“This is my complete and utter obsession.”

One of the guys in the band Beirut spent nearly all of a recent interview waxing, pining, and gushing about his absolute love and addiction for New Mexico chiles.  Though he was born here and visits twice yearly, the poor dude lives in Brooklyn.  The article included a link to someone’s blog showing a large variety of our beloved dishes, which is kind of a nice summary.

Sounds like we might need to seduce his band to come out (again?) and play the Sunshine or something local and then ply him with tons of the good green stuff.  Or, Mary & Tito’s for some mind-blowing red. I know he already gets it, but hey, more chile is always better, right?

I love to hear when folks that “get it” with the chile thing talk publicly about their addiction after they’ve moved to another city.  He’s very disparaging about Tex-Mex, which is awesome:

“You can’t find [New Mexico Chile] anywhere else in the world, let alone the southwest, and it always gets overshadowed with, you know, like Austin bragging about their fucking breakfast tacos like it was the biggest invention of the century and that kind of thing.”

Just recently found this roundup of diner’s annoyances on a midwestern food blog.  Not a bad site, actually.  It almost makes me want to fly Northwestern/Delta *and* have a hideous layover so I can investigate the Minneapolis food scene.  (Not.)  (I mean “not” on the layover/Delta part, not the Minneapolis part.)

There is even a nice little website gem in there, applicable to every goddam restaurant website on the planet.  Hear, hear:

“The whole point of having a website is to disseminate your address, hours, contact information, and reservations policy. List ‘em. List ‘em prominently. Keep them current. Do not bury them behind a 30-second Flash introduction with music.”

Many of the grievances are about information and the lack thereof:

• disclose prices, from “extra sauce” to the daily special
• if hot food is ow-ow-ow-omigod-hot!, warn diners but don’t “protect” them from spicy food
• warn about portion sizes – if they are huge and a table of 4 is about to receive 12 pounds of food, it is really courteous for the waiter to notice this when orders are taken and to give the table a heads up

In a scant two weeks Santa Fe will play host to a massive food festival:  The Santa Fe Harvest Festival.

Bringing together everything from farm advocates to the highest chichi restaurant chefs, it will be three weeks of crap to do – starting on November 1st and concluding on November 23rd.  Here’s a short list:

• TONS of cooking classes all over the city
• Chef competitions
• Amateur (that means YOU) cooking competitions
• Cocktail competitions
• Discounts at local restaurants (minimum discount is 10%, but that includes places like Coyote Cafe!)
• Grand finale dinner (extra charge)
• Food & Wine Expo with 50 vendors

A basic pass to everything but the big meal and the Expo is $35 – a great bargain that includes a $10 donation to Cooking With Kids, a pretty nifty organization that teaches a BASIC LIFE SKILL to young’uns.  The super-mondo pass is $160 but that includes both the Expo (normally $50), and the huge dinner ($175 on its own).

And, STAY to the management and kitchen staff as they transition over to the Italian theme of Gregorio’s under the helm of Matt DiGregory.  It’s the same people as Rodeo Grill, which are the same people as The Range, and the same as Standard Diner.

Here’s my issue:  They’ve been open ONE WEEK.  Urbanspoon already has 4 reviews both great and bad.  Give it some time, folks . . . even experienced restauranteurs need time to get things flowing.  Go visit, take notes, wait, go back, think about it…. and then post a review.

Thanks.

P.S. I’m not saying that Gregorio’s is getting any different treatment than most new and hyped joints in town, but this one happened so quickly that I wanted to object in public to the general practice of lobbing critique at brand new restaurants.

Holy wow has a ton of stuff being going on in the Albuquerque restaurant scene. I try to keep my ears to the ground and hopefully get some tips from friends, but often I’ll just spot something and re-post here – easy for you to find later!

First and most importantly, let’s talk coffee. Cafe Giuseppe has changed ownership. I’m frankly terrified of any reduction of espresso quality, so I’ll have to go check ASAP to make sure the same folks are employed and/or any new baristas know what they’re doing with those gorgeous old style Italian machines.

Four Aces lost their King. Saul Paniagua has left Four Aces Grill on 4th Street. This is breaking and I haven’t heard yet what happened and where he might be headed next. His menu was fantastic. Bravo, Saul, and hope to see you soon.

New management means kitchen changes at St. Clair Winery & Bistro – Chef W. James LaDuke is no longer in St. Clair’s kitchen after some menu rejiggering and new cuisine philosophy. He cooked great food for many years there, so I hope to see him in a new post as soon as possible. (Any fine dining spots looking for a chef? Get in touch with me or James!)

And, last AND certainly least:  Chipotle is on the way.  Did you hear a big resounding “MEH” from me?  Yes, yes you did.  They’re even hiring management, so anyone that wants an hourly “seasonal” job in one of the toughest industries in this country, go for it.