Mall shop creates miniature mockups
Have you ever thought the world needed another one of you?
If the answer is “yes,” then I have some good news! (If the answer is “no,” don’t quit reading just yet — perhaps you would like to duplicate your husband, sister or family dog ... . )
The husband-andwife team of Hoang and Nhu Nguyen recently opened 3D Teeny Me at Cottonwood Mall. They specialize in customized miniature figurines of people and, yes, pets.
Hoang Nguyen says many customers buy them as gifts or as keepsakes to capture a certain stage in life, like a pregnancy. Others do it as a quasifamily portrait — the figurines can cluster up to four people — and some engaged couples have bought them for wedding cake toppers.
“Customers give me ideas, too,” he says, noting that one had used the custom figurines in their decorative Christmas village, while another family used their miniature doppelgangers as Monopoly game pieces.
Creating a gypsum twin involves a session at 3D Teeny Me’s mall shop, where a series of poles equipped with a total of 90 cameras have been arranged in a circle. The subjects stand at the center and get photographed from seemingly every possible angle. It takes just a couple of seconds to capture a single set of images, but
customers get multiple takes.
Software then digitally stitches the pictures together into a model and the Nguyens contract artists who specialize in 3-D work to refine the image before it is printed in figurine form. It usually takes a couple of weeks to complete.
The full-body figurines are available in seven sizes. The smallest is 3 inches high and costs $90 for a single person (more for groups), while the tallest, 9-inch version costs $260 (again, more for groups).
Full-body figures are the most popular, but halfbody and bust versions are also available for lower prices. Customers can also have their 3-D portrait featured in a crystal cube.
3D Teeny Me is located on the upper level of Cottonwood Mall, near JC Penney. The phone number is 200-2212.
Azuma owner branching out
The team behind Azuma is ready to try something new.
As I recently reported, the latest project at Winrock Town Center — a multi-tenant building behind Garduño’s that is branded The Corner — will include a restaurant from the owner of Albuquerque’s two Azuma Sushi & Teppan eateries.
But this one will have a new twist, according to Azuma’s real estate representative Carl Grending of SVN.
It will be called Takumi and will serve Japanese barbecue, allowing customers to cook meat at tables with built-in grills. Grending says owner Anna Su had seen similar concepts in other cities around the country.
“As we were talking (about) the Winrock location, she thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce this concept in Albuquerque and see how it takes off,” Grending says.
The location will still do the sushi and teppan Azuma is known for, he says.
The 5,000-square-foot restaurant will also have a 900-square-foot patio to the east. Developer Goodman Realty Group is expected to turn the building over to tenants this spring, but Grending says Takumi’s own buildout will take another several months. He anticipates opening by early fall.
Other tenants joining The Corner include Sauce Pizza & Wine, Old Town Olive, Mark Pardo SalonSpa and Firehouse Subs, according to leasing agent Anthony Johnson of Pegasus Retail.
Are we getting J. Gumbo’s?
A few months ago, a sign heralding a new J. Gumbo’s restaurant appeared on Eubank Boulevard near Indian School — but the restaurant has yet to materialize. So what’s the deal? There is indeed a plan to bring J. Gumbo’s to Albuquerque, says Allan Zukerman, CEO of the Gumbo Growth franchising company. However, his company is still in the process of developing a distribution plan to get the brand’s food from a Louisville, Ky., commissary to Albuquerque. As such, there is no opening timeline in place yet.
J. Gumbo’s has 21 restaurants open to date, mostly in the Midwest and South, according to its website.
Louisiana native Billy Fox Jr. started the company in Louisville in 2005. J. Gumbo’s tagline is “we put our soul in the bowl,” and its fast-casual eateries serve the likes of jambalaya, crawfish étouffée and creole ratatouille.
New event option
M’tucci’s Cocina Grill at the National Hispanic Cultural Center no longer holds regular restaurant hours. But the venue — which still opens for some NHCC performances — is also now available for special event rentals. Guests can choose from M’tucci’s Italian menu or have the company create a special event menu, according to a news release.