The next day, we were up and running early. We had plans. Specifically, we were going to one of our favorite communities in the area -- the Village of Corrales.
What is Corrales and why are we so fond of it? Well, it is a kind of mixed rural and suburban area sort of north of the city along the river. It is a lovely place, full of cottonwood trees and little farms and houses, and shops along the way. When I was a boy, my parents used to drive up to buy eggs at one of the farms there, and I have excellent memories as well of another farm, one that sold honey in whole combs. It was so VERY good...and a wonderful way to spend a Sunday.
Okay, but Corrales is also a little improbable. It is still somewhat rural today. Yet, glance at a map, and you’ll wonder how such a thing is remotely possible. It is almost completely circled by urban areas. To the South and the East, it is bordered by Albuquerque. To the West, and the North, it comes up against Rio Rancho, a city which didn’t even exist when I was a boy. It was originally just a housing development...which grew with stunning speed.(2)
Long story short, Corrales is now a rural and semi-rural island in an urban landscape. There is some open land around it. The River gives it a green-belt and a border on the East side. The Sandia Pueblo reservation similarly gives it an open space to its north and east. And, finally, there’s some open land between it and Bernalillo, another town to the north, and one to which I have some personal connections.(3)
This makes for some interesting contradictions. Martha and I used to drive to Corrales to go shopping in the little stores in the area, and also to eat at what was probably our favorite brew pub in New Mexico, the Corrales Bistro Brewery. You would drive in from main street, where there could be some pretty heavy traffic--autos and trucks and all the other roadway artifacts of modern life. Then, you’d sit in the dining room, or on the patio in the rear, and watch while other patrons rode their horses up the trails behind the restaurant, tie them to the hitching post out back, and then come in for a burger and brew.
About the photos: Just two today. Again, I am mortified to report that I have no recent photos of Corrales. But, here’s a photo of a sunset which, I hope, gives a feel for New Mexico in general.
And that’s where we were headed. We arrived in the village in mid-morning and did our round of the shops and stores. There are two we usually visit. The first is Ambiente of Corrales, which is an art gallery and a gift shop we like. Drop by if you get a chance. It has a nice selection of local area art, Native American art and jewelry, and things from everywhere. We enjoy it.(4)
The other place we tend to hit is the Village Mercantile, “Pet food and supplies.”(5) It is a very cool combination of Ye Olde Fashioned Farm & Feed Store and Ye Much Newer Fashion Postmodern Homesteader Supply Operation. Here, you can get everything from Farnam Wonder Dust Wound Powder (for the injured cattle in your life) to 20 pound bags of Audubon Park Songbird Blend Wild Bird Food (for your resident House Finches, should they feel a little peckish. No pun intended. But I’ll take credit for it.
Believe me, it’s a blast, and we always enjoy going there
Next, we went in search of our fav Brew Pub. Alas, we soon discovered that it was gone. The building it had occupied was locked and empty. I have no idea why it closed. Maybe something to do with the effects of Covid on the economy? Anyway, it wasn’t there anymore and my subsequent search of the web yielded no clues as to where it went or why. All of which is sad. (6)
But, we did notice that there is a new brew pub in the area, specifically Ex Novo Brewing.(7) We thought about going there for lunch but it turned out that they didn’t have a restaurant of their own. They did have a food truck, which looked inviting, but we realized we might have to eat outdoors, and it was just too hot to do that. But, we’ll be back, and try it again. Maybe in the Fall.
Anyway, that was our time in Corrales.
We had one more chore to complete. We popped over to Rio Rancho, found a Walmart (oh, thank Heaven for GPS and Smart Phones), and purchased two lovely lawn chairs. The kind that collapse. And you can carry without busting a gut. And which probably only last a season or so before they disintegrate. But that’s fine.
Because, you see, we were only going to use them once. And in Santa Fe. Someone we had flown over six hundred miles to see...
Someone...in fact... who actually lives less than 30 minutes away from us...
In Texas.
More to come.
Second, and once again having nothing to do with the story, a photo of Martha with some large metal chicken friends at a local plant nursery here in Georgetown. Just like the look of it.
Footnotes;
1. Corrales, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrales,_New_Mexico
2. Rio Rancho has its own Wikipedia entry, here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Rancho,_New_Mexico
As I say, it didn’t exist when I was very young. It really only got started in the 1960s. I remember that everyone was sort of astonished at how rapidly it grew. Even the developers, I think, were a little amazed. In the early days, many of the residents were transplants from out of state. The joke was that every time New York had a hard winter, Rio Rancho got more people.
3. My mother used to teach there in the public schools. And, much later, when Martha and I lived in the area, we used to visit Bernalillo regularly to eat at a couple of wonderful restaurants. Our favorite is The Range Cafe on Camino Del Pueblo. There are now several Ranges in Albuquerque and beyond, but our hearts belongs to the original, the one in Bernalillo. See its webpage here: https://www.rangecafe.com/hours-and-location/
As for Bernalillo, it has its own Wikipedia entry here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernalillo,_New_Mexico
4. Ambiente Corrales doesn’t seem to have its own webpage, but it is on Facebook, here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100054527887370
5. The Village Mercantile has a webpage here: https://www.thevillagemercantile.com/
6. I did find a couple of webpages for the Corrales Bistro. It had a Facebook page, here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100045429105507. And there was a very complimentary review of the place on Gil Garduno’s excellent food blog, here: https://www.nmgastronome.com/?p=137
Alas, the Facebook page only includes a brief farewell from the owners, and neither posting offers any reason for the closure.
7. Ex Novo’s page is here: http://www.exnovobrew.com/corrales.
Copyright©2024 Michael Jay Tucker
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