My Page: Alan Kleinfeld

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Surprises in the Entertainment Book

You know those “entertainment books,� the ones with all the dining coupons? Well, we have one. We bought it for no other reason than to support my nephew’s middle school fundraising efforts. I think we’ve gotten our $35 out of it, but it’s still been sort of a disappointment.

Many of the restaurants make their homes in hotels and we feel too much like don’t-know-any-better-tourists when we dine there. And let’s face it, not many of the hotel restaurants in Albuquerque are all that great to begin with. They’re not awful, but not since The Rancher’s Club inside the Albuquerque Hilton have we had a really good hotel restaurant (and even now the Rancher’s Club is a bit tired). [more]

New Westerners

This isn’t a restaurant review. It’s a family history lesson. A story of how a pharmacy with a soda fountain in the 1940s paved the lives and careers of one Albuquerque family. From the beginning, it appears as if the Ghattas family has had food thrust upon them as a business. And thankfully for us, they’re good at managing it.

The patriarch, Robert Ghattas, is a pharmacist by trade. He began working with Pete Duran at Pete’s pharmacy in the late 1950s. Back in the day, soda fountains in pharmacies were common. You could drop by, get your dose of cod liver oil or penicillin and grab a “malted� and a sandwich.
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There's No Stopping Me Now

Not long ago I had to make a business trip to Los Alamos National Labs. It had nothing to do with writing, but I was to meet with several people and give a presentation on, of all things, conference planning.

Never having visited there before, I mapped out my route from Albuquerque, prepared myself with handouts, a few little giveaways and even some candy (presentations always go better when your audience is munching on a Hershey Kiss).

As I approached the area of the Labs, I expected to be greeted with Fort Knox-type security. You know, modern video cameras, some kind of futuristic fingerprint or retina scanner. Maybe even guards equipped with Star Trek-like weaponry. [more]

16 Shopping Days Left

Nine times out of 10, when I buzz my mom on her cell phone, she’s at Costco. She loves the place and can’t seem to get enough of it. She’s not alone.

Albuquerque has two Costco locations, both of them apparently busy from opening to closing. When I lived in Washington, DC, the nearest Costco had a teeny parking lot, so not only did you have to wait in the checkout line indoors, but then you had to spend another 30 plus minutes just getting out of the parking lot. We used our membership twice in a 12-month period. We did not renew our $45 membership. Until we moved to Albuquerque. [more]

The Ugly Cupcake

The words "good" and "Chinese buffet" rarely find themselves in the same sentence. But in the case of China Luck, the food is good, the service gracious.

We discovered China Luck the day we moved into our Westside neighborhood. After the grueling task of moving and unpacking, we sat dirty and famished in our new living room. We needed nourishment. ASAP. We ventured down the street to the strip mall not far from the new pad only to find that the Thai restaurant we wanted to try was closed for the evening. It was in the stars that we would also find in the same strip mall China Luck.

On our first visit, we arrived just before closing. As we got ready to pay our bill , the waitress came up to us with carry-our boxes and offered us free rein at the buffet to take whatever we wanted with us. “We’re just going to throw it out if you don’t take it,� she said. [more]

Choo Choo Choose Me

Hang on to your chile rellenos, folks. Albuquerque is about to get a metropolitan experience in a big way. Well, almost.

Finally, the first phase of a commuter rail that has been the center of discussion and debate for decades is about to take off. Literally. With an expected inauguration to take place in early 2006, commuters will soon be gliding on tracks, going from Belen to Bernalillo, with more than a half dozen stops in between and will run on existing tracks currently owned by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. [more]

New West Living

It was the early 1990s. Murphy Brown ruled the tube, Hootie and his blowfish rocked the radio and Pierce Brosnan, FINALLY appeared as super cool Bond, James Bond. It was also my “country western song phase.� I totaled my car, I lost my job, my credit cards were maxed out and my life-long friends where heading to greener pastures far away from New Mexico. Land of Enchantment? Hardly. So I followed suit and got out of dodge. I made it all the way to Boston, followed by even a longer stint in Washington, DC. [more]

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