Jaunted

Food Travel / Albuquerque Travel / New Mexico Travel / Diners / Route 66 / Road Trips / → All Tags

Get Your Chile Kicks at Albuquerque's Jaunted-Approved Route 66 Malt Shop

Route 66: a thing so glorious that everyone wants a piece of it. Which means that for every amazing piece of memorabilia, stretch of Route 66 or piece of carry on luggage (don’t ask), there is a piece of tat or dirt track that’s beyond terrible. The only exception: food. You can pretty much guarantee that every diner trumpeting its Route 66 connections will be fun to eat in and great for photos, but purveying disgusting food.

Or so we thought till we found ourselves with time to spare in the Nob Hill part of Albuquerque, and asked to be pointed in the direction of somewhere to eat. And were recommended the Route 66 Malt Shop, at 3800 Central Avenue (ie Route 66).

At first glance, it looked like all the others. Bright colors and neon outside, retro stuff and juke box inside. Burgers and milkshakes on the menu. So far, so borrring. Slow service, too—we sat without anyone approaching us for a while (because we were alone?), so since we were in a hurry, we went up to the counter. A superfriendly man, who looked like he was in a rockband 20 years ago, asked us what we wanted.

We asked for something New Mexican. “Do you like blue cheese?” he said. “Because if you do, you need the Bleu Cheese Green Chile Burger.

He was right; it was the best burger we’d had for ages and easily the best burger of 2011. Blue cheese and green chile doesn’t sound like it should work, but omg it does. As for the meat: perfectly seasoned and magnificently juicy. Even the bun was delicious. We told the rockstar so, and he sat down at our table to tell us why.

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Win a Trip to New Mexico Plus a Walk-on Role in 'Breaking Bad'

Want to win a trip to Albuquerque, where you can hang out on the set of Breaking Bad?

Well, AMC is giving fans the chance with a recently launched sweepstakes. The winner will receive a walk-on role in the hit show, along with a four-day, three-night trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Breaking Bad will soon begin filming its fifth season.

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New Mexico Travel / Fall Travel / Events / Fall Festivals / Albuquerque Travel / → All Tags

Billions of Balloons Hit The Skies Next Week In New Mexico

We’re sure you’ve seen plenty of pictures of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, so try to make this the year you finally make it out to New Mexico to check it out in person. We know it’s short notice—things run from October 1 through October 9—but where else can you see a SpongeBob SquarePants hot air balloon in person?

The hot air balloon party started back in the 1970s with just around a dozen or so balloons, but when the balloons hit the skies next week there will be more than 700. The launch field is almost 80-acres in size, so definitely remember to bring your sneakers if you’re planning to walk around before lift-off. This is one of the only festivals where visitors are allowed to walk between balloons so take advantage of the opportunity to meander about.

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Inside the Albuquerque Balloon Museum

New Mexico's most famous festival is the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. We just missed the colorful hot-air balloon fest during our trip, so we opted for the next best thing: a visit to the Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum.

While the museum isn't big enough to hold as many hot-air balloons as the Fiesta, it holds a couple of smaller ones. But it is big enough to contain some gondolas; the centerpiece of 'em is the original gondola from the Double Eagle V, the first manned balloon to cross the Pacific Ocean. It held balloonists Ben Abruzzo, Larry Newman and Ron Clark and, uh, Benihana steakhouse founder Rocky Aoki.

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The Top Three Green Chile Cheeseburgers in Albuquerque

Southwestern Burger from ABQ Brewpub

New Mexico's unofficial state food is the green chile cheeseburger. Any respectable burger joint tops its patties with the spicy, flavorful chiles. You'll even find the hot chiles in burgers at McDonald's.

There's actually a Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail that plots out all of the good places to grab the signature sandwich throughout the state, but we decided to blaze our epicurean trail in Albuquerque. Taking cues from the Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail and suggestions from locals, we hit up three restaurants in search of the best green chile cheeseburger.

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Albuquerque Travel / Fall Travel / Travel Snapshots / New Mexico Travel / → All Tags

Wish You Were Here: Albuquerque, New Mexico

This strip in Albuquerque is Central Avenue, better known as the historic Route 66. And people do come to Route 66 to get their kicks; this section is downtown Albuquerque's entertainment district.

Downtown is a pretty quiet place, even during the day. But at night, Central Ave. comes alive with club music pulsing through the air and people partying alfresco at hot spots like this bookish-looking bar and grill The Library. The most hopping bar in in the strip, it had a line of eager drinkers going down the block last night.

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Albuquerque's Top Of The Line Stadium Welcomes Manny Ramirez

Baseball fans in Albuquerque are in store for more excitement tonight than the usual t-shirt cannons or wacky mascot antics. Manny Ramirez, of steroid-suspension fame, is making his first rehabilitation appearance tonight for the Isotopes. We’re thinking that a capacity crowd of over 13,000 will be on hand to catch a glimpse of the MLB star, and maybe even cheer him on.

Even if you don’t get to see Manny tonight, the park and its team have a lot to offer. After all, they are the AAA affiliate of the LA Dodgers, so the stadium obviously needs to be pretty close to what one would expect from a big league experience. Isotopes Park was designed by HOK Sport, the go-to guys for stadium construction, so the place does not disappoint.

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'Observe and Report' Filmed at Albuquerque's Winrock Mall

Who knew mall cop comedies would become all the rage? The latest, "Observe and Report", starring Seth Rogen as a bi-polar mall security guard who is called into action when a flasher takes advantage of mall patrons, opens today. "Observe and Report" was filmed at the Winrock Mall in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Here’s how to get up close and personal to it.

Where to Stay:
Winrock Mall is in uptown Albuquerque, NM, along with a variety of chain restaurants, box stores, movie theaters, and hotels, one of which is a Sheraton Albuquerque Uptown. The Sheraton was recently renovated and is receiving rave reviews on Trip Advisor. Juanless07 called staying at the Sheraton, “an awesome experience” and at_the_track called it “a nice hotel in a great location.” Along with the new renovations, the hotel now offers an on-site Starbucks, Wi-Fi in every rooms, and in-room Jacuzzis. Right now, rooms start as low as $99 a night.

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'Sunshine' Cleans Up in Albuquerque

Sunshine Cleaners opens in limited release this weekend. In it, Amy Adams and Emily Blunt star as sisters who start a “biohazard cleaning service”, in other words, they clean up crime scenes and suicides. The movie is set in Albuquerque, NM where it was also filmed. Check out our Sunshine Cleaners guide to Albuquerque, minus the blood and police tape.

Where to Stay:
Even though the view might be a little sketchy, Embassy Suites Hotel Albuquerque has received excellent reviews on TripAdvisor. Visitors raved about the staff, pool, and breakfast. The hotel also offers wireless internet, close proximity to downtown attractions, spacious living rooms, refrigerators, and microwaves in every suite. Right now, rates start as low $118 a night.

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There's No George Clooney Here, But...

SIGH. This week marked the last day of shooting for "Men Who Stare At Goats," George Clooney's forthcoming CIA thriller costarring Kevin Spacey and George Clooney's mustache. It must feel as deflating to the state of New Mexico as a Bill Richardson's failed presidential bid or every time someone confuses it with the old country to the south.

Well, we found at least three good reasons to visit Albuquerque, the last set used for "Men Who Stare At Goats," and they have nothing to do with the above-named bachelor:

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Jaunted On Location / Jaunted-On-Location / George Clooney / George Clooney's Mustache / Eric Roberts / Johnny Depp / → All Tags

No More Goats

Today, we're so sorry to report, is the last day of principal shooting for “Men Who Stare at Goats.” The movie will be filming at SunCal Dunes in Albuquerque, a 55,000-acre tract of land with spectacular views of the cityscape that may soon become a massive housing development. We don’t which is the bigger shame: Transforming a tranquil landscape into suburbia or watching another George Clooney movie wrap.

In Wisconsin, Eric Roberts, most recently seen on “Heroes,” has started in on the indie flick, “Project Solitude." They'll be filming around Flintville today, a small town located in the metro Green Bay area. This isn’t the first movie to come through these parts this year: Johnny Depp was in Wisconsin for more than two months in the spring filming “Public Enemies.”

If you have any tips about where movies or TV shows are filming, send them our way at tips@jaunted.com.

Related Stories:
· California Firm Has Big Plans for Albuquerque Growth [SunCal]
· Merits of Film Incentives Spike Debate [WWLP]
· Joined By George Clooney's Shaggy Haircut On The Basketball Court [Jaunted]

[Photo: Just Jared]

Very Light Jets / Air Taxis / Eclipse Aviation / → All Tags

We Were Told There Would Be Air Taxis

We've been hearing about "air taxis" and "very light jets" for years now, with backers promising that six- or eight-seat planes are the way out of the miserable hell that is flying commercial. (The fact that tickets would be affordable was a big plus, too.) But now that Eclipse Aviation, the maker of the ultimate VLJ, the Eclipse 500, has stopped making planes, the future of the whole niche industry is in doubt.

In September, Eclipse's biggest customer, an outfit called DayJet, shut down operations, saying it would likely never resume business. Shortly thereafter, Eclipse stopped making new planes. Today, news broke that the company won't be able to pay employees for their past two weeks of work, and some of them simply packed up and walked out.

Of course, the Air Taxi Association--which is a thing that exists--unsurprisingly says these developments don't mean the whole air taxi idea is bust. They don't?

Related Stories:
· Eclipse Employees Unpaid for Two Weeks [AP, via KDBC]
· Eclipse Aviation [Wikipedia]
· Very Light Jets coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo of an Eclipse 500: Wikipedia]