Herencia – Albuquerque, New Mexico
When he founded Los Equipales in 1996, restaurant impresario Henrique Valdovinos admitted “I wouldn’t have tried this ten years ago, but I think people are ready for it.” As recently as a quarter-century ago, two types of Mexican restaurants existed across the fruited plain. Most common were those sharing reciprocal expectations with diners who expected and received such stereotyped “Mexican” food as fajitas; hard-shelled tacos filled with ground beef, cheese, lettuce and sour cream; chiles rellenos made with bell peppers and enough yellow cheese to clog a dinosaur’s arteries. Denizens under the spacious skies didn’t know any better and enjoyed the watered down versions of the real deal. This “Mexican” food became mainstream. The other type of Mexican food restaurants…