Say his name
Albuquerque enjoys a boost with Breaking Bad filming locations
The hit TV series Breaking Bad and its spinoff prequel Better Call Saul have helped elevate Albuquerque, N.M., as a travel destination.
Local resident and superfan Miguel Jaramillo told Vice in an interview how Breaking Bad, which ran from 2008 to 2013, and Better Call Saul, which is preparing to air its sixth and final season next year, have helped promote the area’s scenery and businesses. Jaramillo started an Instagram account in 2011 to chronicle the filming locations with pictures and anecdotes.
“The response to the Instagram has been huge,” Jaramillo told Vice. “I never realized how many people were interested in these random, behind-the-scenes areas.”
Visitors to the city, which has a metro area population of about 900,000 — the state’s largest, can explore hiking along the Rio Grande running north-south through its midst and in the Sandia Mountains to the east and the West Mesa on the other side. The desert area west of the city also contains the To’hajiilee reservation where several scenes in Breaking Bad were filmed, such as where the main characters first cooked meth.
“Usually, businesses like the publicity,” said Jaramillo, noting how local Marble Brewing Co. produced IPAS called Heisenberg’s
Dark and Walt’s White Lie after one character, the hit man and heavy Mike Ehrmantraut, quaffed one of its beers on the show.
There are also appearances by The Grove Café on Central Avenue and Blake’s Lotaburger. “Your average viewer probably thinks that’s a made-up restaurant with a strange name, but Lotaburger is very much an Albuquerque fast food institution,” Jaramillo says. “My understanding is that these products and places appear because that’s where the crew and writing staff would go and they’d discover these spots.”
Burgers and burritos restaurant Twisters on Isleta Boulevard was the site of the Los Pollos Hermanos fried chicken chain owned by bad guy Gus Fring, and has kept a mural of the fictional eatery. Likewise, The Dog House, a chili cheese hotdog shop featured in Better Call Saul, has gained notoriety.
In one episode, main character Walter White proposes an outing to the Turquoise Trail and the Tinkertown Museum on the edge of the Cibola National Forest, then up to the town of Madrid.
“This is a realistic way to spend an afternoon, and it’s actually a trip that the show’s creator, Vince Gilligan, took with his girlfriend,” Jaramillo said.
Another trip could be to the John B. Robert Dam at El Oso Grande Park, where Walter meets the vacuum repairman who can make people disappear into new lives.