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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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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How Scenic Is the Turquoise Trail from Albuquerque to Santa Fe?

We flew into Albuquerque and had to drive to Santa Fe, and found we had two options: the highway or the Turquoise Trail. Both routes take about an hour, with the highway a bit quicker. What got us was a trail brochure promising great scenery and 74 stop-off points. We love checking out little towns, so we decided to hop on the Turquoise Trail.

The historic trail encompasses 15,000 square miles. Prehistoric people lived there back in the day and Kit Carson marched through it with the Navajo during the Long Walk to Fort Sumner and supposedly outlaws camped out there as well.

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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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'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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