Albuquerque Breaks into the Zeitgeist Thanks to Breaking Bad

I knew it would only be a matter of time before I was forced to blog about Breaking Bad.  Filmed at Albuquerque Studios, the Emmy-winning, universally revered television show is all any Burqueno (aka Albuquerque resident) has been able to talk about since the final eight episodes began airing six weeks ago.  Now that the end is near, everyone here seems to be having a collective epiphany, followed by an intoxicating surge of pride, about how pivotal the show has been for Albuquerque – economically, of course, but also in other intangible ways that are harder to quantify but impossible to ignore.  Even the show’s producers realize this, leading them to buy a bunch of billboards to thank Albuquerque for “the great chemistry.”  I, for one, had a nearly choked-up reaction to this gesture. 

To put it simply, AMC’s runaway hit has put Albuquerque – an underrated city of 1 million that many Americans can’t spell and a surprising number think is located in Mexico – on the map, both geographically and psychologically.  (Case in point:  A recent Entertainment Weekly cover story on the show listed Albuquerque as a stand-alone city name, like New York or Chicago or Los Angeles.)  The fact that the gritty, underdog, crime-laced backdrop of Albuquerque plays such an important role in the plausability of Walt’s story makes it a place that has genuinely rooted in the minds of fans both in the US and abroad.  Yes, abroad!  What’s been truly shocking is the number of international visitors – particularly Japanese – who now vacation in Albuquerque because of their fascination with Breaking Bad.  They’re everywhere, taking photos of seedy locations and venturing into desolate parts of the city that would never otherwise be part of the “tourist trail.”

At first, they were finding these locations from the show on their own and recreating scenes by throwing pizza boxes on top of Walt’s house. Then The Candy Lady in Old Town began selling them the same blue candy she supplied for the show as a souvenir - soon followed by the Heisenberg hat.  And the ABQ Trolley Company began offering its wildly popular Breaking Bad trolley tour.  And the City of Albuquerque added a self-guided Breaking Bad tour on its tourism website.  And Routes Rentals started its bicycling tour.  And Rebel Donuts created its blue crackle donut.  And Marble Brewery introduced its limited edition beers, Walt’s White Lie and Heisenberg’s Dark, and began hosting viewing parties every Sunday, while The Supper Truck started selling Los Pollos Hermanos-inspired chicken and wings.  And Great Face & Body rolled out its blue crystal bath products and cooking classes for "Blue Sky" candy.  And on and on and on.  

Rebel Donut's "Blue Sky" Donut, Inspired by Breaking Bad

While the city may have been a tad slow to catch on and cash in, let’s just say the press has also seemed to jump on this phenomenon last-minute as well, with more Breaking Bad travel articles in the past two months than I could count.  Among them: Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, CNN and USA Today.  Clearly, Breaking Bad fever is at dangerous levels everywhere.  But for Burquenos, we’ve become hopelessly addicted to the notoriety, to the success of the show and to the global relevance it’s given us.  At least for two more weeks.

I recently gave in to the undertow by signing us up for Routes Rentals' three-hour Biking Bad tour, which included locations ranging from Walt and Jesse’s homes to Tuco’s headquarters to Hank’s DEA office.  Led by guides who were gushing megafans themselves (no one can hide it at this point, as Talking Bad’s weekly celebrity “super fan” demonstrates), the tour took us to the locations of unforgettable past scenes (such as the barren lot where a child on a bike became a murderer), as well as very recent ones, including the plaza where Walt waited on a bench in vain for Jesse to arrive for a meet-up.  That one was especially eerie, as the scene was still incredibly fresh, and I could just imagine Jesse walking away in a panic.

The downtown plaza where Walt asked Jesse to meet him - only to have Jesse get spooked and walk away.

The tour let me see my adopted city thorough the eyes of a giddy tourist and led me into unknown areas both quaint and sketchy.  I then got my final gratification when the most recent episode – during the flashback – showed Walt pitching the idea of a day trip to the Turquoise Trail, Tinkertown and Madrid to Skyler.  As an East Mountainer who lives close to all three, it’s exactly what I'd do with visiting friends, making me feel one with Walt in a way that was both exciting and disconcerting.

Whether the Breaking Bad tourism juggernaut can be sustained, it’s hard to say.  But there’s one big potential bright spot – the Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul, starring Bob Odenkirk as the strip mall personal injury attorney* who reluctantly enabled Walt’s deepening criminal activity, was recently picked up by AMC.  No word yet on where it will film, but I will spit out my Chai tea if it turns out to be anywhere other than Albuquerque.  Local entertainment website One Headlight Ink even conducted a poll recently about whether the slimy yet shrewd Saul Goodman will be portrayed as a graduate of the University of New Mexico (UNM) law school, which has the unfortunate distinction of facing a severe drop in applications in recent years.   But you gotta admit – it sounds just about right, doesn’t it? 

*Reportedly, the Saul Goodman character was based on Ron Bell, a real-life personal injury and DUI attorney in Albuquerque who has kitschy promotional billboards all over the city.

Kidding Around in the East Mountains

Last month I got to experience “kidding season” for the first time here in New Mexico. This was not a month-long April Fool’s Joke, as it turns out, but the time of year when baby goats or “kids” are born and bottle-fed on goat dairy farms.

For reasons I have yet to uncover, the East Mountains area of Albuquerque is rife with goat dairy farms. This has turned out to be a serious perk of living here given that my partner Kevin is lactose intolerant and may well be the top consumer of all goat dairy products, including goat cheese, goat milk, goat yogurt and goat butter. We used to only be able to get these products at Whole Foods. Now we can now get them right down the road. Who said country living wasn’t convenient?

Our first tip-off was finding a surprising number of local goat cheese brands at Whole Foods and the wonderful Montanita Food Co-Op. After trying Old Windmill Dairy’s amazing Holy Chipotle Chevre, I went to their website (beyond my taste buds, they’d captured my interest with their cute tagline: “The Little Dairy on the Prairie”) and discovered they offered cheese making classes. I had barely uttered the words before Kevin agreed that we should sign up.

The following Sunday we drove down many, many dirt roads until we found our way to the Old Windmill Dairy a bit late. Fortunately, we were still in time to sample all of their chevre flavors – my second favorite soon became The Great Caper – and learn how to make goat mozzarella cheese. Bottom line: it’s not easy! They were still working out their exact recipe in fact before going into production.

Beyond yummy snacks, I also got a real appreciation for all the science involved – not to mention the pitfalls. Exact temperatures. Sterilized equipment. Very clean goat utters. There are a lot of things necessary to make safe, bacteria-free cheeses that taste great – and not “goaty.” One of them is making sure the male goats stay very far away from the females. Why, you ask? Because as Ed, one of the owners, explained, they stink (it’s their natural musk for mating) and like to pee on females.

After the class, we got to go see the baby goats, some only a few days old. My favorite moment was watching this bleating herd of kids chase the farm hand – their long ears flapping comically. (See the picture below.) But this was soon eclipsed by getting to bottle feed a baby goat ourselves two weeks later. Ed informed us that we actually lived on the same road in Edgewood as another goat dairy farm – South Mountain Dairy. We couldn’t believe our luck! And, as it turned out, they hold bottle-feeding open houses every Sunday in April.

So of course, we had to go to that too. Fortunately, the timing was perfect as we had friends visiting that weekend with their toddler, who loved playing with all the goats. We bottle-fed a fidgety kid, we walked around the high-tech goat housing (the owners of South Mountain Dairy both retired from Sandia Laboratories) and we eagerly bought all the products they had on hand, including drinkable raspberry yogurt, apricot chevre and lemon chipotle marinated feta. All fantastic. All different than Old Windmill Dairy’s product line (which you can buy in CSA fashion). Score.

So between these two dairies and an organic CSA farm called Frost Hill Organics that’s started up five minutes away, we should be able to buy a lot of what we eat from people we actually know. And, after watching Food Inc. (the Oscar-nominated documentary about the industrial food system), I’m pretty happy about that.

A Big, Dysfunctional Family in Madrid, New Mexico

Highway 14 (aka Turquoise Trail) is the scenic highway connecting Albuquerque and Santa Fe. You could say this is the route for non-commuters, lollygaggers, dreamers and, on the weekends in high season, tourists. Anyone who’s in a hurry takes Interstate 25 (75 mph), but blissfully, we were not.

Starting in Albuquerque to the south, you begin at the base of the Sandia Mountains, which tower over Albuquerque. (See some amazing photos here.) There is literally no spot that doesn’t have a view of them. You then unsuspectingly climb much higher in route to Santa Fe (7,000-feet high,), which is a fact is of no small significance. Though these cities are less than an hour apart, there is a ten-degree temperature difference due to the altitude. If it’s 70 degrees in Albuquerque, expect it to be 60 in Santa Fe.

The snowy shot above is me at Sandia Peak (at 10, 768 feet, the highest point in the range). You reach this point by car from the east (as we did), or by the world's longest aerial tramway from the west. At the top, altitude stupidity set in for us, producing some very silly photo-taking, as well as an impulse buy of a green turquoise ring at the gift shop. (For the record, I still love it.)

And yes, I said altitude stupidity, not altitude sickness. Although I did experience a few moments of dizziness and dehydration the first few days, what I experienced more intensely was feeling dumb as a rock. For example, I “lost” my cell phone, only to find it in my hand. Twice. Rather embarrassing stuff like that. So when people talk about the effects of altitude here (such as actor Seth Rogen, who said that his difficulty breathing while filming in New Mexico is the reason he had to lose weight), they really need to include a warning about this one!

As you get further from Albuquerque on Highway 14, the terrain changes from evergreen mountains fed by snow to high desert. Then suddenly you find yourself in Madrid, a town so kooky that it makes Santa Fe seem almost staid. The first clue? It’s pronounced “MAD-rid, not “Ma-drid.” The second? It’s almost entirely populated by artists, some 300+ of them. (A fact often quoted is that it has more artists per capita than anywhere else in the US.) “We’re a big, dysfunctional family,” one of them told us cheerfully.

A former mining town deep in a gulch, Madrid is like a Wild West outpost, freethinker’s refuge, art gallery and little bohemia all rolled into one. Every old house facing the road has been converted into a gallery or store selling art, sculpture, snacks and more. In many cases, the wares are out front, and the artist lives in back. Everyone know everyone, and with no more building permits available (due to a lack of water), the town has been saved from modern development.

Despite the tiny population, you can get a drink at the Mine Shaft Tavern, a coffee at Java Junction (also a hat shop and B&B) and a gourmet meal at The Hollar. You can buy all manner of art. You can even buy rent movies at the general store (pictured below). But more importantly, you can interact with lots of spirited artists. Some are incredibly friendly, others are wary of newcomers (one artist told us it took him five years to “get into the club”) and many are full of love/hate for the tourists who fuel the town. But it’s safe to say that not a single one of them seems to want to leave.

The same could not be said for the "ghost town" of Cerillos, just three miles north. From the looks of it, everyone has left. But it turns out that’s not really true, and those who do live here enjoy the façade of a deserted place. That way, no one bothers them. It’s spooky driving through a seemingly abandoned town that you know has people in it. (Mary's Bar, pictured below, is still operating, believe it or not, with 91-year-old Mary Mora behind the counter). There are walled compounds that contain hints of life, but not for your prying eyes to see. Compared to colorful, commercial Madrid, Cerrillos is the place to truly hide – not just from people, but from the present day.

Back on Highway 14, it isn’t long before we reach Santa Fe and are assaulted by the unimaginative, copycat nature of the modern world. (That is to say, the southernmost parts of Santa Fe developed in recent decades.). Strip malls. Starbucks. Or our Holiday Inn Express, built self-consciously to look “rustic” and “Southwestern.” Yes, it was perfectly comfortable and not unattractive, but who are they fooling?

Fortunately, downtown Santa Fe remains one of the most distinctive places in the world, with its twinkling artistry and singular architecture. It’s a bright spot in the sea of sameness, with Madrid as its most defiant satellite. But is it still my top geographical crush?

Stay tuned for the answer to that as well as a full report on Austin, Texas. (Sorry that I'm so behind!)

Baked-in Artistry in Albuquerque, New Mexico

Within hours of landing in Albuquerque, it became clear that almost everyone in New Mexico is an artist. Or has artistic hobbies. Or champions art vigorously. Even the frozen yogurt place is a gallery.


As one gallery owner put it, “This is the most supportive artistic community you’ll find.” He wasn’t exaggerating. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Santa Fe (45 minutes away) is the third largest art market in the US. Or that artists can actually make it thanks to the affordable cost of living. ($30,000 is “an abundant salary,” we were told.) But there’s more to it, and I’ve been ruminating on just that.

One visible clue is the state’s film incentive program, which offers rebates, loans and tax breaks. Not surprisingly, it’s made the state a hotbed for film and TV production. “We love filmmaking in New Mexico,” handmade signs read on the roadside. Apparently 28 films were shot in Albuquerque alone in 2008. While some politicians have been critical, the population remains enthralled.


But perhaps the best example of this artistic proclivity is the Golden Crown Panaderia, which we visited the very first day. Located in the Old Town section of Albuquerque, this tiny neighborhood bakery is a single-father-and-son operation that is guaranteed to make an impression – emotionally, olfactorily and gastronomically.


The first thing you notice is the wonderful smell (from the fruit empanadas), which prompts you to inhale deeply and soften a bit. Not that New Mexicans need that. But this overworked urbanite did. Then we were handed a free biscochito, a crispy butter cookie flavored with anise and cardamon. It's the endearing "welcome bite."

The father, Pratt, is a former CPA turned passionate baker. His signature green chile bread, which he’s holding below, has been featured in the New York Times, Gourmet Magazine and the Food Channel. It’s spicy. It’s rich (thanks to the parmesan). And it’s amazing. A loaf is currently sliced and frozen in my freezer, per Pratt’s detailed instructions. Salivating? Order it online here.


Having a famous specialty bread is just the beginning, though. The exuberant, indefatigable, 70-year-young Pratt also makes bread art. What’s that, you ask? Well, it’s making a horse and carriage out of bread for his son’s birthday. (See old photo below.) Or a bread turkey for vegetarians at Thanksgiving. Or bread busts of people’s heads. It was fairly astonishing to see all that one could do with bread.


Pratt mixes various dough to produce color variations (yes, all skin types are possible) and carefully orchestrates how the bread rises in his massive oven. He’s currently working on a bust of Jay Leno, he shares. Listening to this delightful raconteur, I felt my face hurting from smiling so much. I also noticed strangers striking up conversation and the convivial atmosphere infecting everyone. This was truly the “golden crown” that started the trip so auspiciously.


How did I feel around all this warmth and creativity? The word would have to be inspired. We talked to a guy from Ohio who decided to make custom water fountains – because he thought he could. We spent time in a shop specializing in Ukrainian Easter eggs. Nothing is too out there in New Mexico, and perhaps most importantly, there is the feeling that you can try anything because no one will judge you.


Soon my boyfriend was pondering the large-scale mobiles he’d build in the studio/barn, and I was listening to a female poet on New Mexico public radio, thinking, “I bet I could write a lot of poetry in a place like this.” In the dramatic high desert setting, with colossal mountains and endless views, it seemed easier to reflect on life. I guess that happens any time you can see for hundreds of miles and realize your own itsy bitsy role.


Thus, my first and strongest takeaway from New Mexico is that the possibilities seem as wide open as the environment and as optimistic as the people, who (teaser alert) would go on to eclipse Austinites in the battle for “Most Friendly.” Yes. Believe it. Who won “Most Weird”? That one’s going to a tiebreaker round, folks. Stay tuned!