Albuquerque (ok, technically the greater metropolitan area) is dispensing with the name at Isleta Casino, a place with enormous venues, several restaurants (at least one of which is supposedly good), and of course tons of gambling.

What’s going there?  Hard Rock Cafe (Casino).  Yowzers.

Will the existing restaurants go away completely?  Hard to say, but hopefully I’ll find out and keep ya’ll informed.

Was it the group I just saw, checking out with about 11 raggedly looking upper-class snowboarder types all milling around the registers with clearly nothing better to do like take a seat and get generally out of the way of all of the other transactions that are on the cusp of occuring if only their warm bodies would cease to obstruct the flow of foot traffic?

Possibly.

Something sweet, a little bit cold, but still with a buck and kick like a mule and just a little bit of warmth (at least in the beginning, anyway):

Affogato at Berry Ocean, holiday tree already set up and sparkling in the background:

…. and then, approximately 60 seconds later:

I just had a small, double-shot, extra dry cappucino from Saxby’s coffee in the NE Heights (near Trader Joe’s), and it was served in a 16oz mug with at least 8oz of milk.

Come ON now, baristas!

Double shot means 2oz (50ml) of espresso max, plus a combined volume of 150-200ml foamed milk – THAT’S a proper cappucino ratio, not even dry.

How specific do my instructions need to be to actually get a decent cappucino?  This is like going to get a Blizzard at Dairy Queen and they blend together a little scoop of ice cream into some milk so the consistency is like, well, milk.  You’d throw it back at them, because it’s not right!  Or like ordering a pizza and receiving one piece of pepperoni and a square inch of cheese on the middle of the pie.

Gold Street can do it, Ecco can do it (though they can’t seem to make decent gelato) . . . why not anyone else?

Saxby’s goes on my permanent “only if nowhere else is open” list for espresso drinks.

On a hot Saturday I load up with relleno burrito and bowl of green from The Chili Stop, and set off for home with Bob Dylan slinking his sounds over the stereo. All is bliss.

Except for the broken A/C, that is. Still…..