Nanami noodle offerings may bowl over soup fans
Brian Trieu has soup for you — lots of it. Broth-based concoctions are at the heart of the menu at Nanami Noodle House, the restaurant he and wife Nga Tran opened recently near Interstate 25 and Jefferson NE.
Nanami — which translates to “seven seas” in Japanese — aims to offer regional favorites from around Asia, its owners say. That means they serve pho and ramen, but also bowls full of Taiwanese beef noodle soup, wonton noodle soup and more.
“We didn’t want to stick to just a ramen shop or something like that ... We wanted to serve different types,” Trieu says.
Trieu is one of nine children in a family that made its way to Roswell, N.M., from Vietnam when he was a child. While he has a background in technology, several of his siblings are restaurateurs, and he has spent several years working alongside his brothers in their various southern New Mexico and Albuquerque metro eateries. That includes Banana Leaf in Rio Rancho (which they have since sold) and Plum Cafe in the same restaurant stretch he opened Nanami.
Nanami marks his first venture with Tran. Trieu says he considered going the crepe or even doughnut route before settling on a noodle house concept, something he says he had long considered and was partly informed by the couple’s time living in California.
Trieu mans the noodle filled kitchen. He uses wheat noodles in the likes of the kimchi ramen ($9.95) and egg noodles for the wonton noodle soup ($9.95). Rice noodles show up in the seafood noodle soup ($10.95) and in the grilled vermicelli ($8.95$10.95), one of the non-soup options at Nanami, and also one of the gluten-free choices.
Trieu also turns out a handful of salads, appetizers and desserts.
Nanami Noodle House is open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. It is closed Monday. It is located at 4959 Pan American NE, across the parking lot from the Century Rio 24 movie theater. The phone number is 508-1125.
La Cumbre growing
La Cumbre Brewing Co. is growing northward — just a little bit anyway.
The Albuquerque brewery at 3313 Girard NE has expanded into a neighboring 6,000-squarefoot building.
La Cumbre President Jeff Erway says the building will accommodate storage and office operations, thus freeing up some space in the original building — some of which may go toward a taproom expansion. The extra property also means 26 more parking spaces for customers.
The brewery is also building a new on-site cold storage facility to help boost its distributing power. Erway says it will allow La Cumbre to also move beer from some as-yet-unnamed “complementary breweries” that La Cumbre wants to introduce to the Albuquerque/Santa Fe market.
The moves cement La Cumbre’s presence at its home base in the brewery district, he says.
“Many breweries start off where we did, and as they grow, they need to take out enormous debt to build a dedicated production facility from the ground up,” he says. “By acquiring more spaces adjacent to our original facility as we have, we have ensured our ability to grow at whatever speed we like without having that kind of debt load constantly looming.”
Rio Rancho, meet M’tucci’s
Make it restaurant numero quattro for the M’tucci’s crew.
The growing Albuquerque restaurant company behind M’tucci’s Italian, its sister market/pizzeria and M’tucci’s Cocina Grill have now expanded to Rio Rancho.
M’tucci’s Moderno Italian Restaurant opened at Unser Pavilion, absorbing 4,600 square feet previously shared by WisePies and Prime.
Fans of the original M’tucci’s — which Jeff Spiegel and wife Katie Gardner opened on Albuquerque’s West Side in 2013 — will note some similarities, like the spaghetti and meatballs, eggplant parmesan, a few salads and other dishes.
But the Moderno blueprint differs here and there from the flagship location, as Spiegel says his team — he and Gardner have welcomed six partners into the fold since 2013 — aims to build itself around its area customers.
“The point is to be a neighborhood restaurant so you develop these long-term relationships,” he says.
Moderno’s offerings in the flatbread ($11), pizza ($13) and pasta ($14-17) category include some not found on the original M’tucci’s menu. The Rio Rancho location also serves charcuterie boards ($7-9), three different steaks (starting at $19) and a pan-seared fish of the day (market price).
A special cocktail list includes the likes of a Margarita Speziato (with cucumber and jalapeño), a cold-brew coffee martini and more.
Moderno converted what was once a WisePies into a main dining room and then used the suite’s other side — including a mezzanine — for the bar and lounge area. The interior can accommodate about 150 people, and more when staff opens the garage door from the lounge onto the front patio.
Gardner says the restaurant wants to create an experience that is sometimes hard to find in Rio Rancho.
“There are 100,000 people who live in Rio Rancho, and there are really almost no independent restaurants of the size that have a liquor license and where people can go hang,” Gardner says.
Moderno is located at 1908 Wellspring SE, off of Unser. It is open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday (until midnight in the bar), and 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday.
In other news:
Bizzy B Cakes is now open at 1431 Eubank NE, just north of Constitution. Owner Brittany Church says the shop specializes in custom “designer cakes” and desserts but the store also operates as a walk-in bakery offering a daily assortment of goodies.
The long-awaited Range Cafe has opened at 1050 Rio Grande NW, just north of Interstate 40. It is the fourth location for the New Mexico chain. It is open 7 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The phone number is 508-2640.
Albuquerque is one Whataburger smaller these days. The fast-food purveyor near Wyoming and Paseo del Norte NE has posted a “Sorry We’ve Closed” banner, removed its signage and boarded up the windows. The Texas-based chain has not answered
Journal questions about why it closed, but the brand still has six restaurants in Albuquerque and Rio Rancho.