Jen and Meg's Excellent Road Trip Recap: Albuquerque

Leaving Oklahoma City left us a short drive across the remainder of Oklahoma, a small part of North Texas, and then just over half way across New Mexico to end up in Albuquerque, which was our next city.  To break up the 8+ hour drive, we agreed to stop for lunch about half way, which put us in Amarillo, Texas, a pretty good sized town, and one you may have heard of thanks in part to its mentions in many country music songs (Amarillo Sky by Jason Aldean, for example).  Our predetermined lunch stop was going to be the Coyote Bluff Cafe.

This place was on our radar because it was featured on Man vs. Food.  I got a little nervous when we pulled up and I saw a crowd of abut 10 people waiting outside.  We walked up and some nice folks let us know about the informal line policy - you basically just find out what group is before you and when they get called into the restaurant, you know you are next.  While we waited, we headed inside to get beers from the famous "beer tub."  That alone made this place awesome.  Its pretty much an honor system with the beers - you take your empties inside and pay with your meal...nice!

Coyote Bluff Cafe in Amarillo, TX

 It couldn't have been more than 10 minutes before we were seated. We immediately eyed the "Burger from Hell," but why stop there?  Megan and I each ordered a burger with the intent to split them so we could sample more.  I got the 'California Burger,' which also sounded interesting.  The burgers came about as quickly as you could expect, and were promptly devoured, along with a plate of fries that we also split.  For getting the burgers done medium well (my request), they were SO juicy!  Seriously, one of the best burgers I've ever had.  With that, we were ready to finish the drive to Albuquerque, or ABQ, as referred to locally.

Burrito from Frontier Restaurant in Albuquerque, NM

While in Albuquerque, I was on a mission to find some 'Breaking Bad' filming locations...just kidding, though I did find a website dedicated to such a thing.  As per usual, we got settled in around dinner time and set off for the K&I Diner, which was yet another featured restaurant on Man vs. Food.  This time though, we were hoping to try their food challenge, which is the 'Travis on a Silver Platter,' a MEGA burrito covered in green chile and french fries, and served on a silver tray.  Unfortunately, they were closed when we got there, so we headed to another spot for good Mexican food, Frontier Restaurant, located on the campus of the University of New Mexico.  Frontier was setup more like a cafe where you order your food at a counter, then pick it up when you number is displayed on a video screen.  Both of us stuck with the burrito theme and got their signature burrito.  This was more or less "normal" sized but covered in green chile (just about everything was covered with green chile).  I was a little disappointed in the burrito, but perhaps unfairly, as I was really hoping to try the Travis Burrito at K&I.

After dinner, we wanted to check out some breweries, so Megan put together a list of three to four breweries.  The first one we visited, Bad Ass Brewing, was just opened up by a longtime homebrewer, and had a kind of odd strip mall location.  They had a lot of beers on tap, but more than one of them just didn't taste right to me.  In fact, I think I disliked more than I liked.  But, as a fellow beer enthusiast and homebrewer, I gotta give the guy credit for following his dream.  Hopefully he can refine his methods a bit and start putting out better quality beer.

Bad Ass was an OK start, but once we sampled the beers at La Cumbre Brewing, you could easily tell the difference in quality.  I was really impressed by nearly their entire lineup at La Cumbre, including a couple of Pilsner style beers that I normally wouldn't order.  They had a few awesome pale ale's/IPA's as well.  To top it off, since it was a Saturday night, they had two bands playing bluegrass tunes, so we had some entertainment with our beers.  On recommendation from a few locals we chatted with, we finished our beers and headed around the corner (literally) to Il Vocino brewing.  Il Vocino was different in that they had a large indoor space, but a HUGE outdoor patio as well, part of which was covered.  It also appeared they had a stage area, so perhaps they bring in live music from time to time.  Il Vocino had some different styles than La Cumbre - they had more variety overall, but I think we both liked the beers equally as compared to La Cumbre.  I'm definitely glad we found these two places, and I can't wait to come back to try their beer.

Beer sampler at La Cumbre brewing in Albuquerque

To round out the night, as had become another custom, we made a stop for late night eats, this time choosing Del Taco, a fast food restaurant not unlike Taco Bell.  We figured since there weren't any Del Taco restaurants near us, we'd try to eat "local."  Sadly, Del Taco was disappointing, and I might even put Taco Bell above them in the Mexican fast food category.

Albuquerque was a cool city, and I wish we had a chance to spend another day there - my initial impression was that it seemed very old and dirty, but as we drove around and talked to people, sampled some of the local fare, etc. I developed a much more favorable impression and will hopefully return sometime soon to explore what we missed.