Durán's Pharmacy & Restaurant — New Mexican, Albuquerque
Durán's operates as both a functional pharmacy and a New Mexican restaurant — a combination that could only exist in Albuquerque and that has been operating on Central Avenue since 1947. You can pick up your prescription and your posole simultaneously, which is either the most efficient or the most surreal lunch arrangement in America.
The New Mexican food is the real thing — posole (hominy stew with pork and red chile), carne adovada (pork marinated and slow-cooked in red chile), and the breakfast burritos that the neighborhood has been ordering since the Truman administration.
The Old Town location means that Durán's exists within walking distance of the oldest neighborhood in Albuquerque — the Spanish Colonial grid laid out in 1706, with the San Felipe de Neri church still operating on the original plaza.
The fact that it's still a working pharmacy means the clientele is genuinely local — not tourists looking for authenticity but the neighborhood's actual residents picking up their actual prescriptions and eating their actual lunch.
Best Occasion: Ideal for Solo Dining
Posole and carne adovada at the Old Town pharmacy-restaurant. The most uniquely Albuquerque solo lunch experience available.
Best Occasion: Works for Team Dinners
New Mexican home cooking at pharmacy prices. The team dinner where the discussion of 'red or green' immediately reveals everyone's character.