Taste New Mexico at two colorful stops along Albuquerque's Route 66

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Monte Carlo Liquors & Steak House is simply a lone ceramic land successful a ample asphalt batch that sits conscionable implicit 100 feet from the Central Avenue Bridge that stretches implicit the Rio Grande successful Albuquerque.

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The business’ sanction says everything: The beforehand of the gathering lodges a liquor store selling the basal brands of spirits and beer. Around back, an arrow, painted garnet against an different beige facade, points toward a reddish doorway sheltered by a small, domed awning. The words “steakhouse entrance” person been stenciled supra successful letters large capable to beryllium seen 2 blocks away.

The 56-year-old throwback is often my archetypal halt aft landing successful New Mexico. I person been traveling to the authorities regularly since the summertime of 1999, erstwhile I attended my archetypal of galore penning retreats led by Natalie Goldberg, writer of “Writing Down the Bones” and galore different books. Its bluish topography — the tremendous consciousness of space, the mode the airy moves and colors displacement against the mountains and desertscapes — support maine returning.

Albuquerque, location to the state’s largest airport, is simply a gateway. It’s besides the metropolis with the longest continuous municipality agelong of Route 66, named Central Avenue and moving astir 18 miles done its core. Two of my precise favourite restaurants successful New Mexico reside on this zagging sweep, some quirky and atmospheric and besides grounding successful their consciousness of place.

I instrumentality to Monte Carlo for 2 reasons: the honky-tonk ambiance and the greenish chile cheeseburger.

Beyond the reddish doorway lies the platonic perfect of a Midcentury dive. The windowless eating country remains perpetually dim. Crimson pleather booths enactment the walls, which are covered with vintage brew signs and framed portraits of Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe … and Guy Fieri, who visited successful 2008. A postulation of exemplary cars sits down solid successful 1 corner. It is casual to ideate a adjacent past erstwhile cigaret fume hovered similar debased unreality cover.

I cannot study connected the fried appetizers oregon char-broiled steaks that comprise overmuch of the menu. Occasionally I bid a Greek appetizer — a motion to the practice of Michael Katsaros, whose household inactive runs the spot — which includes a artifact of feta sprinkled with oregano, olives, a azygous rolled grape leaf, slices of herb and cucumber and, uniquely, heavy blocks of salami.

the honky-tonk ambiance and the greenish chile cheeseburger.

Chasing greenish chile cheeseburgers done New Mexico is athletics for nutrient obsessives. Cheryl Jamison, a longtime nutrient writer who lives successful Santa Fe, steered maine to Monte Carlo years ago.

The unit grounds the beef sirloin daily, a important step. Seeds are disposable among the chopped roasted chiles, smoky and vegetal and bringing immoderate heat, overlaid with a azygous quadrate of American food melted into place. The sting of a adust gin martini is precisely close betwixt bites.

Is this the champion greenish chile cheeseburger successful Albuquerque? Impossible for maine to say, but it is an fantabulous gauge from which to statesman a survey.

The interior hamburger grill of Monte Carlo Liquors & Steak House.

The eating country is perpetually dim, and crimson pleather booths enactment the walls, covered with vintage brew signs and framed portraits.

The chile cheeseburger astatine Monte Carlo.

Wherever you’re headed from Monte Carlo, it’s worthy a speedy halt to respect the duplicate Route 66 Rio Grande markers that basal connected either broadside of the adjacent bridge. Their adobe colour blends truthful seamlessly into the scenery that you could velocity by them without overmuch notice. They were installed successful the aboriginal 2000s arsenic portion of the city’s nationalist creation programs. Their tiered signifier nods to the unreality terrace motif that appears repeatedly successful New Mexico’s indigenous Pueblo creation and architecture. It’s easiest astatine nighttime to spy their subtle Route 66 logos lit up successful reddish and greenish neon.

Red and greenish are the unofficial authorities colors of New Mexico, arsenic you’ll spot again and again connected plates delivered by servers astatine Duran Central Pharmacy, the finest destination on Central Avenue for immersion into determination cooking.

Indigenous ingredients (corn, beans, squash, crippled meats, berries and piñon among them) and dense Spanish assemblage influences (chiles were said to person been brought to the country arsenic aboriginal arsenic the precocious 1500s) assistance specify New Mexican cuisine.

Modern edifice menus, with the acquainted enchiladas and tamales and hard-shell tacos, tin lucifer Tex-Mex, but ne'er accidental that to a New Mexican local. The chiles delineate culinary borders. “Red oregon green?” customers volition beryllium asked repeatedly. Meaning: Do you privation your crockery smothered successful condiment made from roasted greenish chiles, oregon a simmered counterpart fashioned from dried reddish chile pods?

The operation plate, Christmas style, astatine Duran's.

If you privation both, arsenic galore of america do, the reply is “Christmas.”

At “Duran’s,” arsenic locals telephone it, spot and sensation the distinctions connected Duran’s operation plate, which includes 1 beef oregon chickenhearted taco, 1 pork tamale and 1 rolled food enchilada with a broadside of pinto beans. Green has a toothier texture and fresher flavor; reddish is saucier with dusky, earthen undertones. Try the duo implicit a hefty knife-and-fork meal burrito filled with chorizo, chilaquiles, a vessel of chili or, a peculiar connected Wednesdays and Fridays, sopaipillas (pillows of fried dough) blanketed successful cheese.

Founded successful 1942, Duran primitively had a soda fountain that converted to a sit-down edifice successful the 1960s. Touches of Midcentury Modern kitsch, particularly a starburst timepiece connected the restaurant’s roadside sign, marks its spot on Route 66.

The exterior of Duran Central Pharmacy and the interior of thier edifice Durran's connected Wednesday, April 29, 2026 successful Albuquerque.

Scenes from Duran Central Pharmacy connected Wednesday, April 29, 2026 successful Albuquerque, CA.

Touches of Midcentury Modern kitsch see a starburst timepiece connected the restaurant’s roadside sign, marking its spot on Route 66.

And yes, this gathering besides pulls treble work arsenic a thriving pharmacy. On instrumentality visits erstwhile I’m feeling excessively excited astir jumping backmost into New Mexican foodways, I commencement astatine Monte Carlo for a cheeseburger and martinis earlier a 2nd luncheon of sopaipillas, “Christmas-style,” astatine Duran, knowing I tin prime up ibuprofen and calcium carbonate for dessert.