Category: Specialty

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Theobroma Chocolatier – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

For many men, February 14th is the most dreaded day of the year. It’s a day in which our boundless capacity for bad taste comes to the fore. Though well-intentioned, when it comes to women and romance, we’re clueless.  You might not know it, but shopping for women is the biggest cause of anxiety among American men. There’s nothing like the crushingly disappointed look on your lover’s face as she unwraps the latest bad gift to quell the ardor in a man’s heart. Worse, our anguish has been made public thanks to the annual global dissemination of an e-mail entitled “ten worse Valentine’s Day gifts.” Most men would rather find themselves on the annual “Darwin Awards” e-mail similarly circulated worldwide…

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Villa Myriam Coffee Roastery – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Because of coffee’s olfactory-arousing properties and nuanced depth of flavors, it has the unique ability to evoke personal memories that transport java junkies to better times.  Every satisfying and stimulating sip of coffee relocates me to my Grandma Andreita’s kitchen table where I learned to love coffee brewed on her old wood stove.  For brothers David and Juan Certain, the aromas return them to Colombia where their grandfather founded Villa Myriam in 1961.   The brothers spent much of their childhood on the fields of their grandfather’s coffee plantation where they learned which coffee beans were the best. In 1999, Juan and David migrated to the US as political refugees during the hard times of violence in Colombia. After things settled,…

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Chile Chicken Nashville Hot Chicken – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

My brother Mario–seven years younger, much better looking and quite a bit smarter–and I have shared many memorable firsts. There was the time I taught him how to drive on our dad’s 1965 standard transmission Chevrolet pickup truck.  He was a quick study, soon terrifying our grandmother with drifting skills Formula D drivers would envy.  I took him to his first championship wrestling match at Albuquerque’s Civic Auditorium where we watched “Rapid” Ricky Romero dispatch “Yellow Belly” Robley.  Mario would go on to similarly dominate high school wrestling opponents (though unlike Robley, he didn’t pull “foreign objects” from his trunks with which to beat his opponents).  Already in our grizzled 30s, we once beat two much younger (and ostensibly more…

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The Mouse Hole – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

My Chicago born-and-bred bride and I often debate the merits and pitfalls of the Albuquerque metropolitan growing large enough to support more cultural opportunities, larger sports venues and ethnic restaurants we don’t currently have. Having grown up with those amenities, she knows more urban growth also means an increase in crime (as if we didn’t have enough already); more cronyism, corruption and collusion among the political cabal; more pollution, gentrification, traffic congestion, etc. Neither one of us wants Albuquerque to become another Big Cheese like Phoenix (though increasingly we’ve grown to love the Valley of the Sun’s restaurants). We would, however, love a Big Cheese shop like one in Toronto. If you’ve tuned in to a Hulu series called “Cheese:…

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Delgadillo’s Snow Cap – Seligman, Arizona

Gil Garduno

The quirky small town of Seligman, Arizona, is home to the longest surviving and preserved stretch of Route 66, an expanse which runs 160 miles to Topock, Arizona.  Almost equidistant between Kingman and Flagstaff, Seligman is considered (by Arizona legislative decree) the “birthplace of Historic Route 66.”  Credit that designation to Angel Delgadilla, a  soft-spoken Seligman barber and his brother Juan, a railroad worker who led efforts to preserve Route 66. When the town was bypassed by Interstate 40 in 1978, the brothers formed the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona. Soft-spoken though the brothers might have been, the Delgadillos became activists determined to keep their beloved hometown viable.  Before Interstate 40 bypassed Seligman, the town had twelve gas stations…

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Pine State Biscuits – Reno, Nevada

Gil Garduno

In 2020, Ted Lasso burst onto the pop culture scene.  Not long thereafter my friend Alonna Smith, the brilliant owner of My Indian Stove practically begged me to watch it.  She realized that with my penchant for British comedies, I’d love the laugh-out-loud show about an American soccer coach who assumes the help at a Premiere League soccer team in the United Kingdom despite not knowing anything about soccer.  Lasso is the master of the one-liner as well as the bringer of balm during heart-warming scenes.  He’s warm and fuzzy…and as usual, Alanna steered me in the right direction. On the second episode of season one, Ted began the practice of bringing freshly baked biscuits to the football club’s owner…

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Johnny O’s Spudnuts – Farmington, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

When we tell fellow New Mexicans we lived in Mississippi for eight years, they look at us like we’ve lived in Mars.  Mississippi is not a dichotomy to many people in that they can’t think about anything good about it.  Most dredge up the Magnolia State’s ignominious past or they bring up stereotypes about the state’s literacy and education (despite Missisissipi’s public schools ranking higher than New Mexico’s).   We often feel we have to defend all that is good and wonderful about Mississippi…and there is a lot to love.  Foremost are the people.  We befriended and have remained friends with so many people along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  Most of them are God loving, God fearing people who love…

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A Bite of Belgium – Las Cruces, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Jerry: “Don’t you know what it means to become an orgy guy? It changes everything. I’d have to dress different. I’d have to act different. I’d have to grow a mustache and get all kinds of robes and lotions and I’d need a new bedspread and new curtains I’d have to get thick carpeting and weirdo lighting. I’d have to get new friends. I’d have to get orgy friends. … Naw, I’m not ready for it.” ~Seinfeld In the sixth season of Seinfeld, Jerry is dating Sandy, a “non-laugher” who seems unamused by his jokes. When Jerry goes to Sandy’s apartment he meets Laura, her roommate, who laughs at his jokes.  Almost as important to the superficial Jerry, she’s very…

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Tranquil Buzz Coffee Shop – Silver City, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Where have all the hippies gone?  Long time passing.  Where have all the hippies gone?  Long time ago.  Where have all the hippies gone?  Would you believe they’ve all gone to Tranquil Buzz, a coffee shop with perhaps the best coffee shop vibe in the country.  Boasting of the “best coffee in the cosmos,” Tranquil Buzz lives the motto “Love lives here.”  We practically lived there, too.  Well, at least for the first two hours of our day during the three days we spent in Silver City.  Fortunately the AirBnB at which we stayed was directly across the street from what has become a community meeting place with regular events such as poetry readings, open mic music and written word,…

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Charlie’s Spic & Span – Las Vegas, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Time–and the woke movement–haven’t left Las Vegas, New Mexico behind.  It may seem that way when you hear locals–even Highlands University students–frequent usage of the term “the spic.”  They’re not using the term in a derogatory manner to refer to someone of Hispanic descent.  They’re using it as a term of endearment for Charlie’s Spic & Span, probably the most popular restaurant in Las Vegas.    Everywhere else “the spic” may be a derogatory term, but not in Las Vegas–at least when talking about Charlie’s Spic & Span, one of New Mexico’s most beloved and venerable restaurants. If you’ve never visited Charlie’s Spic & Span, you’re undoubtedly curious as to why it acquired its unusual name.  The “Charlie’s” name on…

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Knead Dough Bar & Eatery – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

“I don’t talk about politics, religion or sports, because all three will divide people. That’s why I talk about food, because food brings people together. That’s right! Unless you’re vegan!” ~Gabriel Iglesias Not even glass half full optimists can disagree that America has accelerated into a warp speed devolution from George H. W. Bush’s vision of a “kinder, gentler nation.”    Replace kinder and gentler with snarky and sniping and you’ve got a more accurate picture.  Not only are there widening schisms between political ideologies, there are deep fissures between values of all types (as comedian Gabriel Iglesias astutely pointed out).  It’s not enough to disagree any more.  In modern America, we don’t tolerate differences of opinion.   We take…