Albuquerque and Sante Fe Restaurants

[fyfas]

On 7/22/2006 at 9:19 PM, thenextmeal said:

Wow - that's the first I had thought of St Estephe in a long, long time. What a fantastic place that was. What happened to Sedlar - is he still around?

I had a book I bought that was based on a (mid 80s?) PBS show called "Great Chefs Of The Southwest" and Sedler was in there. So was Mansion on Turtle Creek, Miller (I think), and I also think Border grill, back when they were on Melrose, etc., etc. I still cook out of that book, BTW, so if you ever see one in a thrift store, buy it!

 

Sorry to be adding this so late in the thread...

I, too, loved St. Estephe in Manhattan Beach in the day. 

 

John Sedlar is Chef/Owner of a Santa Fe restaurant in a hotel here.  Eloisa is the restaurant; in the Drury Hotel a few blocks east of The Plaza. 

 

As I recall Sedlar had a partner in St. Estephe who is also a New Mexico native, Estevan Garcia. He also cooks in Santa Fe but they are no longer together. 

 

Eloisa is among the very best Santa Fe restaurants.  Space is large and the kitchen is visible from a counter if that is important.   

[Orbit]

I'll just leave this here for anyone going to ABQ: the Jambo Cafe; there's one in Santa Fe also. Afro-Carribean food, very tasty.

[Jan Lemmons]

Sadie's is a great Mexican style restaurant. There are two locations so you would need to look it up depending where you stay.  My other favorite is El Pinto down in the North Valley. I grew up in Albuquerque so know that these are a bit more expensive.    For breakfast there is a chain called Weck's that is excellent for breakfast.  

[lastpick]

I just arrived back in New Mexico. I'm near the ABQ area, so I'll provide some post-COVID updates to this post over the coming months as several places unfortunately did not survive the pandemic. I'm going to stay away from chains as several can be found downtown, like Fogo Du Chao, Slapfish, Ruth's Steakhouse, and many others make an appearance in the city.

 

I'll start with some of the historic and good places that remain, such as Golden Pride for fried and roasted chicken as well as ribs at a reasonable cost. Frontier restaurant is still around and is well known for their Cinnamon buns. There's Burger Boy in the East Mountains about 20 minutes outside the city. Unfortunately, I can no longer recommend stopping here as the food is overly expensive and a hit or miss now. Try 35$ in 2024 for a burger with tater tots, a fountain drink, and a chocolate malt shake. There's also Rumor's Brewing in Cedar Crest that has great pizza, my opinion is based on having lived in New England so I know good pizza, (note: sauce is a little salty, the dough is excellent) Their beers are quite good as well and there is often live music throughout the week. 

 

Stay tuned. More updates are forthcoming.