In my recent
telling of a lesson in civic individuality, learned during a New Mexico
baseball vacation with old friends, all of dining establishments I mentioned
were chain restaurants. That was
unfortunate and misleading because our annual trips are very much about unique
restaurants, not chains.
In this
post, I’ll remedy that misdirection by describing some of the best non-chain
experiences from this year’s trip.
Tying this subject
to the more general subject of urbanism, I’ll admit that unique restaurants aren’t
always located in walkable urban settings.
But there is a connection between non-chain restaurants and urbanism. Non-chain restaurants, because they aren’t forced
to meet building footprint and parking requirements dictated by a corporate
headquarters, have greater freedom to occupy oddly configured downtown spaces,
thus promoting urbanism.
Even patronizing
a non-chain restaurant on a virtually unwalkable frontage road in Santa Fe supports
a non-chain culture that allows another restaurant to prosper in a rambling,
downtown, windowless space in the nearby town of Las Vegas. (That would be Las Vegas, New Mexico, not its
more famous cousin.)
Also, I’m
not guaranteeing that all of the places listed below are non-chains. Chains sometimes sneak up on us. During an early morning drive through eastern
New Mexico, we stopped at Penny’s Diner in Vaughn. With a location miles from any other
restaurant, a setting in a mock railroad car, and specials hand-written on
placemats and taped to the walls, it looked like a single ownership
restaurant. But our waitress advised us
that the restaurant was part of a chain of 35 Penny’s Diners.
Although I can’t
pledge that the places below are non-chains, I can confirm that none of them
feel like chains. They all offered a
sense of localness, with none of the prepackaged “charm” prescribed by someone behind
a desk in Hoboken.
Also, to give
a sense of the urban setting, I’ve shown the Walk Score for each
restaurant, but with the acknowledgment that several are far from walkable.
With the
preamble complete, here are eight fine restaurant experiences in New Mexico.
Mesilla
Valley Kitchen in Las Cruces (2001 East Lohman Avenue, Walk Score of 66): With
its location in a strip mall, tucked behind a Subway, Mesilla Valley Kitchen is
proof that good local food can be found nearly anywhere, a fact that the locals
seemed to appreciate based on the full dining room.
Breakfast is
the highpoint of the menu, the chorizo burrito topped with chile sauce being a
fine way to start a day. (We’ve
sometimes described our annual trip as an odyssey of beer, bacon, and
baseball. For New Mexico, chorizo
replaced the bacon.)
We visited
Mesilla Valley Kitchen a second time during the trip and found the lunch menu a
little odd, with items such as barbecued brisket burritos and corned beef
quesadillas, but breakfast remains highly recommended.
Can't Stop
Smokin’ BBQ in Alamogordo (900 E 10th St, Walk Score of 62): An
old-fashioned smoke house that believes in flavorful meat, good side dishes,
and not much else. Alcoholic beverages
are nowhere to be seen. Can’t Stop
Smokin’ offers a broad selection of soft drinks, but their primary function is
to wash down the good food. We made a
mid-afternoon stop, so weren’t looking for a pile of food, but shared a large
sampler plate. Everything from the
brisket to the pulled pork to the beans was delectable, but my favorite was the
smoked sausage.
Dick’s
Restaurant in Las Vegas (705 Douglas Avenue, Walk Score of 80): Dick’s is
an oddly rambling, quirky space that takes full advantage of the unused space
in a downtown building. It also served
the most memorable dish of the trip.
The front
door of Dick’s is into a deli/liquor store through which one must pass to find
the restaurant/bar. The back door is
next to a loading dock. In between is a
dark, windowless space that nonetheless exudes a comfortable, local charm.
In recent
years, I’ve learned to ask my server to suggest his favorite dish, benefiting
from making the server a partner in the dining experience. We tried this strategy at Dick’s and it worked
perfectly. The server recommended the
mussels steamed in a chorizo broth.
Furthermore, he diverged from the menu to suggest adding fettuccine to
the dish to further absorb the spicy saltiness. The flavors and textures combined
marvelously. (Note to mussel
aficionados: These weren’t the green and black New Zealand mussels which are typically
encountered on the west coast, but Prince Edward Island mussels, which are more
like super-sized Manila clams and were a great complement to the mild heat of
the chorizo.)
Draft
Station in Santa Fe (60 E San Francisco Street, Walk Score of 94): A
rooftop pub, overlooking the plaza in the heart of Santa Fe as pictured above. The beer selection is fine. Even better, Draft Station serves pizza from
a nearby pizzeria. In addition to the
brews, we enjoyed a lobster, shrimp, and bacon pizza.
Gutiz in
Taos (812 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte, Walk Score of 43): A breakfast/lunch
diner that promotes a French/New Mexican fusion cuisine. Perhaps the most representative dish was a
breakfast casserole of Andouille sausage, kidney, pinto, and garbanzo beans,
potatoes, and corn.
Harry’s
Roadhouse in Santa Fe (96 Old Las Vegas Highway, Walk Score of 23): The
location along a freeway frontage road a couple of miles south of Santa Fe
precludes walkability, but many have found Harry’s regardless, as the full
parking lot attests. On our second
visit, we discovered “chorizo de Bilbao” which may be the uber-chorizo. A dense, dark red, finely grained chorizo, it
made a memorable breakfast hash, which was further improved by the friendly
staff and rambling layout.
Nexus
Brewery in Albuquerque (4730 Pan American Freeway NE, Walk Score of 51):
Another fusion effort, Nexus combines Southern and New Mexican cuisines. The fried chicken looked great, but we
weren’t ready for dinner, so instead went with the sampler platter of fried
zucchini, pickles, and okra. It paired
well with the beer.
Trying to
build good local relationships, the brewery offers a Nexus Neighbor program
with discounted beer and other benefits in exchange for a promise from members
to make a special effort to incorporate new folks into conversation. From our experience, the promise is being
kept.
Standard Diner
in Albuquerque (320 Central Ave SE, Walk Score of 86): Located along the
old Route 66, Standard Diner offers an updated version of the food that might
have greeted the early travelers from Chicago to Los Angeles. The food didn’t measure up to some of the
cuisine we enjoyed elsewhere, but the history made up for any shortfall.
There we
are. Eight fine restaurants over nine
days in the State of New Mexico, all of them, at least to my knowledge, under
single restaurant ownership. Perhaps not
all of them were in walkable urban locations, but the mindset to support
single-ownership restaurants can’t help but support urbanism.
As always,
your questions or comments will be appreciated.
Please comment below or email me.
And thanks for reading. - Dave Alden (davealden53@comcast.net)
Dave, especially as a one-time Albuquerquean, and also as an urbaniist, I'm intrigued with the Nexus Neighbor Program. John Crowley at Aqus Cafe here in Petaluma would surely enjoy hearing about that, and I wouldn't mind extending my own sociability a bit extra at some of our local pubs to benefit both neighborliness and the pocketbook!
ReplyDeleteBarry, thanks for writing. I think what John is doing at Aqus is largely similar to the Nexus Neighbor program, with the exception of the specific Nexus Neighbor direction to chat with strangers. I didn't read the full content of the Neighbor program until after our visit, but remember being surprised at the willingness of other customers at Nexus to engage in casual conversation with my group. It wasn't overbearing, but just softly comfortable.
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