That’s all a long way of saying that less than six months after Casa Vieja closed, the main gastronomic mind behind the kitchen is now in a new kitchen at Desert Fish just east of Nob Hill. Given that Desert Fish has impressed me mightily, I have to check out what Josh Gerwin is going to do with the place. And of course, I’ll have to find out where or where the previous chef/owner went.  I can barely keep tabs on these folks!

Here’s the short scoop, over at Larry’s website: Josh Gerwin rises again!

The wine and cocktail mistress from Casa Vieja is also branching out – rumor has it that the talented Kate will be emerging into a new venture. When I know, you will, too!

According to their website and press info, Cafe Bella will feature locally-roasted beans (from where? I’ll find out!). But that’s not what interests me.  What interests me is that the owner, Michael Gonzales, will be pulling shots on a crazy expensive Italian espresso machine, and also that he was trained by the Italian World Cup champion barista while they both lived in Seattle.

Will Guiseppe’s be feeling some competition? I hope so. This metro area is far large enough to support several excellent espresso shops.
The cafe side of things will be featuring as much locally grown produce as possible, working with farms and small businesses to get the kitchen’s raw ingredients.

So, it all sounds good – I’ll haul myself up the hill and check the place out, and probably post photos to Twitter, too: @dukecityfood

Café Bella Coffee

2115 Golf Course Road S.E. #102 in Rio Rancho

http://www.cafebellacoffee.com

….. but I do.  Let’s round up some of the latest restaurant gossip, shall we?

Firstly, I did not know that former co-founder of Relish was Chef de Cuisine at Artichoke Cafe. Go, Tony Nethery!

Next, Nob Hill is abuzz with openings, closings, and speculation. A new spot should be coming in where Bumble Bee’s was – called Z, and owned by the Street Food Asia folks. And, Andre’s quietly closed. Did anyone even eat there, aside from the one horrible Urbanspoon review?

And mentions do pop up about people that eat here and love it, like this one about Perea’s.

I don’t like the usually burnt coffee. I whine a bit about increasing prices. Sometimes I find myself the recipient of sporadically inept hands in the kitchen.

BUT.

Flying Star, like Ari LeVaux said in his recent Alibi article, is the “friend you hang out with all the time, even though you sometimes complain about him”. And like an old friend, a heck of a lot of people would miss Flying Star if it were missing from the local dining landscape.

NINE, count ‘em, nine locations. Gorgeous interior design. Local roasting that has upsized several times. Over nearly 25 years, the operation has both grown and refined itself, finding solid ground in serving what most people want, most of the time, at prices that are perfectly fine (mostly).

Remember that organic costs more. Imported butter for great pastries costs more. Local chicken costs more. And in the middle of a recession, everybody hurts. Raw ingredient costs are up at least 25% for restaurants in the last 4 years, yet menu costs are up under 10%. That means that even though it sucks to pay more, the restaurants are sucking it up, too, and that includes Flying Star.

This is roundabout way of me congratulating Ari for his article. He appreciates what Flying Star does, even with a few grumbles thrown in.

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.

Jennifer James 101 has a new menu heavily invested in roasts, comforting veggies, and luxurious soups.  PLUS, they are doing a winter Sunday dinner on 11/20 featuring the comfort foods of Italy.  With wine pairings included for $75, that’s a great pre-holiday stress season splurge for yourself.

In Los Lunas, you have to try the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery – adorable space, friendly people and darn good food.  Plus, they’re doing a special cooking class next week featuring cured salmon.  Yum.

While the sun is out, follow the ABQ Food Trucks around town and snap up a tasty lunch or dessert with other devoted diners.

When you can no longer bear the chill in the air, about the warmest place I can think of is the “old” standby, Pars Cuisine (ack, turn off the flashing button!!!).  Bringing a tingle to your belly with Middle Eastern foods and belly dancers who show the right way to keep themselves warm, this is a great “destination” restaurant right in your backyard.

I’m off for a pig pig pig dinner, but have a great weekend and let me know if you spot great seasonal specials around town!

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.

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.”

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

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).