Despite the acclaim from its fame as the best green chile cheeseburger in the state, a visit to Badlands Burgers in Grants today showed nothing but an empty dining room, piled up mail, and a disconnected phone number.

Badlands Crowned Green Chile King (Gallup Independent)

Badlands Urbanspoon Page

Bummer.

….today (and tomorrow?) are the days to get your (American) Kobe burger fix at Independence Grill.

Jerry Wright, as friendly a restauranteur as I could hope for, is closing the doors to this restaurant which has WON best burger in all of Albuquerque for his Caprese Burger, marrying juicy beef to mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil.  Albuquerque the Magazine crowned Jerry’s burger the winner over a year ago, but it was not enough to keep him going.

If you’ve never had one, stop in.  A restaurant’s closing is never good reason to just stop going – often the owner is already in debt and if you enjoy the food giving them one last vote of confidence and dollars is good for everyone.

Don’t forget his “pig wings”, one of the best porky appetizers in all the land.

Well, it might have been inevitable, but Garduno’s Mexican Restaurant(s) is moving towards their steamy, chile-laced end.

As of yesterday, three of five locations are closed for good, and the corporation is filing for Chapter 11.

I reported on this news previously, and wondered how they could recover in their fight against the state, which now looks like it is a fight against a former employee.  They’re having a hard time tracking him down???  Don’t records exist with social security numbers, etc – especially if it was an employee there long enough to be able to steal over a million dollars.  That seems bizarre to me.

In any case, if you actually do appreciate their food and festive atmosphere, do go enjoy it while it lasts.