Out & About in New Mexico – April/May/June 2023

Get the most out of life in New Mexico and beyond with this curated collection of places to go and things to see.

By Eli Ellison

Two popular Albuquerque-based businesses recently opened outposts near Santa Fe Plaza, giving locals and visitors alike more places to sip, savor, and shop.

The acclaimed Los Poblanos Historic Inn & Organic Farm brought its signature lavender-infused bath products and “botanical spirits” north to its new Farm Shop Norte & Bar Norte, a retail store and tasting room. Located in a restored 1935 Sinclair Oil gas station building, the garage space is now a bright, country-chic boutique.

Gin enthusiasts should make a beeline for the back, past aisles of lavender items and kitchenware, to find the speakeasy-like room where house-distilled gins and light bites await. The gin-tasting flight features a shot of lavender-flavored gin along with the more traditional New Western Gin—both used in the bar’s half dozen specialty cocktails. The limited food menu offers olives, tinned fish, a cheese-tasting plate, and a green chile jam that brings sweet heat.

Vara Vinoteca is the newest place on the plaza to swirl, sniff, and sip wines. An outpost of Vara Winery & Distillery, the tasting room is housed in a historic adobe building with modern decor and offers a formidable lineup of Spanish varietals (the tempranillo is tops), along with Vara’s vermouths, aperitifs, whiskey, gin, rum, and sparkling wines. A tapas menu with the likes of mussels and goat cheese–stuffed piquillo peppers makes Vara a viable lunch or dinner destination.

Newbies to the wine scene can take Vara’s 1-hour class, which includes a formal tasting, a charcuterie plate, and intel from a vino pro. Classes, 1 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays; $30 per person.

By Steve Larese

Shopping vintage is not only trendy; it also keeps clothing out of landfills. In honor of Earth Day on April 22, show your support for the environment—and treat yourself—by purchasing a “green” outfit. Here are 2 Albuquerque shops where you can dig for cool finds.

Shop owner Vanessa Dagavarien resells affordably stylish clothing along with upcycled handbags, accessories, and home items at Swan Song.

“My goal is sustainability, and we can do that through giving these wonderful clothes another life,” Dagavarien says. “I also make some of the products, such as button earrings and framed art from old photos and wallpaper.”

Her store is located at the retro El Vado Motel complex, where you’ll also find a taproom and local businesses that sell items such as crystals and cacti.

Ethical fashion is the motto at Sew Minimal in Old Town, where owner Kelly Wilgus sews zipper pouches, skirts, headbands, wallets, and more out of fabrics found in thrift stores. The pouches come in a variety of classic New Mex designs (hot air balloons and watermelon-colored Sandias), and most of the clothing is reversible.

By Robert Spuhler

About 20 years ago, a Brooklyn-based art publication called Cabinet bought a half-acre plot outside Deming for $325. Dubbed Cabinetlandia, it was one of 3 “uninhabitable” pieces of land the magazine acquired as part of a special issue about property; the goal was to find a common thread between desert scrubland and New York City lots.

A year later, artist Matthew Passmore traveled to Cabinetlandia to build an art piece on the site: a filing cabinet surrounded on 3 sides by mounds of dirt that’s now known as the Cabinet National Library (it holds back issues of Cabinet). Passmore made the drawers appear as “naturally occurring elements of the ecosystem.”

The whole thing was supposed to be a prank, according to editor Sina Najafi. But, ironically, people came to see Cabinetlandia, and it even became a regular field trip for a Texas Tech University art class called Land Arts of the American West.

Passmore and Najafi returned to the site on separate occasions not long ago, and now plans are underway for its next iteration—meaning this summer may be the last chance to see the original “naturally occurring” landmark.

For more places to go and things to see in New Mexico, check out our editor-curated list of the best fairs, festivals, events, and more.