View from the Innside

Tour of Old Town--Maria Teresa Restaurant

The Maria Teresa Restaurant closed in 2004, only months before I arrived here.  It had been an Albuquerque institution for years, a favorite place for special occasions and prom dates.  The building has been vacant ever since, intriguing in its architecture and history, lonely in its location.  It is surrounded by Little Anita's (a local chain restaurant), Rio Grande Blvd., and the large parking lot of Hotel Albuquerque.

It was recently purchased by the company that owns Hotel Albuquerque and will be turned into a high-end event and meeting center.  It's on the National Register, so they pretty much have to leave the exterior structure of the building as it is. 

The high wall does not do it any favors, although it screens the lovely courtyard and yard surrounding the building from the busy traffic noise.

I was fortunate to find these great photos on another website, taken when it was still a restaurant.  Look at this great portal.  I have very little trouble imagining what this hacienda must have looked like when it was a family home.  A HUGE family home.  It started with 12 rooms built around a central courtyard and was added to later on.  It's now 10,000 square feet.

I did as much research on the web as I could to find out the history.  It's pretty sketchy and it looks like there's a lot of misinformation out there, but here goes:

There are several dates associated with this house:  1783, about which there is practically nothing; and 1840.  The National Historic Register says it was built in 1845, and I can believe that.  I can also believe that the 1783 date was for a land grant by the King of Spain, as much of the land around here was.  Several websites said it was built by Salvador Armijo in 1783, which appears to be wrong.  I found more information on Salvador Armijo (1823-1879), who apparently was among the many merchants in the Armijo family.  The Salvador Armijo House is also known as the Santiago Baca Homestead.  Baca was Armijo's son-in-law and worked with him in his mercantile business in the late 1800's. 

An interesting twist is that the Maria Teresa Restaurant was considered among the most haunted places in New Mexico.  To see some lovely photos of the place when it was still open and read about their ghosts (some are really amusing), click here.

cool Cootie

Even a trip to Joanne's Fabrics can be an adventure.  I drove into the parking lot and parked right next to "Cootie."  Can you see them in the picture?  There are bugs of all kinds glued onto this car.

... and a large bug sculpture on the roof.

... very imaginatively painted with more bugs and a sun, complete with a bug hood ornament.  What doesn't show up well in the pictures are the silk flowers lining the dash, the window ledges, and the back window.  Just for that whimsical, happy look, you know.

You can do cool stuff when you're not worried about being "normal" and having your car look like everyone else's, but I'm guessing they don't take this through the car wash.

Cafe Pasqual's in Santa Fe

Last Saturday we took a trip to Santa Fe for a little time off.  The main reason was to visit Steve's mother's grave at the Veterans Cemetery.

That's not to say we can't have a food adventure at the same time.  There are a couple of places we've been wanting to try--Santacafe and Cafe Pasqual's.  We had arrived a little on the early side, leaving right after breakfast.  Our only guests had a mid-morning flight to catch, so we were able to take off as soon as they had left and we had everything cleaned up.

We didn't have much breakfast ourselves and were hoping to catch one of these places open for brunch, since we're always trying breakfast at other places.  It turns out that Santacafe is only open for lunch and dinner, so we were too early for them.  They also kind of a posh place with starched white tablecloths and all that.  So we went on to find Cafe Pasqual's at the corner of Don Gaspar Avenue and Water Street in Santa Fe.

Definitely our kind of place!  We got lucky and hit the timing just right.  They had a table for two open even though the place was packed.  It was Saturday morning after a holiday, after all.  And they serve breakfast all day!

Steve had the smoked trout hash on a bed of homemade hash browns with poached eggs, Gruyere cheese and house-made tomatillo sauce.   I tried the breakfast quesadilla with scrambled eggs, house-made chorizo, Jack cheese and salsa fresca.  Both of them were absolutely wonderful (and we bought their cookbook).  It was so great to find a place where the food is different from everywhere else and, when you take that first bite, it seems like you've died and gone to heaven.

The place itself is like the restaurants we have always liked--tables crowded together so it's challenging to move between them, cheerful staff who fill up your water or coffee every time they walk by, and a kitchen that rings with the clatter of plates and sends out wonderful aromas.  It is lavishly decorated with Mexican flags, pottery and huge impressionist-style murals on the wall.  We can hardly wait to go back and try other dishes.

a gift from The Watchmaker's Daughter

Look what arrived in the mail today!  The Watchmaker's Daughter remembered that our Christmas tree in the parlor is very Victorian, with pink, cream, rose and gold ornaments.  She sent me this lovely winged key ornament for our tree. 

Ironically, today is the day we took down all of our Christmas decorations, but I've stored it in the box of ornaments for the parlor tree for next year.

It was so nice getting a gift at the beginning of the year.  I believe in omens, don't you?  This would be a nice one.