After a quick talk with the owners of El Bruno’s Restaurante y Cantina in Cuba it is revealed that the original location of Garduno’s on 4th Street in Albuquerque will be the second location for the beloved El Bruno’s.

For years El Bruno’s has been a welcome stop for all who travel the 550 (formerly the 44) between Bernalillo and Chaco Canyon, Durango, and Farmington. The chile is pleasantly hot, the food FAST, and the atmosphere relaxing like the rest stop it should be. No, it is not the absolute killer best New Mexican I have ever had, but it is really really good and better than anyone could hope for on that stretch.

It will be interesting to see if having the restaurant so close by will make Cuba not as interesting, or if the food will change, or even if I will finally visit one of the forgotten restaurants in Cuba that are probably pretty good and horribly neglected all these years.

Interestingly I’d been driving past the Fastino’s sign for months, thinking it was some weird chainy like restaurant that served noodles. Such is the power of a logo. Not that I want to delve into the ins and outs of logo/branding and design and how to entice your potential customers . . .

Anyway, at some point I found out that it is essentially a second location of Saggio’s, with some tweaks and minor menu changes. This is pretty neato since I like Saggio’s yet never seem to haul my butt over there. Perhaps I am frightened by the looming dessert case, or put off by the insane noise levels in there.

But I will have to investigate Fastino’s and let everyone else know they don’t just serve noodles. They even took it upon themselves to add a note to their sign that says, “Saggio’s!!!”

Well, there are a decent number of vegetarian and vegan options in Albuquerque already (at least, so says PETA in their list of best vegetarian-friendly cities).  (Not that I’m endorsing PETA.)  (Ever.)

(Ever.)

That being said, there is a new Thai restaurant opening soon in the former space where Lotus Cafe bit the dusk on Osuna & San Mateo.  The new spot is called Thai Vegan, just in case it wasn’t clear what they specialize in.

Now, this is a pretty darn good idea, because it does not take a lot of tweaking to make Thai vegan.  Remove the meaty proteins?  Easy.  Remove fish sauce?  Ok, sure.  Done.  Most other ingredients are veggies, rice, coconut milk, spices.  Not too complicated, though the results can be absolutely stunning.

I’m excited to check it out and see if I can tell the difference.

So…. there’s a pretty well regarded chain of “upscale” burgers moving into Albuquerque.  Not sure about their prospects, given that the Duke City already has a huge number of really good burger places where we can get our fix of either gooey green chile cheese or the truly squishy and delicious Otis Burger at Standard Diner (fried egg and all).

Per the NMBW, “For hamburger aficionados hungering for gourmet beef chains to arrive in New Mexico, the wait is over. Five Guys Burgers and Fries, a fixture on the East Coast, is invading the Land of Enchantment with 15 restaurants over the next five years.”

So what can Five Guys do that we already cannot?  (Apparently one thing they do that I applaud is print their nutrition info – that’s one thing that the chains have been browbeaten into doing in recent years and I don’t think it is a bad move.)

My hope is that if they do well, it is not at the expense of gems like Little Red Hamburger Hut and Bubster’s and heck, even places that are more refined like Independence Grill and Route 66 Malt Shop (yes, I called them refined – its the burger, not the atmosphere, that I’m assessing).

So where is it?  In that weird little nexus of Louisiana, San Pedro, and Paseo Del Norte that I had very little reason to frequent previously (Trader Joe’s) and now I’m pretty much never up there.  Guess I’ll be making another visit.

After being the butt of jokes from those involving obesity to local cop hijinks, Krispy Kreme closed all local stores about three years ago.

Apparently folks need their sugar – Krispy Kreme is coming back. Need a job and love the smell of frying dough? They’re having a job fair on November 30th, prior to the opening on December 8th.  Doesn’t sound like a lot of time to me.

Here’s the news story from the New Mexico Business Weekly:

Krispy Kreme Back From The Dead