Well, Jerry was ahead of the Times, literally: New York Times loves Pig Wings. Apparently “shank” is not a dining public friendly word, so pig wings was the appointed moniker to pair with ranch dressing and/or barbeque sauces.  I also learned that Chili’s riblets (or are those the infamous “baby back ribs”???) are actually the transverse process of the vertebrae. That’s pretty nifty, and means that Baby Back Ribs is actually a correct term.  Who woulda thunk it?

Too bad the recession nailed us all when it did – or maybe the grass-roots campaign should begin now to bring back Jerry, the fried pickles, and those luscious pig wings.

Restaurants’ raw ingredient costs have increased 26% in the last 4 years.

Menu price increases in the same time period average 2.6% – exactly 1/10 of the differential.

In the real world, how does that play out? Let’s say a dish was on the menu for $19.  The raw food cost on that item was probably around $8.  That left $11 for the restaurant to pay rent, bills, servers, cooks, insurance, et cetera.

NOW the dish costs $20 and you’ve noticed.  However, the food costs are now $10.  Two dollars have flipped in this deal – you’re paying $1 more but the restaurant is “getting” $1 less.  For the restaurant to still be making their $11 (of which about 50 cents to a dollar will be actual profit), they’d have to price the dish at $21 or more.  No one wins, but the restaurant is still cutting you a break.

Sucks, right?  Well, we are in a recession and you can choose how you spend your money.

My request for you is to consider spending your less-frequent dining dollars locally.  Instead of $30 for pizzas from a national chain, get take-out from Johnny’s.  Or delivery from Giovanni’s or Straight Up Pizza.  Or have a sit-down meal at The Grill and plan your next special occasion at the next-door spot, Jennifer James 101.

With many restaurants operating on a 3 or 4% profit margin, this means there are a lot of small local spots that are trying to just survive this recession, raising prices a tiny bit or not at all while making no money – possibly even losing money for awhile hoping to not have to drive away customers that are having their own wallet-pinching woes.

Go.  Visit your favorite local restaurant, where the cooks are visible, the owner circulating (if they’re not the same person!), and the patrons nearly all regulars.  Thank them for the service they provide and let them know you hope they’ll be around for a long time.

Then, tip well after you enjoy a great meal, even if it won’t all go to your server if the restaurant practices tip-pooling.  Know that you are making a difference in both your local economy as well as a small business owner’s success.

This Saturday will be another live show with at least one featured guest, and yeah, this weekend it is one of the blogging bastions of the Duke City:  Larry McGoldrick, accompanied by the owner of Nicky V’s pizzeria – simply one of the best pies in town.

http://breakthechain.info/

Streaming live during the broadcast on the radio’s site, as well as available later for live stream to listen at your leisure.

Here’s the press copy from the parent radio station:

“If your loyalties lie with local restaurants – those owned and operated by our friends and neighbors, you’ll love “Break the Chain,” an enlightening and entertaining new radio program hosted by Ryan Scott. Break The Chain premiered on Saturday, May 14th at 3PM on 1550 KIVA AM and www.1550kiva.com. This weekly radio show will feature locally owned and operated restaurants here in New Mexico.

Obviously Break The Chain isn’t about breaking or bankrupting heavily bankrolled chain restaurants. It’s about breaking the chain “habit,” the inclination many have to visit the ubiquitous and convenient chains. Break The Chain is a celebration of local mom-and-pop restaurants, aiming to show the many outstanding alternatives to the familiar chains. It’s an interactive show in which you can call in and express your opinions and share your experiences. Most of all, it’s a fun and lively show you will love.”

This Saturday will be another live show with at least one featured guest, and yeah, this weekend it IS yours truly:  http://breakthechain.info/

Here’s the press copy from the parent radio station:

“If your loyalties lie with local restaurants – those owned and operated by our friends and neighbors, you’ll love “Break the Chain,” an enlightening and entertaining new radio program hosted by Ryan Scott. Break The Chain premiered on Saturday, May 14th at 3PM on 1550 KIVA AM and www.1550kiva.com. This weekly radio show will feature locally owned and operated restaurants here in New Mexico.

Obviously Break The Chain isn’t about breaking or bankrupting heavily bankrolled chain restaurants. It’s about breaking the chain “habit,” the inclination many have to visit the ubiquitous and convenient chains. Break The Chain is a celebration of local mom-and-pop restaurants, aiming to show the many outstanding alternatives to the familiar chains. It’s an interactive show in which you can call in and express your opinions and share your experiences. Most of all, it’s a fun and lively show you will love.”

At Atrisco Cafe I had the pleasure of tasting their piece de resistance – a burrito stuffed with roasted leg of lamb from a heritage farm in New Mexico.  Lest you think this is ONLY about Santa Fe – the cafe has history.  George Gundrey opened the spot after generations of family restaurants, including a place at Atrisco & Central in Albuquerque called the Central Cafe, in operation from the 1940′s until the 1970′s.  The whole extended family has their chile-scrubbing hands in places like Horseman’s Haven and Tia Sophia’s – not bad for a story.

The burrito?  It’s really, really, lamby.  And that’s it.  No beans, no garnish.  Even the cheese is gently applied.  It is a good example of why I don’t often order lamb – for my tastes I find many lamb dishes too mild, too toned-down-for-beef-eaters.  But this, this grabbed you by the tongue and said, “hello.  I’m game meat.  How are you today?”

You can revel in that flavor but it does get overwhelming – a friend of mine suggested it was lacking something but we were not sure what.  Maybe calabacitas, maybe some beans, something with a little neutrality.  But if you want to be smacked in the head with your leg of lamb, it’s perfect.

Oh, and their red chile is pretty darn good, too.

Los Cuates, one of the stalwarts in our NM food scene, is expanding to a new location in Santa Fe – good for them!  They’ll be inside the newly renovated Santa Fe Lodge hotel with a grand opening scheduled for early May.  Another local opening will be at the Sunport, taking over the Garduno’s spot after winning the bid over El Pinto.  The “Twins” will soon be quadruplets!

Next month was the deadline for a bunch of local restaurants to install really crazy expensive new sprinkler systems, and no one is happy about it – not the restauranteurs nor the city officials who will have to enforce the law, so they granted another 90 day extension to the businesses.  I’ll be on the look out for closings over the summer due to small establishments not being able to pony up the $100K to update their systems.  Ouch.

Really good restaurants often do well, that’s what I love to see.  Here’s my quote of the week:  “Recession? What recession?” – Christophe Descarpentries, one of the owners of P’tit Louis Bistro, with one downtown location and another opening up in Nob Hill.  Well deserved, guys!

One of the heroes of my early days as a foodie here in Albuquerque is leaving town for family reasons – Chef Sam Etheridge, with a storied history in landmarks like Portabello, Bien Shur, Kanome, Ambrozia, and Nob Hill Bar & Grill had a decade to make you all happy with duck tacos, lobster corndogs, amazing Sunday brunches and the weirdest food innovations this town has seen in years, many of which are now standard menu items at your favorite restaurants.  He spent the last several years as a writer for the Local IQ, tending to his cooking and his family.  I wish him the best.

I Love Sushi has been on the “short list” of favorite Albuquerque sushi joints for years. They are friendly, easy to find, and the sushi is both decent-to-good and inexpensive.

Even the Alibi has been showering the love on them recently, which made me think I need to get back there for some house-cured saba. Yum.

Visiting their website I noticed it was vastly different than before, and upon first look it is pretty. Clean and brightly colored with menu navigation peppered throughout the flowering branches.

BUT. It is flash.  Complete with things that spin and optional sound effects.  Ick.  Truly pretty on the surface with all the depth of a mirage, unfortunately.

What does that mean? It means there is virtually no TEXT on the website. This is death for anyone needing to pull up the site on a smartphone or computer with slow internet. It also means searching for the site online could be dicey, as the search engines tend to utilize text content when building their pool of information.  This could be bad for SEO and people just being able to find the restaurant at all.

I recommend, for their sake, at least one of these changes:

1. Put the address and phone number in plain text on every single page.
2. Keep the same pretty scheme, but lose the flash in favor of a text-based navigation system, including the contents of the menu.

Wha….?

No more info was given, and a “thanks for your patronage” closing made me very, very worried.

Noda’s is one of those restaurants I talk up quite a bit and visit far less often than I’d like. I hope that my inaction is not a contributor to their current woes. Or that this is all just worrying in vain and they have a huge shiny new space on the ready to welcome old and new eaters alike.

Cecilia’s downtown (a gem worth seeking out, even after the fame of Guy Fieri’s show) is cranking out hundreds of tamales for holiday orders, and Buffett’s Candies is doing well because everyone loves sugar.

Economists talk about the “lipstick index”, meaning that lipstick sales do well in recessions because it is a small luxury that won’t be done without even when times are tight.

In the food business, you might call it the “chocolate factor” – everyone loves sweets and chocolates, candies, and other confections are a cheap way to have a little treat and remind yourself that the world has not gone entirely into the crapper.  And thusly Buffett’s does well, Van Rixel Brothers is cranking along with awards all over the place, and the same goes for Cocopotamus – they’ve been featured in HUGE publications like Martha Stewart and other girly-type magazines as a healthy indulgence, and Theobroma is still one of the local torchbearers of chocolate.

All hail the locally-owned producers of deliciousness!

Who knows what kind of things the state of New Mexico is up to, what with the upheaval and changeover in the executive office, and who knows if the Rail Runner will survive the likely gutting of the state budget, but, hey – at least someone is getting paid to point out the best Green Chile Cheeseburgers in the state!

OK, OK, I shouldn’t be so cranky – I just let the potential death of Rail Runner get me down again. Anything that promotes the patronage of small businesses is good, especially restaurants which sustain us, give us a place to meet with family, and fill us with a sense of community in ways that you just won’t get from indifferent chain owners.

The Culinary Treasures Trail does just that – it only highlights spots in business for over 40 years, and chose those based on tons of feedback and a research team that has a good deal of experience eating all over the state. I even got to throw my 7 cents in (when I’m offered 2 cents, I’ll typically spout a bit more…).

Local highlights include Grandma Warner’s K&I Diner, the Dog House, and (duh) Mary & Tito’s. A few that I haven’t visited in awhile popped up and made me interested in re-visiting those classics. Murphy’s Mule Barn wins with their hubcap-sized chicken fried steak, Mannie’s has the unforgettable waitress Laverne and fantastic pancakes, and Sadie’s for anything and everything with chile.