Best Places for Late Night Bites in Albuquerque

Albuquerque is becoming an increasingly popular destination for young people, recently being named a top-20 city for 20-somethings.

If you’re young and full of energy, you’ve probably still got quite a few “partying” years in front of you, and an essential part of being a young adult in 2013 is satisfying those late night cravings with a few friends.

There are lots of options in Albuquerque when it comes to eating after midnight, whether you like sweets, burgers, or authentic Latino or New Mexican cuisine.

The folks over at ABQ Newscastic put together a list of 10 places young (or old) Albuquerquians can stop for a late night bite. Here are some of them:

The 505 Go-To's

Let's get this one out of the way. IHOP, Village Inn, Denny’s and Waffle House are always available. Out of those options, I prefer the Village Inn on Yale. Real Burqueños will agree, Frontier is THE place to eat after midnight. It used to be open 24 hours, but due to some rowdy nights, now it only stays open till 1 a.m. You should probably order something that includes fresh tortillas or a cinnamon roll. Albuquerque is still in love with the Coca-Cola Freestyle drink machines, allowing for 100 flavor combinations of coke. (Yes, Burqueños really do refer to every soft drink as coke.) Order a small drink, and you can get refills till they close.

2400 Central Ave SE

Brickyard Pizza

The Lobo Breadsticks alone are worth a visit to Brickyard Pizza, but they also have some good pizzas, salads and subs. Brickyard Pizza is open till 1:30 a.m. every day except Sundays. On Fridays and Saturdays, they take delivery orders until 2:30 a.m. 

2216 Central Ave SE

Cesar's Mexican & Greek

Is it 3 a.m. and you’re craving Mexican or Greek? How about Mexican AND Greek? Cesar's reigns as Albuquerque The Magazine's Best of the City for late-night food. You want a gyro and your friend wants a carne asada burrito? This is your spot. Wash it all down with some sweet horchata.

5300 Lomas Blvd NE

Downtown Food Trucks

On Friday and Saturday nights, Downtown has numerous food trucks. There is no shortage of tacos or burritos in the Downtown.  

If you are looking for late night BBQ, you can’t go wrong with Joanie & Art’s BBQ. It’s a blue RV that you can’t miss in front of Sister Bar.

Keru’s Mexican Food has the best burritos of the bunch.

Llovet’s Pizza and More is a yellow truck that offers delicious pizza plus burgers, tacos and burritos.

This Saturday I noticed a new trailer called Flaming Potato Grill. I look forward to trying the chile relleno burrito.

Central between 3rd Street and 5th Street

To read the full list, click here.

Helping Out Those Less Fortunate This Holiday Season

The poverty and homelessness problem in Albuquerque has made great strides in recent years, but there’s still work to be done. There are still lots of families who aren’t getting the nutrition that they need—fortunately, there are programs set up through the school system and local government to help.

The RoadRunner Food Bank of New Mexico penned an excellent blog post over at ABQ Newscastic listing some surprising facts you might not know about hunger in New Mexico. Among them:

• According to Feeding America's "Map the Meal Gap 2013," some 20.1% of our state population in 2011 experienced uncertainty of when or where they'd score their next food fix.
•  Data compiled by the Food Research and Action Organization (FRAC) found that New Mexican's rank first in the nation for student participation in free and reduced cost school food programs with 70.2% of our students enrolled. 
• In a landmark study on hunger in New Mexico, the 2010 Missing Meals report shows a lack of access to 13% of meals for our states poor. As SNAP benefits decrease and food needs increase, this number is likely to rise. 
• AARP.org ranks us 2nd for Senior hunger risk in the country. Older adults with health issues as well as seniors living on a fixed income are at greater risk for hunger according to Meals on Wheels. 

If you’d like to help solve the hunger problem in Albuquerque, you can host or participate in a food drive—Roadrunner Food Bank’s options for Holiday Food Drives include:

Businesses, faith communities, schools, service organizations and individuals are encouraged to host food and fund drives. Your support is critical in ensuring we have the necessary food during the cold winter months.

You can use your own boxes or borrow Roadrunner Food Bank collection barrels. If you plan to collect 250 pounds or more of food than we can drop barrels at your location before the start of your food drive and pick them up once the barrels are full. However, if you think you’ll collect fewer than 250 pounds we ask that you use your own boxes and bring your donations directly to the Food Bank (M-F 8am to 4pm).

ABQ a Top Destination for Young People

Albuquerque has been becoming an increasingly youthful city in past decades, with close proximity to several major universities, a thriving art scene, and affordable cost of living. And this year, research firm Vocativ has listed the city among its list of the 35 Best Cities for People 35 and Under.

The survey used a variety of factors to compile the list, including salaries, availability of affordable housing, lifestyle variabilities, access to bike lanes, live music venues, and access to laundry facilities.

The CEO of Vocativ, Scott Cohen says that their research process can lead to some surprising results:

“We wanted to create a semi-exhaustive, mostly scientific guide to America’s most livable cities based on criteria our readers actually care about...When you take a look at the results, a picture starts to emerge that is often surprising. Like, maybe moving to Fresno isn’t totally insane.”

University of New Mexico President Bob Frank was hardly surprised, though: “We’ve always thought it’s one of the best. Our criteria are not the same, but we’ve always thought that it’s a great city for anybody under 35 as well.”

The top 15 cities in descending order are:

Portland, Ore.

Austin

San Francisco

Seattle

Minneapolis

Las Vegas, Nev.

Atlanta

Long Beach, Calif.

Denver

Phoenix

Washington, D.C.

Boston

Omaha, Neb..

Tucson, Ariz.

Albuquerque

Click here to read more coverage of the 35 Best Cities for People 35 and Under at Albuquerque Business First.

Why Renting Makes Sense

When it comes to living arrangements, we know you’ve got choices. We like to think we have some of the best, affordable apartments in the Albuquerque area, but even if you’re not terribly well-off, it can be tempting to buy a house. After all, when you own a house, it’s yours to do what you please.

But in today’s economy, buying a house can be a big risk. You might not get the return on investment you were hoping for, lenders can be known to take advantage of people who can’t afford their mortgages, and they can often end up costing you more in the long run.

At Forbes.com, tax writer Kelly Phillips Erb wrote a terrific column about why she’s wary of buying a house in today’s economy. Among some of her reasons:

As investments go, it’s not always a great deal. While it’s true that some homes do appreciate, so do many other assets. If you bought a house for, say, $200,000 thirty years ago, it would be worth $468,375.09 today. While that gain feels impressive, that appreciation is based solely on inflation – which means that, in theory, the same appreciation would have happened with any asset. While we did “make” money on the sale of our house, I suspect we would have had a similar increase had we invested that money in the market or in our business. 

 Homes often tempt people borrow more than they can afford. As Congress tosses around the idea of taking away the home mortgage interest deduction, homeowners are screaming that they won’t be able to afford their homes without it. In fact, when you’re looking to buy, most lenders and realtors will use the deduction as a selling point to boost prices. But is that a great strategy? When buying a new dress or a new car, consumers tend to focus on the cost of the item alone when determining how much to spend. But when it comes to mortgages, that number edges up because of the potential for tax savings (again, see #2). With that temptation, combined with a sluggish economy, it’s no wonder that more than 10 million homeowners are currently underwater on mortgages worth more than actual house values. We were fortunately not one of them but not for lack of the banks trying. When we bought our home, we were actually approved for a mortgage which was hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the home we ultimately bought. We opted for a less expensive home – and thankfully so. 

 Houses take a lot of your money. There’s a reason that many folks refer to their homes as money pits: you often put a lot of money that you’ll never see again into a home. Not all improvements are deductible. Deductible expenses are generally limited to casualty loss deductions. In most cases, significant repairs to your home meraely increase your basis for purposes of calculating a gain at sale. As most taxpayers aren’t likely to experience the kind of gain that would subject them to capital gains, basis isn’t always an issue which means that those expenditures get lost. Thousands of dollars to replace the air conditioning unit? The new garbage disposal? Replacing the flooring in the kitchen? The new washer/dryer? Landscaping additions? You can’t write them off and while you may recover some dollars at sale, rarely do you recover the entire amount. If you add all of those expenditures up over a 30 year period, you might see an explanation for some of that “gain” at sale. Often homeowners get fixated on two numbers: the purchase price of the house and the selling price of the house – but don’t forget to account for all of the money you spent in between. 

If you don’t live here yet, you’re not just missing out on a great apartment--you could also save money in the long run. Check out our floor plans and unit availability on our website.

Celebrate Bacon This Weekend (Plus HEALTHY Bacon Recipes)

Tomorrow is the long-awaited Southwest Bacon Fest over at the Albuquerque Balloon Museum, featuring tons of live music, local breweries, and of course, lots of bacon-themed events like bacon eating contests, bacon film screenings, bacon poetry contests. There will even be a family area with lots of fun games and activities. To learn more about the Southwest Bacon Fest, click here.

And just in case the festival leaves you with an intense craving for bacon, we’ve found some healthy bacon recipes over at FoodAndWine.com, so you can satisfy your craving with minimal guilt. So once you get back from the Southwest Bacon Fest, here’s our contribution to the weekend:

Warm Corn Chowder Salad with Bacon and Cider Vinegar

ACTIVE: 25 MIN

TOTAL TIME: 45 MIN

SERVINGS: 10 SIDE-DISH SERVINGS

Ingredients

4 thick slices of bacon (4 ounces), cut crosswise 1/2 inch thick

1 pound Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice

2 red bell peppers, cut into 1/2-inch dice

8 ears of corn, kernels removed

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Salt

Directions

1. In a large skillet, cook the bacon over moderately low heat, stirring a few times, until it is crisp, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to paper towels and let drain.

2. Pour off all but 3 tablespoons of the bacon fat in the skillet. Add the potatoes and cook over moderate heat until they start to brown, about 3 minutes. Stir and cook for about 2 minutes longer, until almost tender. Add the diced red peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes and peppers are tender, about 5 minutes. Add the corn kernels and cook, stirring, until heated through, about 3 minutes.

3. Transfer the vegetables to a large bowl and stir in the onion, cider vinegar, crushed red pepper and bacon. Season the salad with salt and serve. 

Fried Green Tomato BLTs

TOTAL TIME: 40 MIN

SERVINGS: 4

Ingredients

4 slices of bacon

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of water

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 pound unripe green tomatoes or large tomatillos, cut into 1/2-inch slices

Canola oil

8 thick-cut slices of whole wheat or multigrain bread, toasted

Low-fat mayonnaise and baby arugula, for assembling

1. Preheat the oven to 400° and line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Arrange the bacon on the foil and bake for about 15 minutes, until crispy. Drain the bacon and cut in half.

2. Meanwhile, put the flour, egg mixture and cornmeal in 3 shallow bowls. Season the cornmeal generously with salt and pepper. Dip the tomato slices in the flour, then in the egg and finally in the cornmeal, pressing to help it adhere. Transfer the slices to a wax paper–lined platter.

3. In a very large skillet, heat 1/4 inch of canola oil until shimmering. Add the tomatoes and cook over moderately high heat, turning once, until golden and crisp, 5 minutes. Drain the tomatoes on paper towels.

4. Lay 4 slices of toast on a work surface and lightly spread with mayonnaise. Top with the green tomatoes, bacon and arugula. Close the sandwiches, cut in half and serve.

Even if you don’t attend the Southwest Bacon Fest, you might’ve worked up an appetite just by reading this! Click here for the complete list of healthy bacon recipes at FoodAndWine.com.

Mission: Educate!

Albuquerque has a great public school system and it’s getting better every year. In fact, New Mexico high schools in 2012 boasted a 70 percent graduation rate, a 7 percent increase over the previous year. For Hispanic students, the graduation rate increase to 67 percent in 2012, up from 59 percent in 2011 - the graduation rate for Native American students increased as well.

While New Mexico’s schools are doing a great job educating its students, there isn’t always an equal playing field of opportunity. Fortunately, there’s a new organization in New Mexico working to make the system even better, and help our kids reach their full potential.

Mission: Graduate launched this month, and they’re seeking volunteers and other education-focused New Mexicans to help their cause. Here’s a brief history and mission of the group, courtesy of their website:

In January 2013, a group of our community’s top leaders signed the Central New Mexico Education Compact, which articulates the vision, goal, and key objectives for the partnership. 

 In short, our goal is to add 60,000 new college degrees and certificates to Central New Mexico by 2020. 

 We face many challenges to increasing high school graduation and college degree attainment rates, but we are confident that together, as a community, we can develop data-informed solutions, both in school and out of school, to improve educational attainment for all residents of Central New Mexico. 

 To that end, we will seek out and build upon effective educational practices throughout our four-county region. We believe that there is much good work happening in our community, but it is not always well coordinated or aligned to serve the students who need our support the most. 

 The graduation rate for New Mexico’s Hispanic students increased to 67.7 percent in 2012, up from 59.3 percent the year before. The graduation rate for Native American students increased to 64.9 percent from 56 percent. 

Click here to learn more about Mission: Graduate and how you can help them achieve their goal!

In #ABQ, Work Feels Like Play

Albuquerque is known for having interesting jobs like space pilots, tour guides, and hot air balloon pilots. Our humble city is a great place to live and work due to its relatively low cost of living and innovative businesses that are taking root in the region.

So it should be no surprise that Albuquerque was recently named the second-happiest midsize city by CareerBliss. The survey asked respondents about their happiness, job opportunities, work relationships, resources, and compensation:

The online job site distributed a survey to employees in cities with 100,000 to 1 million employees to determine the happiest midsize city. Albuquerque was beaten by first-ranked Sacramento, Calif., but outranked Plano, Texas, Richmond, Va., and Costa Mesa, Calif. in the survey released Tuesday to reach the second-place spot. 

 “There are opportunities to find happy careers everywhere,” said Heidi Golledge, CEO and co-founder of CareerBliss, in a news release. “Analyzing workplace happiness in all cities is important for those who may not want the hustle and bustle of a large city, but still want to find a rewarding workplace culture.” 

We’re coming for you, Sacramento!

Click here to read coverage of the recognition, on Albuquerque Business First.