Root around on Route 66 January 14, 2006
Posted by Ron in Restaurants, Web sites.add a comment
Xeltifon works as a doorman in Albuquerque and writes a blog called Random Musings, Cont’d. Today, he waxes ecstatic about a blue-cheese green chile burger he ate at a place on Central Avenue.
It’s right up there with the Owl Cafe in San Antonio in terms of sheer distinctiveness — I’ve never encountered anything like it before. Made to *perfection*, through and through. Danish blue and fresh-ground meat on a toasted bun from some little local craft bakery. Not too fancy, not too plain. Perfect. What diner food *should* be.
Homemade root beer, too.
The cafe where he ate was the Route 66 Malt Shop, which is at 1720 Central Ave. SW. And it turns out the root beer is highly praised in other quarters. Luke’s Root Beer Reviews put it in the Top 10 twice.
It sounds like a must-visit place the next time I’m in the Duke City.
Chow down the Big Texan’s history January 14, 2006
Posted by Ron in History, Restaurants, Web sites.add a comment
Kathy Weiser, who owns the very cool Legends of America site, also has a Legends of America blog.
Today, she writes about the storied history of the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, of the “free 72-ounce steak if you eat it in an hour” fame. Check it out.
Route 66 artwork holds exhibit’s center stage January 14, 2006
Posted by Ron in Attractions, Events, History, Movies, People.add a comment
The Associated Press is reporting that about 150 pieces of art from Los Angeles’ Bohemian art scene of the 1960s are going on display at a high-rise residential tower in L.A.
That includes the centerpiece — Dennis Hopper’s Route 66 photograph titled “Double Standard,” shown above (hat tip to Art Collections for Educators). Hopper, as many of you will know, found most of his fame as a director (”Easy Rider”) and as an Oscar-winning actor (”Hoosiers”).
We previously reported this exhibit in the early days of this blog. But this report contains more details:
Hopper’s acclaimed “Double Standard,” a billboard-sized, black-and-white photo of a 1961 Los Angeles intersection near the western terminus of Route 66, greets visitors in the lobby. The picture is so rich in detail that the price of a gallon of gasoline (30.9 cents) is clearly seen at a corner filling station.”Dennis was the first person I went to,” Cline says of the “Easy Rider” star.
“Everybody thinks of Dennis as an actor and director. But he was also the most important person in terms of documenting the LA Art Scene photographically, and he’s also a great artist, a great photographer.”
The soft-spoken, 69-year-old Hopper is modest about his contributions.
“It was important to take the early photographs of Warhol and the others,” he says as he drives to the set of his “E-Ring” TV show. “Also, it was a time when I wasn’t getting any activity as an actor, so it was my only creative outlet.”
“Disgusting” El Vado for sale for $3.25 million January 14, 2006
Posted by Ron in Motels, Preservation.3 comments
Owner Richard Gonzales testifed under oath during Landmarks Commission hearings that El Vado Motel on Albuquerque’s Route 66 was “disgusting” and “not viable.”
But I got word today from an Albuquerque source that I trust implicitly that Gonzales has put the “disgusting” and “not viable” El Vado up for sale with an asking price of $3.25 million.
How much of markup is that? According to the latest land records from Bernalillo County, El Vado has a total full value of $600,200. A source several weeks ago told me that Gonzales bought El Vado for more than $660,000, and that has been affirmed by someone else since.
Based on the numbers available, Gonzales’ price is a markup of nearly 500 percent.
If El Vado is so “disgusting” and “not viable” to command that much of an increase, I hope my house is, too.
A markup like that is crazy. There are two possible explanations for this. One is that Gonzales bought low, is selling high, but will negotiate the price sharply downward that will make a potential buyer feel good about a marked-down price that will still give Gonzales a tidy profit.
The more likely scenario is that Gonzales is preparing for an eminent domain fight with the city and is trying to gain as much pricing leverage as possible. Remember, Mayor Martin Chavez said in an interview that he would consider eminent domain to preserve El Vado. And the U.S. Supreme Court recently affirmed municipalities’ rights to acquire property for the public good. If protecting a business that’s on the National Register of Historic Places isn’t the public good, I don’t know what is.
Gonzales’ strategy sounds like a Hail Mary to me, especially when a non-geek like me found El Vado’s assessed value online in about 10 minutes. I don’t think an eminent-domain judge would appreciate such a blatant markup.
(NOTE: I wouldn’t let this latest news color the content of your letters to the Albuquerque City Council to support El Vado’s designation as a city landmark. El Vado being up for sale isn’t relevant to the issue at hand. I posted this item simply for informational purposes.)
