Category: Cajun

CajunDog FriendlyNew MexicoRio RanchoSoul FoodSouthern

K’Lynn’s Cuisine – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Before permanent signage was mounted, a tethered banner in front of K’Lynn’s Southern & Cajun Fusion in Rio Rancho listed a few of the delicious treasures available in the tiny restaurant: “catfish, BBQ, gumbo, po boys, jerk chicken, carne adovada fries & more!” Yeah, we did a double-take, too. One of those items just seemed a bit out-of-place? If you’re thinking “carne adovada fries” don’t belong on the list because they’re not Soul food, you’d be wrong. Carne adovada fries definitely belong on the list. So does jerk chicken which, by most conventional definitions, isn’t soul food either. The one item we thought to be out-of-place was “& more.” I mean what more could you possibly want listed on the…

AlbuquerqueBar & GrillCajunDiners Drive-Ins and DivesDog FriendlyFood Network Eats New MexicoSouthern

Nexus Brewery – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Set in Albuquerque, Breaking Bad, AMC’s critically acclaimed television series may have left viewers with the impression that the Duke City is a haven for meth cookery and fried chicken joints.  Had the fair city been more accurately typecast, it would have have been portrayed as a mecca for microbreweries.  The Albuquerque Beer Scene blog says it best: “It’s like Portland, but with sun,”  a comparison which shows just how much the city’s microbrewery and brewpub scene has grown–and not just in terms of sheer numbers.  Duke City breweries have accorded themselves so well at the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup that the city may soon be re-christened “Albeerquerque.” When the New Mexico Tourism Department launched the…

AlbuquerqueCajunClosed in 2024Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoSouthern

Bama’s 1865 – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

When we tell people we lived in Mississippi for eight years their typical reaction is something akin to “OMG, that must have been terrible.”  Lumping Alabama and Louisiana into their diatribes, they typically perceive we lived in a poorly educated, mostly rural and unabashedly racist region.  It surprises them to learn that New Mexico ranks below those three states among the least educated states in the country (only West Virgina ranked lower).  We lived in Ocean Springs on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, an almost contiguous metropolitan area from New Orleans to Mobile.  It’s as modern as you can get.   In terms of racism, the Deep South has made significant strides and isn’t as racist as the Boston area was…

AmericanBreakfastCajunClosed in 2022CorralesDog FriendlyGone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

Waffology – Corrales, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

FROM WAFFOLOGY’S FACEBOOK PAGE: We regret to announce our final closing. We fought hard and we appreciate all of you who came alongside us. February 5th will be our last day serving from 9am-6pm. In an article for New Mexico Magazine, scintillating four-time James Beard award-winning author Cheryl Alters Jamison proclaimed “Pity the folks who think breakfast is a bowl of cornflakes or some granola and yogurt—talk about starting the day with a yawn! I’m here to tell you that the best, most bodacious wake-up food, bar none, is New Mexico’s breakfast burrito. It doesn’t just break the fast, it blasts it.”  Cheryl may not have called out other American breakfast staples.  She didn’t need to. When my friend Bruce…

BreakfastCajunClosed in 2022CorralesDog FriendlyGone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

C3’s Bistro – Corrales, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

FROM 3C’s BISTRO’S FACEBOOK PAGE: We regret to announce our final closing. We fought hard and we appreciate all of you who came alongside us. February 5th will be our last day serving from 9am-6pm. A case could be made that “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” the name of a 1977 hit by Santa Esmeralda, could well be a lament about New Mexican cuisine (in addition to being the background music during the classic sword fight between Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu in Kill Bill I).  As frequently chronicled on Red or Green: New Mexico’s Food Scene is on Fire, national print, online and onscreen media continue to refer to the Land of Enchantment’s sacrosanct cuisine as “Mexican food.”  The…

AlbuquerqueCajunClosed in 2011Gone But Not Forgotten

The Cajun Kitchen – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

Note:  After 24 years of serving Albuquerque in two locations, the Cajun Kitchen closed its doors on Friday, March 11, 2011.  On a notice in the menu, the Hebert family wrote, “It has been a privilege serving the Albuquerque community and have been equally blessed by the support of those who have graced our tables making the restaurant the institution it has become.” When we moved back to Albuquerque in 1995 after eight years of living in the Mississippi Gulf Coast, we begrudgingly accepted the fact that in New Mexico, we would never experience the type and quality of  Cajun and Creole cuisine with which we had fallen head-over-heels in love.  Our taste buds, we thought, would be deprived of  the…

AlbuquerqueCajun

Mardi Gras Grill – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

Over the centuries, Mardi Gras has evolved in America from a sedate French Catholic tradition to a hedonist’s holiday in which revelers indulge–and overindulge–the day before Ash Wednesday.  Every year Mardi Gras celebrations lure millions of rollickers and revelers to New Orleans where Mardi Gras is celebrated in grand scale.  Extravagant parades, masked balls, raucous convivality and copious consumption are hallmarks of the Crescent City event where shouts of “Laissez les bon temps rouler” (Let the good times roll) resound from rooftops and alleyways. Laissez les bon temps rouler is also now the resounding sentiment from Albuquerque’s South Valley where in February, 2009, a new Cajun restaurant opened for business.  Now Duke City diners can celebrate “Fat Tuesday” five days…

AlbuquerqueCajunClosed in 2008Gone But Not ForgottenNational Chain

Copeland’s – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

Having lived 90 miles outside of “The Big Easy” for almost eight years, we were naturally filled with the spirit of laissez les bon temps roulette (let the good times roll) when we found out the 48th Copeland’s restaurant in America was launching on our backyard in Albuquerque’s West side in November, 2001. We had been back in Albuquerque for six years and were experiencing withdrawal symptoms that only a fix of heartily spiced Cajun cuisine could quell. Copeland’s we thought would be a welcome breath of fresh air for the Duke City, albeit not the steamy, salt-kissed air of the Louisiana coast. Copeland’s is a restaurant with which we were quite familiar when it wasn’t the national presence it…

AlbuquerqueCajunClosed in 2007Gone But Not Forgotten

The Blue Dragon – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

In truth, the Blue Dragon is a coffee house in the style of New Orleans or San Francisco more so than it is a Cajun restaurant, but since it serves better Cajun food than anyone else in Albuquerque, Cajun is as good a category as any in which to place it. This Dragon serves up the best muffalatta in town, by far–just the right amount of Italian olive salad on four slices of bread (two slices if you wimp out and have only a half muffalatta) with Genoa salami, ham, baby Swiss cheese and provolone. The Dragon doesn’t use the traditional muffalatta round bread, substituting instead with Po’ Boy French bread made by the Paris Bakery just minutes away. During…

CajunClosed in 2007Gone But Not ForgottenNevadaRated 24United States

Commander’s Palace – Las Vegas, Nevada (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno

When it comes to accolades, there is perhaps no restaurant in America which has been as venerated as the original Commander’s Palace in New Orleans. From being named the best restaurant in America three times by Food & Wine magazine to being named Zagat’s top New Orleans restaurant for 13 consecutive years (1988-2002) and counting, the Commander’s Palace is truly in a class of its own. The comfortable climes of the Aladdin Resort and Casino attempt to duplicate the original’s inimitable hospitality, incomparable food, impeccable service and sophisticated Southern stylings. In bringing the Crescent City’s most revered dining institution to the desert, the Brennan family has, for the most part, succeeded in reestablishing its classic restaurant without compromising in any…