist - told Marie not to worry.  "We'll figure it out," Marie's mother (Reyna's sister) told her.  

Marie's mother turned to a family friend, a little Mexican guy by the name of Charlie, who restored adobe structures.  Charlie met Marie at her new home and she let him in through the back door.  After walking silently through the house with Marie, mentally noting the repairs and renovations he was going to have to do, Charlie finally turned to Marie and said, "How bad do you want this house?"  

Marie told him that she really wanted the house.  "OK, meet me here tomorrow," Charlie told her.  The next morning, Marie showed up and Charlie came with a work crew.  He gave Marie a list of items that he needed and while the crew started to work on the house, Marie went out and bought items that they needed that day.

And that went on for a few months.  Marie literally became part of the crew backing up cement trucks, helping lay adobe, and cleaning up debris.  By the end of summer, the house was getting to the point it was ready to be lived in.  

Marie invited her Aunt Reyna over to see the house and as they were walking through the house looking at the rooms, Aunt Reyna turned to Marie and said, "This isn't a house.  This is a restaurant.  And this is where you're going to put your kitchen.  And this can be a dining room, and this can be for patio dining, and this is can be for banquets."  Aunt Reyna said that she would help with the menu using family recipes on her side of the family, as well as helping pick a staff.  Marie wasn't even considering a restaurant, but she realized that she needed some income to help pay for the building.  In October of 1993, Church Street Cafe opened.  

We had parked on San Felipe St., a one-way that heads north in Old Town Albuquerque.  We wandered down the small Church Street and came upon the Church Street Cafe.  (see map)  It had a couple disc cactus bushes in front of the small patio and three colorful metal figures depicting a mariachi band on the adobe awning over the front patio.  

Going inside we found a little coffee and pastry area with what appeared to be a small dining area off to the side.  The young lady behind the counter asked if we wanted breakfast.  My wife said that we weren't even certain what this place was.  The young lady handed us a menu to look over.  Not only did they have an extensive menu for Mexican specialties, they had a number of Mexican/American items for breakfast.  My wife and looked at one another, we both shrugged and she said, "Sure! We'll have breakfast!"

The young lady behind the counter said that it would be about a 15 to 20 minute wait on breakfast.  By now, we were thoroughly confused.  There was no one seated on the patio up front (although the patio area was pretty rustic) and the room off to the side of the coffee/pastry area was empty, as well.    

We hung out in the patio area in front of the restaurant and it was less than 10 minutes later when the young lady came out to let us know that they had a table ready for us.  She asked us if we wanted inside seating or outside seating.  Looking at the small patio with two round tables and wooden seats on the patio, we immediately said we'd eat inside.

We went inside and took a quick left into what we thought was a small room off to the side.  It turned out that it was a long and narrow dining area in the restaurant complete with a wooden ceiling and wooden beams with artwork on the walls.  We were both sort of amazed at the size of the room.  

The young lady led us through this long room with smaller rooms off to the side.  Church Street Cafe lore has it that the ghost of a previous resident in Casa de Ruiz - Sara Ruiz - haunts these rooms.  (Click here to see the story of the ghost of Sarah Ruiz.)  It's said that the ghost will slam doors, hide keys and throw silverware in the restaurant.  Maria Coleman, herself, said that she had seen a female apparition and had heard a female screaming during the build-out of the restaurant.  Construction workers reported that tools they had left at one spot mysteriously were found in a different place in the restaurant moments later.  (I do that, too, from time to time.  I just attribute it to absent-mindedness.)   

At the end of the long narrow dining room, we took another left turn into a large room with a vaulted ceiling.  This is where they were seating people for breakfast!  It's obvious the room had been added onto the existing restaurant in recent years.  It featured wooden beams across the ceiling, a large adobe fireplace along a wall that was stone bricks on the lower part, then corrugated tin on the wall above the stone.  Large windows looked out into a garden patio area.  

The garden patio had a number of tables with umbrellas in a small courtyard with trees and bushes helping add more shade.  Had we known how nice the outdoor patio in the far back of Church Street Cafe, we would have sat outside.  But, the inside dining room where we were seated was fine and dandy for us.  

We continued to look over the menus when a young man by the name of Sherman came over to greet us.  (Sherman - that's a name you don't hear many men called these days.)  My wife and I each got an orange juice to start out as we tried to figure out what we wanted.  

As I said, Church Street Cafe's breakfast offerings included both American and Mexican specialties - and a mixture of both.  They had huevos rancheros, a marinated pork with eggs dish, and smashed avocado on toast.  Eggs, pancakes and breakfast burritos were also available.  

But the rest of the menu - the lunch and dinner selections - had us kicking ourselves for not finding this place earlier.  The "old fashioned" chile rellenos with shredded pork made my mouth water.  They also had house-made pork tamales that sounded great, as well.  The shredded top round beef tacos would have been toward the top of my list had we been there for lunch or dinner.  Next time, that is, if we make it back to Albuquerque.  

I had been saying that I was burnt out on green chiles after having one or two meals a day that featured green chiles included in the food.  But I couldn't turn away from the ham, mushroom and cheese omelet slathered with green chile sauce on top.  It came with a side of New Mexican-style papitas, and flour tortillas.  The green chile sauce was excellent and really gave the omelet an extra kick.  I asked Sherman if he could bring more of the green chile sauce for me to dip the tortillas into and to put on the potatoes.  

My wife went the basic Americano route - pancakes with two eggs over easy, bacon and sourdough toast.  The pancakes were thin - just as she makes them at home - and had a crispy edge around the perimeter.  My wife remarked that if she didn't know better, the pancakes were made in a black iron frying pan.  The eggs looked like they were more basted than fried.  My wife declared the pancakes to be "delicious".  

Before we left, we ended up getting coffee.  I got a quad-shot of espresso and fully expected it to be given to me in a small "to-go" cup so I could sip on it as we walked around Old Town before heading to the airport.  However, when it was handed to me, they gave me a 16 ounce cup of espresso that was filled nearly to the brim!  My wife and I got a chuckle out of that as there was no way that I was going to be able to finish it.  Or if I did, I wouldn't need a plane to fly back to Iowa!

For not knowing what to expect by walking into what appeared to be a small cafe only to find that it was a full-sized restaurant with a couple large dining rooms with a beautiful garden patio in the back, we couldn't have been more taken by the charm of Church Street Cafe.  It didn't hurt that their food was good and they had a number of interesting foods on the menu.  I had my last filling of green chile sauce on my omelet that morning and my wife was weaning herself off New Mexican food by having pancakes and eggs.  The service we got from Sherman was also very good as he was attentive to our needs and quick with his delivery.  If we ever make it back to Albuquerque, our first stop will be at Church Street Cafe.  

Greenside Cafe - Cedar Crest, NM

After my wife and I came back down from the Sandia Crest Scenic Byway, we ended up in the small town of Cedar Crest on the eastern side of the mountain.  It was time for lunch and we decided to look for a place in the area and a quick search on my wife's smart phone found a place that she thought would be good.  It wasn't much later that I pulled into the parking lot of the Greenside Cafe.  

Jay Wulf cut his teeth in restaurants at an early age working at one of the more famous gourmet restaurants at the time. In 1991, he decided to go to the Western Culinary Institute in Portland, OR to become a chef.  After graduating from W.C.I., Wulf ended back in New Mexico as the chef at the esteemed Prairie Star restaurant located just north of Albuquerque.  After a two year stint at Prairie Star, Wulf went on to Santa Fe to work at Cafe Escalera, an upscale New Mexican-style restaurant.  From there, Wulf had stints at the Range Cafe in the Albuquerque suburb of Bernalillo, and later at the Standard Diner in Albuquerque.  

In between his time at Range Cafe and the Standard Diner, Wulf opened Gecko's Bar and Tapas - the first tapas bar/gastropub in Albuquerque.   Wulf ran Gecko's from 2005 to 2007 when he sold the restaurant to Todd Lovell.  (Gecko's now has two locations in the greater Albuquerque area.) 

Pictured right - Jay Wulf.  Photo courtesy LinkedIn.  Wulf has an Iowa connection - he was born in Maquoketa, IA  before moving to New Mexico as a toddler.  

In the small town of Cedar Crest on the forested side of the Sandia Mountains, there was a longtime destination restaurant by the name of Belle Vista Restaurant that was famous for their all-you-can-eat fish and fried chicken dinners.  The restaurant opened in 1961 and was a landmark where people were more than happy to make the 30 minute trek to the far side of the mountain as there was nothing like it in Albuquerque.  Even with seating for 1200 patrons, some people would have to wait for a place to sit for up to 2 hours on weekends.   

It turned out that the Belle Vista was partly responsible for many people to move to the area on the green side of the mountain.  More temperate and lush than the Albuquerque side, the small village of Cedar Crest and the neighboring towns of San Antonito and Tijerus grew throughout the 80's into the 90's.  But when the Belle Vista was cited for numerous building code violations in the late 90's, the popular restaurant permanently closed in 1999.

The city of Cedar Crest bought the Belle Vista and the land around it and had the building demolished.  The city developed the land into mixed-use properties including residential, retail and restaurant spaces.  Jay Wulf saw the potential in having a restaurant in Cedar Crest and after the Village at Belle Vista was built in 2006, he leased a space in the development.  In October of 2007, Wulf opened the Greenside Cafe - so named because it was on the side of the Sandia Mountains that had had trees and grasslands.  

It was around 2 p.m. when we made it into the Greenside Cafe.  (see map)  There was ample parking to be had in front of the restaurant.  On the front side of the restaurant was a shaded patio area with a short awning coming off the front of the building.  There were a few people outside enjoying the warm New Mexico afternoon.  

Stepping inside Greenside Cafe, off to the left side was a small bar area with an open window into the kitchen.  The bar only seated 4 people and there were some small tables along the windows that looked out onto the patio.  

The main dining area was a spacious room with exposed ductwork and large paned windows.  A combination of carpeting and floor tile covered the floor of the dining area.  High-backed partitions separated tables with chairs and bench seating along the walls.   A sign above the beer spigots simply said, "cold beer & beer manners".  I sort of chuckled when I saw it.  

We were shown to one of the booths with the bench seating in a corner of the dining area and given a couple menus to take a look at.  After a bit, our server came over to greet us, a pleasant middle-aged woman by the name of Cynthia.  My wife just had water with a lemon wedge and I got a hazy IPA from a local craft brewery that they had on tap.  

The menu at Greenside Cafe wasn't extensive, but it was enough of a diverse selection of food that there seemed to be something for everyone.  They had a fried chicken dinner that helped carry on the tradition of Belle Vista restaurant.  There were noodles in a peanut sauce, a trout dinner, and shredded chicken enchiladas for the main course on the menu.  They had a green chile cheeseburger on the menu and the Sangre de Cristo - basically a Monte Cristo sandwich consisting of Black Forest ham, house-roasted turkey, Swiss cheese, and green chile on grilled egg-battered Hawaiian bread.  The sandwich also came with a raspberry chipotle sauce.  I thought long and hard on that one before I ended up ordering something else.  

I kept saying that I was getting burnt out on green chiles while we were in New Mexico, but it seemed like I would always find something with a green chile sauce that intrigued me.  And Greenside Cafe had slow-cooked pulled  beef brisket sandwiched between two corn taco shells and topped with green chile sauce and a combination of cheddar and jack cheese.  It came with basmati rice and pinto beans on the side.  (I discovered that I really liked pinto beans over refried beens during our trip to New Mexico.)  Chopped cilantro and diced tomatoes finished off the dish.  

And it was damned good.  The brisket literally fell apart when I cut into it with my fork.  My knife was absolutely not needed.  The taste sensations exploded in my mouth with each bite.  I ate a lot of Mexican/New Mexican food during my trip there and this was one of the better meals I experienced.  

It was a Friday when we were at Greenside Cafe and they had a fried fish dinner for the special that day.  It came with cole slaw, a choice of French fries or sweet potato fries, and a house-made tartar sauce.  My wife asked Cynthia if she could get something other than potato fries and Cynthia told her that they had a steamed vegetable as a substitution.  My wife signed up for that.  

And my wife was very impressed with the fried fish at Greenside Cafe.  There were five or six battered and deep-fried pieces of haddock on the plate.  My wife said the fish was not greasy and didn't have a fishy aftertaste.  She was happy she got the fish, but it was a lot of food.  She was able to finish maybe four of the planks along with a couple bites of both the cole slaw and the steamed veggies before she threw in the towel.  

Cynthia came over and asked my wife if she wanted a to-go box and she declined.  "We're traveling," my wife explained.  Cynthia asked us where we were from and we told her Iowa.  

"Iowa," she repeated as sort of a question.  "Our owner was from Iowa."  

Moments later, a young man came out.  He identified himself as the restaurant's general manager and we figured out after a bit that he was Jay Wulf's son.  "My dad was born in Iowa, but he moved here as a little kid," the young man told us.  "When he was a young boy, he'd go back to Iowa to visit family.  But since he went to culinary school, he's never been back to Iowa."   He inquired as to how we liked our lunches.  We told him we were both more than happy with what we got.

While Jay Wulf has sustained the success of the Greenside Cafe, it's been estimated that over 50 restaurants have come and gone in Cedar Crest over the past 16 plus years.  And we could tell from our visit why the Greenside Cafe has outlived many restaurants in the area.  The food was very good and it was also an excellent value.  Cynthia's service was very good and the whole staff was friendly.  And it was a nice comfortable place to dine.  Greenside Cafe turned out to be a very enjoyable dining experience.  

505 Central Food Hall - Albuquerque, NM

During our trip to New Mexico last year, we found an interesting place not far from our hotel that was an urban food hall that housed 6 different restaurants, two bars/breweries, and a craft coffee shop.  For lunch one day, we decided to go check out 505 Central Food Hall and see what it was all about.   

Mark Baker didn't start out as a food hall owner or a coffee shop owner, but as an architect with an undergraduate degree from Oklahoma.  After working for a few years as a project architect, Baker moved to Los Angeles to work on his masters at UCLA.  While going to school at UCLA, Baker continued to work as a project architect in the greater Los Angeles area.  After graduating with his masters in architecture from UCLA in 2002, Baker moved to Albuquerque and started his own firm - Baker Architecture + Design.    

Baker had a number areas of interest - he was a musician and a part-time songwriter, he played tennis and founded Tennisopolis, the world's largest social network site for tennis players.  But he also loved coffee, especially craft coffee.  In 2014, Baker opened Humble Coffee, a small craft coffee brewer on Lomas Ave. in Albuquerque's Nob Hill neighborhood. 

But Baker also liked to travel and during his time in Europe and South America he noticed a number of food halls in place where people would congregate and have their choice of restaurants where to eat.  It was something that he visualized being in downtown Albuquerque.  So, in 2016 Baker bought the building at 505 Central Avenue just across the street from the historic KiMo Theatre.  The building had three floors each totaling approximately 13,000 square feet in floor space.  Baker planned on having a food hall on the main floor, offices on the 2nd floor, and condos on the 3rd floor.

Pictured right - Mark Baker.  Photo courtesy Albuquerque Business Journal.  

Baker moved his architectural company's offices into the building soon after he bought the building and began the task of designing a food hall similar to the ones he encountered in his travels.  Construction began on the food hall in 2019 and things were moving along nicely until the pandemic hit in March of 2020 basically shutting down all construction and commerce in Albuquerque.  

As the world slowly opened back up in the summer of 2020, construction on the food hall continued and by November the vendors were in place and 505 Central Food Hall opened to much anticipation on November 14, 2020.  9 vendors were in place including a second location of Humble Coffee and Moonwalk Bev - a brewery/distillery that was co-owned by Baker.  

505 Central Food Hall is actually the third food market in the greater Albuquerque area.  In early 2020, Sawmill Market opened on the city's west side near Old Town Albuquerque.  A second food hall - Tin Can Alley - opened in the midst of the pandemic in May of 2020 on Albuquerque's far north side.  A fourth food hall - tentatively named Highlands Central Food Market - has been in development for over 2 years along the Central Ave. corridor on the east side of downtown Albuquerque.  As of now, 505 Central Food Hall is the only one in downtown Albuquerque.  

We got into 505 Central Food Hall around 1:30 that particular afternoon.  It's located at the corner of 5th St. and Central Ave. in downtown Albuquerque, about a three block walk from our hotel. (see map)  The expansive food hall had some vendor booths in the middle and a courtyard of tables along the east wall that looks out on to 5th Street.  

Toward the back opposite corner from the front door was a common area with more tables.  It was a sunny and warm afternoon and there weren't a lot of people in the place so we were able to walk around and check out the vendors in the food hall.

In addition to Humble Coffee and Moonwalk Bev, 505 Central has a taco place (Tino's Tacos), a deli and sandwich shop (Stackt), a spicy chicken joint (KūKri), a ramen noodle place (Naruto Ramen), a pizza joint (Thicc Pizza Co.), and a sports bar/package liquor store (Packie's Bar).  

They also had a burger joint in 505 Central - Stackers Burger Company.  The man behind KūKri n the food hall - Basit Gauba - also owns the Tikka Spice food truck in Albuquerque.  Gauba is a James Beard Award semi-finalist and his food truck also won a local contest for the best green chile cheeseburger in Albuquerque in 2023.  Two spots opened up in the 505 Central Food Hall earlier in 2023 after the vendors didn't renew their leases, and Mark Baker convinced Gauba to open KūKri and Stackers Burger Company in those empty spots.  

And it was at Stackers Burger Company where we ended up.  They had a variety of burgers to choose from and we picked out a couple.  We got our order numbers and went over to Moonwalk to have a drink while we waited for our burgers to cook up.  Moonwalk has sort of a retro-70's vibe to it complete with a large moon on the wall near the bar.  We took a seat at the bar and my wife ordered up a Moonwalk-distilled vodka and cranberry, while I got a Moonwalk India Pale Ale.  I asked the bartender if it would be OK to eat at the bar and she enthusiastically said, "You bet!"

I ended up getting the Duke City Cheeseburger - the recent winner in the Green Chile Cheeseburger Smackdown contest in Albuquerque.  It featured two smashed burger patties topped with cheese, green chiles, and sautéed onions.  At that point during our trip to New Mexico, I was pretty burnt out on all things chile, but I had to try this burger.  And it was fabulous.  The green chiles had a smoky and earthy quality taste to them.  The burgers were juicy and full of flavor.  It was an outstanding burger. 

All of Stackers Burger Company's burgers come with two patties and my wife wasn't that hungry.  She asked the guy at the counter if she could get just a single burger.  He suggested the classic mustard grilled cheeseburger with just one patty instead of two.  That's what she ended up ordering and she also thought it was very good.  

We've been to food halls before, most notably in Milwaukee and Chicago where they're three or four times larger than 505 Central Food Hall.  But for downtown Albuquerque, this food hall is large enough with enough diversity to take care of people working in the area.  The burgers we had at Stackers Burger Company were excellent - the award winning Duke City Cheeseburger was a great value at $11.95 - and I thought the IPA from Moonwalk Bev in the food hall was very good, as well. The food hall/market concept is one that we're starting to see more and more of where old buildings are being repurposed.  And the 505 Central Food Hall was a good representation of just that.  

Turquoise Trail Scenic Byway - Santa Fe to Albuquerque, NM

Last year during our trip to New Mexico, we were told by a local in Santa Fe that if we weren't in any hurry to get down to Albuquerque that we should skip going back on Interstate 25, but head down to Albuquerque on New Mexico State Highway 14 - the Turquoise Trail Scenic Byway.  We were told there were lots of little towns along the way, a very good brewpub and a lot of great views.  After checking out of our hotel in Santa Fe, we found that the road running past our hotel eventually turned into State Highway 14 just outside of Santa Fe.  

The Turquoise Trail is about a 60 mile long road that goes between Santa Fe and Tijeras, NM just east of Albuquerque.  It runs through small towns and villages such as Los Cerillos, Madrid, San Pedro and Sandia Park, many of which are artist communities.  

But what you don't necessarily see is the history behind the Turquoise Trail - the mines and now-ghost towns that were in place in the 18th and 19th centuries.  The ghost town of Golden, just north of San Pedro along State Highway 14, was the site of the first gold rush west of the Mississippi in the mid-1820's.  Up the road in Los Cerillos, gold was discovered in the 1870's and the area boomed with prospectors and commerce. 

But turquoise is the main precious mineral that has been mined in the region for hundreds of years. Native Pueblo Indians mined turquoise stones in the Cerillos Hills and Spanish conquistadors sent turquoise back to Spain for crown jewels.  Archeologists discovered over 50,000 pieces of turquoise that had been buried in a canyon north and west of Albuquerque.  Mayan ruins in far away Honduras have been found to contain turquoise stones that were mined in the Cerillos Hills just north of present day Madrid, NM.  (Madrid is pronounced the same way as the town in Iowa - MAD-rid.)  In addition to gold and turquoise, mines in the area produced zinc, lead, silver and copper.  

Heading south and east out of Santa Fe, there is a brew pub - Beer Creek Brewing Company - that we were told by a local in Santa Fe to stop at.  (See map)  Actually, we drove past it, realized that we passed it, then turned around down the road and went back.  Established in 2018 by friends who had a mutual interest in home brewing, Beer Creek Brewing Company got its name from the small creek that benefitted from the run-off of beer during the brewing process near the home of one of the founders.  Housed in a rustic stone building that has been used in film and television productions over the years, Beer Creek (known as BCBC or BC-squared by locals) offers a number of beers brewed on premises and also offers pizzas, sandwiches, pasta dishes and appetizers.  

Walking inside Beer Creek Brewing is like walking back into the old west.  The main bar area is on the left as you walk in.  The L-shaped bar was situated in a corner and had a wooden facade and metal stools.  Exposed wooden beams with faux candle lamps on a circular wagon wheel hung from the ceiling.  The dark wood walls definitely gave it a western feel.   

The rooms off the bar area were small.  The centerpiece of the room next to the bar area was an old stone fireplace with a number of tables nearby.  About the only thing that sort of looked out of place in the bar and the fireplace room were the flat screen televisions that hung on the walls.  

The rooms were cozy, but brightened by LED lights.  A couple of the rooms looked like they had recently been renovated with newer wood floors and support beams.  Pictures of the building from years ago hung on the wall of one of the small rooms.  
 
The inside bar was actually closed, but the outside bar was open.  The bar was part of a large outdoor patio that was situated under a number of trees that canopied the patio.  Once again, it was a hot day in New Mexico, but the air was dry and it was pleasant to sit outside.  The adobe-walled patio featured a large outdoor fireplace, but it certainly wasn't need that day.  

My wife and I ordered up a couple beers - I got the IP-AYY India Pale Ale and my wife got the Tres Amigo pale ale.  The beers at Beer Creek Brewing all feature locally grown hops and grains.  The IP-AYY was a bit more strong and hoppy than the Tres Amigo.  And sitting out on the patio having beers in the mid-day dry heat was a great experience.

The area around Beer Creek Brewing Company features a handful of studio sites where movies and television shows were shot.  We were told during our visit that the three largest employers in the Santa Fe area are the state of New Mexico, the hospitality industry (hotels, restaurants, tourism), and the film and television industry.  A couple guys seated at the table next to us were talking about the work they were doing at one of the studios nearby.  My wife bought me a book while we were in Albuquerque - "A Guide to New Mexico Film Locations" by Jason Strykowski - that goes into details of where some famous movies and television programs were filmed across the state.  Films such as Easy Rider, Crazy Heart, Hang 'Em High, and 3:10 to Yuma were filmed at various sites around the state, and the hit television programs - Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul - were filmed in and around Albuquerque.  

After finishing up at Beer Creek Brewing, we made our way down the road to the small village of Los Cerillos, just off Highway 14.  The town was once considered as the site for the state capitol building in New Mexico as it was the epicenter of turquoise, gold and lead deposits.  Dozens of mines were in the area for years making Los Cerillos a boom town in the mid-to-late 1800's.  Today, it's a sleepy tourist town where a number of television programs and movies have been shot over the years including Young Guns, We're the Millers, and Roswell - The Final Verdict.      

While we were driving around the small town, we ended up going down a side road and running into the Casa Grande Trading Post which also had a petting zoo and a turquoise mining museum.  My wife wanted to go in and take a look at what it was all about.  

The place was a combination rock shop/gift shop/antique store/tourist trap.  I remarked that it was sort of like a place the Griswold family would stop at on their way to Wally World in the "Vacation" movie.  Todd Brown and his wife Patricia run the establishment and feature different types of mineral rocks that are mined in the Cerillos Mining District located just north of the town.  Actually, my wife was sort of enamored with the different turquoise stones they had there.  While she looked at the turquoise, I poked my head back into the mining museum they had in the back of the place.  I'm not that big into geology to want to see the tools and contraptions they used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to extract the minerals out of the mines in the area.  My wife ended up buying a couple pieces of turquoise and she also bought me a colorful New Mexico "Chile Capital of the World" license plate.    

Just down the road from Los Cerillos was the small town of Madrid, NM.  Art galleries, boutiques, small restaurants and other touristy businesses lined Highway 14 as we drove slowly through the town.  "Do you wanna stop," I asked as we slowed down for a turning car.  

"No," my wife immediately said.  "Let's get going down the road."  

And that was fine with me as I found the best part of the drive on the Turquoise Trail to be the scenery.  The rolling hills and high plains dotted with sage bushes, the purple mountains off in the distance, and the brilliant blue sky allowed for many vistas along the road.  There were a handful of turnout areas that allowed us to stop and take in the views.  To me, that was the best part of traveling the Turquoise Trail. 

We took many scenic roads while we were in New Mexico, but the Turquoise Trail almost seemed geared for the tourists.  While there were some places to stop along the way - the Beer Creek Brewing Company being one - the attraction of the route was the beautiful scenery that stretched from Santa Fe all the way down to just east of Albuquerque.  If you're traveling between the two cities and have some time to kill, the Turquoise Trail is a nice little diversion. 

Scalo - Albuquerque, NM

Usually, the bartenders at the hotels we stay at have a good grasp of the various restaurants in the area.  The two 20-something bartenders at the Hotel Andaluz that we stayed in during our trip to Albuquerque had no clue where to send us other than the hotel's restaurant just below the indoor/outdoor patio bar at the hotel.  One of them did say that there were a number of restaurants on the main drag east of downtown Albuquerque.  We took off and drove over to Central Avenue near the campus of the University of New Mexico.  While we did find a number of restaurants, most of them were bars and diners.  That is, with the exception of a bright white building with a neon sign on the front corner of the restaurant.  We drove by it a couple times and my wife looked it up on her phone.  It turns out the restaurant - Scalo - was a contemporary Italian eatery.  We were certainly up for Italian food - we were sort of burnt out from eating New Mexican-style food for the previous five or six days - and we decided to go to Scalo for dinner.     

A trio of partners opened Scalo (which roughly means "stopover place" in English) as a Northern Italian restaurant in December of 1986 in Albuquerque's historic Nob Hill neighborhood.  From all indications, the trio continued to run the restaurant for the next nearly 20 years before it was purchased by Albuquerque restaurateur Steve Paternoster.  Paternoster was raised in Northern Michigan, but spent a lot of time at his father's neighborhood bar in El Paso, TX.  With Northern Italian ancestry on his mother's side, he learned a lot of the recipes and traditions that helped him later in life.  Paternoster ran a bar in Gallup, NM before he became an airline host where he forged a number of relationships that helped him ease into the restaurant business.  After a stint in hotel management, he and his wife Jane moved to Albuquerque  In addition to Scalo, Paternoster was also a partner in two other upper echelon restaurants in Albuquerque - P'tit Louis Bistro and Brasserie La Provence.  

Things were going well for Paternoster until the late 2010's when a series of personal, professional and structural set backs were the cause of the closure of Scalo.  Paternoster turned over ownership of Scalo to his ex-wife and there was hope that the restaurant would reopen.  It didn't.

Enter Prashant and Kristie Sawant.  

The Sawants were technical engineers for over 20 years.  It turned out that they liked to travel a lot and they followed their passion by finding some of the best restaurants and wines around the world.  The Sawants spent the bulk of their time in Europe - especially in Italy - learning about the food, culture and wines of the region.  The couple had moved to Albuquerque years before and thought of Scalo as "their place" for date nights and special occasions.  

When the opportunity to purchase Scalo came up in 2019, the Sawants jumped at the chance.  The first thing they did was to do a wholesale renovation of the restaurant.  Infrastructure problems led to the demise of the original restaurant, so the couple spent thousands of dollars getting the building back up to code while maintaining the intimacy the original Scalo held.  

After some starts and stops due to the pandemic, Scalo opened for full business in the summer of 2021.  The original chef was from Northern Italy, but he was soon replaced by David Ruiz, a graduate of the California Culinary Academy.  Ruiz kept some of the items on the menu from the original Scalo Northern Italian restaurant, but also came up with some new modern twists on some of the Italian favorites.  

We pulled up to Scalo around 7 p.m. (see map)  There is a parking lot next to the place, but it was full.  We ended up parking along a residential street about a block and a half away from the restaurant.  We walked up to Scala and they had live music playing in the outdoor patio area.  The patio was packed on a beautiful evening in New Mexico.

The entrance of Scalo takes you into the bar area.  It was a pretty cool lounge with an impressive amount of liquor selections on the wall of the back bar.  A hostess asked us if we had reservations and, of course, we did not.  She told us that we had choices - wait 15 to 20 minutes for a table to open in the dining room, wait 30 to 45 minutes for a table to open on the patio, or have immediate seating in the bar area.  There were a number of high-top tables in the bar and open seats at the bar.  I asked if we could take a look in the dining room and the hostess led us through a passage was that opened into the dining room.  I told my wife, "It's your decision."  She said that we could wait for a table to open up in there.  We went up to the bar to order something for us to drink while we waited, but before the bartender could wait on us, the hostess came over and said that she could seat us immediately.  

The dining room was a large, airy room with an open kitchen under a tiled arch.  There was an upstairs porch area that looked out over the dining room with a small walk-up seating area along the kitchen.  The hostess tried to seat us in the little walk-up area at a table with banquette seating.  I immediately balked - I HATE banquette seating.  I want a table with chairs, not communal bench seats and chairs.  My wife pointed out a two-seater table next to the window that looked out onto Central Ave.   "You want to sit there," she asked somewhat incredulously.  At that point, anything other than a table with banquette seating was acceptable. 

After the hostess dropped off menus for us, our server that evening - Sergio - came over to greet us.  "I'll be right back, folks," he said somewhat hurriedly, but in an earnest fashion.  "I'll let you get settled in while I take care of a couple things."  It turned out that Sergio was an excellent server all night long.  Originally from California, he settled in New Mexico a number of years ago.  "A lot of people are coming to New Mexico from California and Colorado," he told us later in the night.  "I made the move long before the new wave of people moved in."  

The food menu at Scalo could be described as "new world" Italian.  There wasn't a lot on the menu that featured Southern Italy-style red sauce, nor was there anything on the menu that featured Northern Italian white sauces.  They had a Scottish-salmon entree available, as well as a shrimp, salmon belly, and fried calamari with risotto dish on the menu.  Scalo had flatbread pizzas as well as a 12-hour braised short rib offered that evening.  It was a short menu and we figured that everything had to be locally-sourced and very fresh.  

We started out sharing a dinner salad consisting of fresh arugula and romaine greens with chopped Finnocchiona salami with cherry tomatoes, green olives, pepperoncini, and shaved pecorino romano cheese finished with a rosé vinaigrette.   My wife was hungry and I let her eat more than I did.  She thought the salad was delicious.  There were a lot of taste sensations going on with each bite.  

My wife was in the mood for white wine that evening, but I was leaning more for a red wine with my meal.  She ended up getting a glass of the Thresher sauvignon blanc from Chile.  I decided on the Santa Christina red blend from Italy.  

I was sort of torn between the veal piccata and the beef cheek ravioli that they had on the menu that evening.  My wife - since she was going with a white wine - decided to get the veal piccata and I went with the ravioli.  The veal piccata was drizzled with a lemon sauce with capers.  Risotto came on the side with the veal cutlet.   Since I almost got the same dish, my wife offered a bite.  The veal was tender and the lemon sauce was outstanding.  But it didn't overpower the flavor of the veal.    

The beef cheek ravioli was unique.  Instead of a marinara sauce, the ravioli was mixed in a somewhat sweet and savory sauce.  Arugula and shredded parmesan topped the large beef-filled ravioli pillows.  I was sort of surprised that it wasn't a marinara sauce, but I have to say that it was a welcome surprise with the rustic Italian sauce they used.  A forward-tasting marinara may have masked the great taste of the beef cheek embedded in the ravioli.   

After dinner, Sergio brought the dessert menu, in addition to a cannoli and an affagato - salted caramel gelato topped with espresso - they had tiramisu.  I really wanted to get the salted caramel gelato, but my wife wanted the tiramisu.  "Is it made in house," she asked Sergio?  

He replied, "It's Chef's own recipe.  It's really good."  She went with the tiramisu.  

And it was very good - rich, sweet, savory, just a taste explosion with each bite.  It was a great ending to what turned out to be a great meal.  

Things had settled down by the time we were finishing up our dessert that Sergio was able to spend some time talking with us.  We told him that we were a little burned out New Mexican-style food, even though most of the places we had visited up to that point were great.  He gave us some great recommendations of places to eat while we were in Albuquerque.  "There's some really good places that aren't New Mexican-style restaurants in Albuquerque, he said.  It was great to talk with him and to learn stuff about the area only locals would know.  

For trying Scalo on a whim, I have to say that we hit the jackpot.  Sometimes walking into place we know nothing about works, sometimes it doesn't.  This time, it definitely worked.  Everything about the place - the decor and ambiance, the food and especially the service was outstanding.  It was easy to see why the place was packed inside and out when we were there that evening.  For wanting to step away from New Mexican-style food for a night, Scalo delivered - and then some!

Sandia Crest Scenic Byway - Albuquerque, NM

While we were in Albuquerque, my wife had mentioned reading about a tram that took people to the peak of the Sandia Mountains, just north and east of the city.   Now, my wife is a little skittish when it comes to walking on bridges or riding on trams, so I knew we weren't going to be taking the tram up to the top of the mountain.  As we were walking out of a restaurant after breakfast one beautiful morning when we were in the city, my wife looked up toward the peak of the mountain and noticed a number of antennas on the mountain.  She said, "I wonder if you can drive up there?"  I surmised that there had to be some road up to the peak to service all the antennas that were up there.  After a quick couple looks at Google, we found that there was, indeed, a roadway to the peak - the Sandia Crest Scenic Byway.  We had nothing else planned for that day, so we said, "What the hell?"  And we drove out to the starting point of the scenic highway.  (Photo courtesy Road Travel America.)  

The Sandia Mountains outside of Albuquerque were formed by a geological uplift that features a dense forest on the east side and craggy rock formations on the west side that faces the city.   The scenic road is a two-lane all-year paved highway that pierces nearly 14 miles on New Mexico state highway 536 through the Cibola National Forest with a series of switchbacks that comes out at the peak where a large parking lot at the end of the road.  At the peak's lookout, people are nearly 10,700 feet about sea level, just over two miles above sea level.  

To get to the start of the Sandia Crest Scenic Byway, we had to head east of Albuquerque on Interstate 40 to the Cedar Crest/New Mexico state highway 14 exit.  Getting off the interstate and taking a left to head north through Cedar Crest to the intersection of state highways 14 and 536.  A left turn onto New Mexico state highway 536 starts you on the trail to the top of the Sandia Mountains.  (see map) 

There are a handful of turnouts and parking areas on the way up the winding road, primarily for trail heads for hikers and picnic sites.  We did pass the entrance area to the Sandia Peak Ski Area which, of course, was closed for the season.  At the peak of the ski area is a restaurant - Ten 3 - which is also where the Sandia Peak Aerial Tram stops at the top of the mountain.  You can't get to Ten 3 by car, but you could hike over there from the parking lot at the end of the Sandia Crest Scenic Byway.  

The Sandia Crest Scenic Byway is the highest scenic highway in the Southwestern part of the U.S.  It took about a half-hour to get to the top where there are two parking lots.  We chose the upper parking lot where we encounter a fee to park.  I think it was something like $5 bucks.  The only problem was that the credit card machine was broken and they could only pay cash.  Of course, I didn't have a fiver on me and I had to fish out a $10 dollar bill to put in the receptacle.  And the authorities were there and definitely writing tickets to those who didn't have the voucher on their dash board.  

As we could see from down below the mountain, the vast array of antennas, microwave dishes, and other communication apparatus were bunched together in an antenna "farm" at the peak.  Nearly every over-the-air radio and television in the area had their broadcasting towers on the peak.  There were also governmental communications equipment including law enforcement towers on Sandia Peak.  

Looking across the lower parking lot was the valley east of Albuquerque.  Desert plains with mountains rising above the flatlands was an impressive site.  There was a gift shop/canteen at the crest of Sandia Mountain, but it was closed that day for some reason.  

Looking west down the face of the mountain was the city of Albuquerque.  With a metro population of a bit over 900,000 people, Albuquerque sprawled in front of the Sandia Mountains.  The lookout over the city was the spot that was about 10,700 feet above sea level.  It's also one of the more popular spots to watch sunsets in the evening.  

There was a trail head at the base of the bottom parking lot.  We decided to take a short walk on the rocky trail that went south of the parking lot and eventually would end up at the terminus of the aerial tram and the Ten 3 restaurant.  (The restaurant was called that as it sat at 10,300 feet above sea level.)  There were some nice views at spots along the trail.  The trail veered into the forest and we were ill-prepared to go on any further.  It was a hot, dry day and we didn't have water or the proper footwear to go deep on the trail.  Just the day before, we had seen reports on television of a couple distressed hikers that had to be rescued on trails due to possible heat stroke and overexertion.

We headed back to the parking area to start our journey back down the mountain and back to Albuquerque.  In all, we were up there for about an hour taking in the views and walking on the trail.  It was worth the time and the money (even overpaying for the parking) for a trip up the Sandia Crest Scenic Byway.  The road was nicely paved with wide shoulders.  The views from the peak were awesome and beautiful.  It was a nice way to blow off a couple three hours during our trip to Albuquerque.  

El Patio de Albuquerque

Fresh off the plane at Albuquerque's Sunport International Airport, my wife and I shuttled over to National Car Rental to pick up our rental vehicle.  It was just before 1 p.m. when we got the Toyota Highlander and I had it planned out that we would have lunch in Albuquerque before heading up to Santa Fe for a few days.  I had previously looked for restaurants near the airport and one sort of popped out at me.  I did some research online before we went to New Mexico and I was pretty sure I wanted to have lunch at this place - El Patio de Albuquerque.  

Dave Sandoval and his wife Gloria started El Patio in 1977 after he served with the Marines in Vietnam in the 60's.  An engineer by trade, Sandoval was living in Hollywood, CA after getting discharged from the military but decided to move back to New Mexico to open a restaurant with his wife and father-in-law Tom Baca.  Sandoval wanted a simple restaurant that fit comfortably in a neighborhood that served old family-recipe New Mexican-style cuisine.  

The Sandoval's and Baca found an old house near the University of New Mexico campus that fit their needs and renovated the front yard into an outdoor patio seating area.  As the restaurant grew, the Sandoval's young sons Tom and Chris worked in the restaurant.  Tom learned most of the recipes from his grandfather who ran the kitchen at El Patio de Albuquerque for 35 years.  After Tom Baca retired, Tom Sandoval took over the kitchen for the restaurant.  A few years ago, Dave and Gloria Sandoval stepped back from running the day-to-day operations for the restaurant and their youngest son Chris took over.  A few things changed with the brothers in charge of the restaurant including a second location that opened in 2018 on Albuquerque's northwest side.  Chris is also in charge of El Patio de Albuquerque's catering business.  

After getting the rental vehicle from National, I punched in my GPS for El Patio de Albuquerque.  It turned out it was less than a 10 minute drive to the restaurant.  We pulled up in front of El Patio de Albuquerque just after 1 p.m.  (see map)  While you can't see the building from the street because of the trees in the patio area out front, the deep blue picket fence between the sidewalk and the patio really stood out.  The restaurant is on a street that has a number of funky little shops and restaurants up and down the way.  We were able to park on the street just down from El Patio de Albuquerque.  

We were greeted by a woman - Mary - who asked if we wanted to eat inside or out.  It was a warm day - unseasonably warm by Albuquerque standards for that time of year - but it was dry.  Under the shade trees, it was particularly pleasant.  We took a seat along the wall which had a New Mexican landscape mural painted on it.   They had what I would classify as "yacht rock" music playing over the sound system that was piped out onto the patio area.  Music by Pablo Cruise, Player and other 70's light-rock heavyweights serenaded us as we chilled out on the patio.  

After being seated, Mary gave us a couple menus.  I immediately ordered a Dos Equis Ambar and some chips with salsa and fresh guacamole.   The salsa had a bit of a smoky bite to it and the guacamole was fresh and flavorful.  It was nice just hanging out on the patio having lunch after leaving Iowa just 5 hours prior.  

The menu wasn't all that big at El Patio de Albuquerque which I think is good.  They open at 10 a.m. and have breakfast items such as a cheese enchilada topped with an egg and a choice of green or red chile sauce, huevos rancheros (eggs served any style on a tortilla), and a smothered breakfast burrito.  Breakfast items are served until 3 p.m. daily.  New Mexican-style lunch and dinner specialties on the menu include cheese and onion enchiladas, a bean and cheese burrito, fajitas, and chile rellenos.  Many of the items on the menu were vegetarian friendly, something that I notice more often working with a guy who went vegetarian a couple three years ago.  They also had a green chile cheeseburger on the menu and on Friday's they offer grilled Atlantic cod tacos.  

But I knew what I wanted even before I looked at the menu.  I had been jonesin' for some New Mexico green chile soup ever since we decided to go to there on our vacation.  And I knew that any Mexican/New Mexican-style restaurant would have it.  And the green chile stew they had on the menu at El Patio de Albuquerque did not disappoint.  The first thing I noticed was that they put potatoes into their green chile soup.  When I had gotten green chile soup/stew in Colorado, I don't remember it ever having potatoes in it.  Anyway, it was a nice addition that I'll have to think about when I make green chile soup at home.  It also featured big chunks of tender pork in the stew and had an outstanding flavor.  

A side of beans came as a side with the soup along with a flour tortilla shell.  These were pinto beans and not refried beans.  I decided on this trip that I liked pinto beans a heckuva lot more than refried beans.  And for good measure, I got a ground beef taco.  It was served in a hard shell corn tortilla and topped with chopped lettuce and tomatoes.  I would have to say the taco was just sort of "meh!"  

I also got a sopapilla that came with my meal.  Sopapillas are basically a puff pastry deep fried traditionally in animal fat.  But El Patio de Albuquerque fries theirs in sunflower seed oil.  It was a like a little puff ball and I used it to dip into my green chile stew.  I had noticed honey on the table when we first sat down and I wondered why they had honey.  My wife surmised that it may be something that people put on their breakfast orders.  After we finished the meal, I asked Mary what the honey was for.  "Oh, they're for the sopapillas," she said.  "And we use real honey to go with our sopapillas."  I was sort of mad with myself for not trying the honey with the sopapilla.  And that was not a mistake that I made again as many places we ate at during our time in New Mexico came with sopapillas and they had honey on the table.  

My wife ordered the green chile chicken enchiladas.  "Our most popular item on the menu," Mary said as she was jotting down my wife's order.  "Good choice!"  

Chopped lettuce and tomatoes and a small tub of sour cream came with the chicken enchiladas, as well as sides of pinto beans and papas - basically fried potatoes with some sort of a coating on the outer shell.  We found that papas were a staple of New Mexican cuisine and were found in burritos, enchiladas and other stuffed foods such as sopapillas stuffed with potatoes, meat and sometimes eggs for a breakfast dish.  

My wife was ecstatic over her choice.  "The chicken is so fresh and tender, and that sauce just helps enhance the flavor," she said between bites.  

After we finished, we were talking with Mary and telling her of our travel plans for the rest of our vacation.  She told us of some good places to eat in Santa Fe and up in Chimayo.  But she also said, "I grew up around Santa Fe and I have to tell you, the food that we have here is as close to the food my grandmother used to make when I was a little girl.  This is real New Mexican food."  

Before we left, we went into the restaurant to use the restroom and to look around before we took off for Santa Fe.  Just inside the front door was a small indoor entry way that could accommodate about 10 people.  Artwork hung on the wall including the painting of a large hot air balloon as Albuquerque is the home of the International Balloon Fiesta, the largest hot air balloon festival in the world which is held the 2nd week of October annually.  

Just past the entry way room was the main dining area.  It, too, was also small and had an "L" shape to the dining room.  More artwork was on the walls of the wood-floored, low-ceilinged room with a large painting over the fire place that appeared to be a Steller's Jay, a relative of a blue jay that is found in the U.S. Southwest down into Mexico and Central America.  

Also on the mantel of the fireplace was a small framed photograph of two people that looked like it was taken in the 1930's or 40's.  "That's the people who owned this house before it was a restaurant," Mary told us.  "In fact, their grandson comes back to Albuquerque at least once a year and always comes in here to get a meal and to reminisce about being in the house when he was a young boy."

I don't think there was anything to dislike about El Patio de Albuquerque.  The cozy nature of both the outdoor patio and the inside dining area, the authentic New Mexican-style food, and the friendly service we experienced were all part of what turned out to be a good first visit to the restaurant.  I sort of wanted to go back and try their fajitas or have breakfast there, but it never worked out.  But if I ever get back to Albuquerque, I will stop back in at El Patio de Albuquerque. 

The License Plates of New Mexico

As much as I travel by car, I see a lot of license plates from various states around the country.  On long trips around the Midwest to help break up the monotony, I used to play a game - License Plate Bingo - where I would check off all the states license plates I would see on the roadways, especially in the summertime.  I would occasionally see cars sporting plates from Alaska and Hawaii.  (A few years ago, there was a car with Hawaii plates in the Quad Cities for a couple three years.  Turned out it was a student at the Palmer School of Chiropractic who had his car shipped over to the mainland to use while he was in school.)  

But the ones that really stick out to me are the ones that I see from New Mexico - especially my all-time favorite plate that I'll talk about in a bit.  We saw 'em all during our trip to New Mexico earlier this year.  

A lot of states feature drab-colored or classic-style license plates.  The fonts and background colors of Indiana's current plates look so much like the Iowa plates that it's tough to tell the difference.  Some states have so much clutter on their plates that it's difficult to figure out what state they're from.  

Over the past few years the state of Iowa has suddenly figured out that people don't want silos and buildings on their plates and they have issued a "Blackout Plate" consisting of white letters and numbers on a black background.  It looks great on my car and on my wife's car - both are white - and it looks good on black or grey cars.  

The state of Iowa has 29 commemorative plates for various colleges and universities around the state.   A few years ago, a number of license plate "hackers" thought the Dordt University license plates looked pretty nice on black or white cars.  Dordt's uniform colors are predominantly black and white with gold trim and enterprising people would hide the "Dordt University" with a license plate frame and would put black tape over the "Defenders".  Hiding any lettering on a license plate is against the law in Iowa, but the state saw how popular the white on black plates were.  

In 2019, Iowa passed legislation creating the "Blackout Plate".  For a one-time $60 fee, people could get the black and white plates. The first week they were available to all 99 counties, they sold out.   In all, the state has issued nearly 490,000 "Blackout" license plates generating nearly $26 million in voluntary tax revenue for the state.  It appears that other states are starting to catch on to the idea.  Utah has now made a "Blackout" plate available and there is a wait of nearly 6 to 8 weeks to get the tags.  

And that's kind of interesting because Utah's regular issue license plates are one of the more colorful ones I've seen.  It features a picture of Delicate Arch from the Arches National Park on the background of the plate.   North Dakota's, South Dakota's and Nevada's license plates also feature colorful scenic backgrounds.  They definitely stand out color-wise even though it's difficult to make out what the pictures are when you're passing someone at 78 mph on the interstate.  

But the New Mexico plates have always stuck out - and it really doesn't have anything to do with background pictures or the fonts they use.  They're just, well, noticeable.  

Actually, New Mexico has three standard issue plates.  The two that are the most well-known are the red on yellow license plate, and the yellow on turquoise license plates.  Both feature the Zia sun symbol in the middle of the plates.  The Zia sun symbol represents the four main directions, the four seasons of the year, the four periods of each day (morning, noon, evening, and night), and the four seasons of life (childhood, youth, middle age, and old age). The center of the sun symbol stands for life itself.  New Mexico is also the only state that uses the "USA" as a tag after the state name to make sure that people don't mistake the plates for Mexican plates.  

The red on yellow plates were first introduced in 1958 and went through some variations over the years.  Since 1978, the red on yellow plates have been the primary license tags on vehicles in New Mexico.  

The yellow on turquoise plates were introduced in 2010 and were immediately named as the "Best New Plate" by the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association (yes, that is a real organization!).  It was the first time a New Mexico plate had been honored by the club which was founded in 1954.  

Because turquoise is the de facto "state color" of New Mexico, it was a no-brainer to issue plates in that color.  New Mexico's nickname "Land of Enchantment" is featured prominently on both license plates.

It turns out that New Mexico has a number of specialized plates.  New Mexico has SIXTY different plates to either choose from for people who are qualified to have them.  That has to be a nightmare for law enforcement.  But in a state where there are 2.1 million people living, I suppose there are enough different variations that allow that many different types of plates.  

The plate themes are very diverse - there are 10 license plates for 8 colleges and 2 junior colleges in the state.  There are specific license plates for residents of Santa Fe and Las Cruces.   The "Wildlife" plate features a roadrunner on it.  (We didn't see a roadrunner while we were there, much to my dismay.)  There are license plates that commemorate or honor Boy Scouts, bass fishing, Route 66, breast cancer awareness, pollinator protection, and retired fire fighters and state police.  (You can see all 60 vehicle and motorcycle plate styles for New Mexico by clicking here.)  

We saw a couple plates that I thought were somewhat interesting during our trip to New Mexico. There were plates that honored retired veterans from each of the branches of military service.  They also had disabled veteran plates as shown below left.  The veterans plates of gold on navy blue with an eagle on the side really stood out.  

Another plate that we saw from time to time was the Farm & Ranch Heritage tag that showed support for New Mexican farmers and ranchers.  What seemed to be most interesting in all of this - the vehicles that sported these plates were all high dollar SUV's or pick up trucks.  I especially got a kick out of seeing this one (above right) on a Mercedes GLA SUV.  

But the best license plate is also a standard issue plate that New Mexico first introduced in 2017.  This is my all-time favorite license plate - the "Chile Capital of the World" tag.  It features gold lettering on a black background with green and red chiles shown prominently on the side.  This was also awarded the "License Plate of the Year" the year it was issued by the ALPCA.  

I first saw this plate when my wife and I were in Colorado Springs in a hotel parking lot in August of 2018.  The plate just jumped out at me.  It immediately became my favorite license plate.  Each time I see one of the "chile" plates, I smile.  The color combinations of the red, green and gold just pop off the black background.  

I wanted to get a novelty "chile" plate while we were in New Mexico.  And while I don't like to go into the tourist trap places like they had in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Taos, I did stop to take a quick look around in some of them to see if they had novelty "chile" plates.  All efforts turned up futile, which, quite actually, was fine with me.

However, my wife and I were driving the backroads between Santa Fe and Albuquerque and we stopped into a "trading post/museum" (more of a tourist trap) in the small town of Los Cerillos.  There they had a few antiques and they also had license plates.  They had a "chile" license plate for sale, but they wanted $12 bucks for it.  I thought about it for a moment, had it in my hands, and thought, "No, I'll find a novelty plate somewhere in Albuquerque."  

But my wife was adamant.  "If you want this plate, I'll buy it for you."  I hemmed and hawed for a moment before she finally picked up the plate and took it to the front counter and bought it for me.  

I usually don't buy much of anything as far as trinkets or collectables on vacation, but this car license may be the best thing that I brought home from a vacation.  And I have my wife to thank for that.  

I have it proudly displayed in my office.  And I get a bit of a smile each time I glance at it.  

Albuquerque, New Mexico

During our vacation to New Mexico this past summer, we flew into Albuquerque to start our adventure.  While we went up to Santa Fe for a few days, we did plan on coming back to Albuquerque for a couple days before flying out back home.  Before we went, we heard just enough bad things about Albuquerque from people who have been there - and haven't been there - to scare the living bejeezus out of my wife.  And when she found out that we were staying downtown - which didn't get a lot of rave reviews from those supposedly in the know - she was willing to call off the trip.  

Long before I started to travel extensively and gather up hotel points like they were Chiclets, my wife and I had some pretty adventurous nights at some hotels that were - well, let's just say they didn't offer bathrobes for their guests.  One night in a hotel in downtown Berkeley, CA about 25 years ago still haunts my wife to this day.  But as I told her, we weren't going to be walking around downtown Albuquerque at night and the hotel we were going to be staying at was an upper class boutique hotel.  That still didn't seem to calm her fears about staying a couple nights in Albuquerque.    

Earlier this year, Albuquerque came in at 17th in the nation in terms of major crimes (aggrevated assault, rape, and robbery), but homicides - which peaked at 120 for the city of 565,000 people in 2022 - are down slightly so far this year.  Still, Albuquerque ranks 11th in homicides per capita per city in the U.S. in 2023.  Memphis is No. 1 and we've been to Memphis a couple three times over the years and my wife has never freaked out about going down there.   

It's all in the stories and who is telling it.  I had a douchebag co-worker years ago who used to live in Albuquerque who said he saw a guy get shot in the face when he was living there.  But he was so full of shit and a complete and utter asshole who was eventually fired from the company I used to work for, we all KNEW that he never saw anybody get shot in the face - in Albuquerque or any other place he ever lived.

Anyway, enough of that for now.  I was actually kind of looking forward to our time in Albuquerque.  Like any city in the southern or southwestern part of the U.S., it has its problems - crime, homelessness, drug use, illegal immigration.  But it also has over 300 days of sunshine a year, the cost of living is very reasonable, it has some stunning vistas just a short drive from the city, and it celebrates New Mexican culture with festivals, events, and - most notably - their restaurants.  

After some nice days up in Santa Fe and a day trip up to Taos, we made it to Albuquerque on a sunny afternoon at the end of the work week.  We stayed at the Hotel Andaluz which has a bit of history behind it. (see map)  

The hotel dates back to 1939 when it was opened as a Hilton hotel, the first Hilton property owned by Conrad Hilton outside the state of Texas.  The hotel - designed by Dallas-based architect Anton Korn - was the first high-rise building in New Mexico.  After a new Hilton hotel was built near the newly opened freeway through Albuquerque, the original Hilton was sold in 1974.  It went through a number of owners, upgrades, and name changes over the years before it became the Hotel Andaluz - the Spanish spelling for the region of Andalusia in southern Spain - in 2009 after a $30 million dollar renovation.  In 2019, the Andaluz became part of Hilton's Curio Collection of boutique hotels.  

The main lobby of the hotel features traditional New Mexican architecture with splashes of Spanish and Mexican motifs with an oasis-style theme.  The lobby was actually called The Casbah and featured small rooms off to the side of the two story lobby area.  When we checked in, there was a local veterans group doing a memorial ceremony in the lobby.  It was sort of awkward as my wife and I were pulling our bags around men and women in uniform and past an honor guard ready to present the flag for the ceremony.   We didn't know if we should wait until the ceremony was over to check in or what.  When a hotel employee pointed us to the check in area, we went ahead.  

On the far end of the lobby area were three stained glass sculptures that were used as the back drop for jazz combo who played in the Casbah the following evening.  The bar for the Casbah was toward the front of the building, next to the hotel's restaurant - MAS Tapas y Vino.  We never did try the restaurant while we were there, but we did spend some time in the downstairs bar.  

There was also a second floor bar that had an outdoor patio.  The bartenders were younger and they set off sort of a cavalier vibe where they just were going through the motions.  We tried to talk them up on places to eat in the area and they both just sort of looked at one another and shrugged their shoulders in an "I don't know" manner.  We went back one night and while they were somewhat busy, I stood at the bar waiting to order drinks for nearly 10 minutes before I gave up and we went down to the lobby bar to grab a nightcap.  When I told the downstairs bartender that they didn't want to wait on me upstairs, well, all hell broke lose.  Evidently, the downstairs bartender was the hotel's bar manager and he called upstairs to ream the two bartenders a new one.  Next thing I know, the male bartender came downstairs and apologized to my wife and I for not waiting on us.  He was profuse in his apology and we gave him a pass.  But my wife and I both got a free drink at the lobby bar out of it.  

The entry way of the hotel featured original western murals by artists Ben Turner and Lloyd Moylan.  The murals depicted events and rituals such as native Pueblo Indians dancing and early settlers traveling across the high New Mexican plains.  There were sculptures and artwork throughout the lobby area from local artists.  

Just off the lobby was a closed room with a plaque outside the door that said, "Martin J. Chavéz Library".  It was a small den-style library with a large fireplace as the centerpiece of the room with shelves of books from the collection of the former 3-term mayor of Albuquerque Martin Chavéz.  Chavez was a proponent of sustainable living for people in Albuquerque and the Hotel Andaluz embraced the sustainable ideals and was awarded just the second LEED Gold Certification for sustainability efforts by hotels in the United States. 

We had picked out our room on the Hilton application before we arrived, but upon our arrival we were upgraded to a junior suite.  The junior suite was pretty small with a small living room, a somewhat cramped bathroom and a small bedroom with a queen-sized bed.  But it was a hotel where bathrobes were supplied which checks the box of "classy hotel" for me.  

We did get out and around to do and see in Albuquerque and one of the places my wife wanted to visit on the advice of a chef we met in Santa Fe was Los Poblanos, a historic inn and organic farm on the northwest side of Albuquerque.  (see map)  The inn dates back to the mid-1930's and is known for its own sustainability growing food used in their restaurant on the grounds around the inn.  We were told to have dinner one night at Campo, the inn's farm-to-fork restaurant.  We took a look at the menu while we were there and we felt it was out of our price range.  Rooms at Los Poblanos start around $400 a night.  

Los Poblanos is also somewhat famous for their lavender products with a large irrigated lavender field which is prominently placed near the front of the inn.  There was a farm shop on the grounds which featured lavender products grown on the farm, as well as herbs, spices, salts, along with crafts by local artisans.  The smell of fresh lavender permeated the air around the fields, even on a hot day.

We also went to Albuquerque's Old Town area.  Now, my wife had it in her head that Old Town was one of the areas in Albuquerque to stay away from.  However, as we were heading toward the Albuquerque Botanical Gardens, we drove through the heart of Old Town.  I was looking around at the shops, art galleries and small restaurants along the streets and I said, "This place doesn't look too bad!  In fact, it looks pretty interesting!"  

My wife was perplexed because she thought all along - getting her erroneous information from someone or someplace - that Old Town was a rough place.  But there was a nice plaza surrounded by marketplaces, museums and small boutique hotels.  There was a low-rider car show that was going on when we were walking around Old Town.  We also found a great restaurant that I'll talk about at a later date.  

Albuquerque was somewhat surprising to me.  I didn't feel threatened at any place we went to.  We obviously stayed out of the wrong sections of the city, but we did find some neat places to visit.  We took a scenic drive up to the top of the Sandia Mountains that border the city's east side.  And we ate at some very good restaurants in the city.  Like any city in the Sun Belt of the Southwest, Albuquerque has its problems.  But we felt comfortable enough during our visit that we wished we would have spent a day or two more in the city before heading back home.  

 

New Mexico

We just came back from a vacation to New Mexico.   We wanted to go somewhere that we had never been to before and we discussed a couple three places before making a decision.  We had talked about New Orleans (even though I had been there over 20 years ago), but at this time of year in Louisiana the heat and humidity is brutal.  We talked about going to Charleston, SC.  When we went to Savannah, GA a few years back, we had planned on going up to Charleston for a couple days.  But we liked Savannah so much that we skipped Charleston.  However, we vowed to get there some day.  We were leaning toward heading to Charleston for this vacation.  

For some reason one evening not long ago, I started looking into going to New Mexico.  I had flown into Albuquerque a number of years ago on a Southwest Airlines flight, but I had never gotten off the plane as I was heading on to Dallas from Las Vegas.  So, technically I had been to New Mexico before, but never experienced the state.    

Picking New Mexico over Charleston turned out to be a good choice - Hurricane Idalia hit the Florida Gulf Coast and veered up across Georgia and into South Carolina passing directly over Charleston as a tropical storm before heading out into the Atlantic.  We would have been in Charleston when Idalia hit had we decided to go there.  And I'm sure everything would have been disrupted for a couple three days as the storm surge and heavy rainfall caused massive flooding throughout the city and power was out to areas in and around Charleston.  

Using flight and hotel points I had saved up with both United and Hilton, we ended up deciding about a week before we were to start our vacation to go to New Mexico, flying in to and out of Albuquerque.  I also got a pretty good rate on a rental car through National using my former company's corporate rate to get a 2023 Toyota Highlander to use for the week.  After landing in Albuquerque, we first headed up to Sante Fe for a few days.  From there, we took a couple road trips including a very scenic day trip up to Taos.  In all we went on 3 scenic byways during our trip to New Mexico.  I'll highlight those trips in the coming days and weeks.   

Weather in New Mexico when we were there was unseasonably warm - temperatures were 10 to 20 degrees above average.  But like the desert Southwest, humidity levels were low making the temperatures in the mid-to-upper 90's somewhat bearable.  The months of July and August are usually the peak of the monsoon season in the Southwest, but most of the monsoon moisture over the past couple years has stayed to the west of New Mexico.  Complaints from the locals about the lack of monsoon season for a couple years now were a vivid topic of conversation pretty much everywhere we went.  

New Mexico is well-known in the arts community for their large number of art museums, galleries and studios which support local artists throughout the state.  The number of places to see art during our travels across the state was almost overwhelming.  And it was all kinds of art - contemporary, Spanish colonial, sculptures, and Native American culture artwork.  

The most famous of the art museums and galleries may be the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe.  20th century modernist artist Georgia O'Keeffe fell in love with New Mexico during visits there in the 1930's, finally buying a ranch in north central New Mexico as a vacation home/inspiration studio.  O'Keeffe became a permanent resident of New Mexico in the late 40's after the death of her husband.  O'Keeffe lived in New Mexico for nearly 40 years before she passed away in Santa Fe in 1986 at the age of 98.  We spent about 90 minutes one day in the O'Keeffe museum looking at some of her famous works as well as some of her more obscure works.  It was worth the price of admission.  

And, of course, there was the food.  "New" Mexican food is different from traditional Mexican food in that they use a lot of potatoes in many of their dishes.  They also use pinto beans as a side rather than black or refried beans.  (I determined that I really liked the pinto beans in their own gravy when I was in New Mexico.)  And, of course, the sauces they use on most of their foods - especially the green chile sauce -  helps enhance the overall taste of the food without overpowering the main dish.  I love the green chile sauce and I have to admit that I was getting sort of burnt out on green chiles by the time we were getting ready to leave.  However, my last meal in New Mexico featured an omelet slathered with the green chile sauce.  We also experienced contemporary New Mexican cuisine in Sante Fe, as well as contemporary Italian food in Albuquerque.  Breakfast is big in New Mexico and we had a number of New Mexican-style breakfasts to start many of our days.  And I had just one burger the whole time we were in New Mexico.  Of course, it was topped with pepper jack cheese and green chiles.

With all the food, I was certain that I had gained 8 to 10 pounds while we were in New Mexico.  With the glaring exception of one meal, nearly every meal we had ranged from very good to great.  When I had my bag weighed at the airport to fly home, it was 11 pounds heavier than when we flew out to New Mexico due to stuff we had picked up during our trip.  I joked to the ticket agent, "I think I'm 11 pounds heavier after eating all this food."  My wife and I made a pact on the plane flight between Albuquerque and Denver that we had to go on severe diets once we got home.

The morning after we got home, I was scared to get on the scale.  I always weigh myself before I go on a trip - either business or pleasure - as I generally lose weight away from home.  This time, however, I was convinced that I was at least 10 pounds heavier.  I jumped up on the scales, afraid to see the damage the great food in New Mexico did to me.  But in one of the biggest and most pleasant surprises that I have had in quite some time, I didn't gain a pound while we were on vacation.  Our scale even goes down to ounces and I weighed the exact same weight - pound and ounce - that I did the morning we left to go to New Mexico.  Even though I was happy with that, my wife and I decided to continue with our plan for our diet and I have to say that I've lost about 4 more pounds since we got back.   

The scenery was spectacular across the New Mexico.  The stark tones of the high desert contrasted with the bright blue skies to make nearly every sight magnificent.  We joined dozens of people on a hillside overlooking Sante Fe for sunsets, we saw pop-up thunderstorms from off in the distance in the afternoons, we explored gorges from the top down and back up again.  And we stopped at a number of churches and sanctuaries that dated back to the 17th century.  It seemed like every small town we drove through had a small adobe-style church that stood majestically in the village.  I'm not a spiritual person, but it was rather neat to see some of the old churches in our travels.  

 

In the days and weeks to come, I'll share with you some of the sights we saw, some of the roads we drove, some of the foods we ate, and some of the cultural highlights from our trip to New Mexico.  I'll even talk a little about the New Mexico license plates which are some of the most colorful and interesting in the United States.  There weren't many disappointments during our visit to the Land of Enchantment.  It was a great vacation getaway.  We didn't have many - if any - regrets when we left.  

Well, except that we never did see a roadrunner while we were there...