Albuquerque med spa opens West Side location
Just over a decade after launching, Flawless Med Spa & Wellness is readying to expand westward with the opening of its second location on Albuquerque’s West Side.
The new location, at 6941 Taylor Ranch NW, opened April 24 with a soft launch.
A grand opening is slated for Saturday.
Owner Heather Badal said she had been contemplating opening a second location prior to the pandemic, but held off until she came across the perfect building earlier this year.
The location was also a match, she said, because many of her customers at her original location, at Menaul near Carlisle, were traveling across the river for services.
The West Side location, Badal said, is going to serve as the flagship location for the brand.
Though many services at Flawless Med Spa are offered at regular spas, like facials and beauty treatments, Badal said the distinction of being a med spa means her business offers medical grade services administered or overseen by medical professionals like lip injections, medicalgrade facial peels and CoolSculpting, which is a treatment used to freeze fat cells.
Badal said treatments from medical spas can achieve results much quicker than over-thecounter care.
But while nurses may be administering some procedures, Badal said the experience is not clinical.
“If you come to us for cosmetic injection, you have a full hour of our time and that’s with a nurse, and a nurse is going to sit there and talk to you and listen to you and hear what you want,” she said.
Wellness is also a core aspect of the business.
Prior to the pandemic, Badal said there was already an interest in wellness by consumers, but this interest only increased over the past two years.
“Up until now we’ve really focused on the aesthetic side, so everything outward facing — Botox, cosmetic injections, you know, laser hair removal, all of that,” she said. “This is more like ‘what’s going on’ on the inside.”
To meet this interest, Flawless Med Spa will offer specially formulated vitamin shots and IV-infusion therapies.
Flawless Med Spa also utilizes blood panels to examine if there are any hormone issues needing to be addressed to improve skin and hair appearance.
Specials and discounts will run through the month of May to celebrate the opening.
Flawless Med Spa & Wellness is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday
through Thursday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Visit stayflawless.com for more information.
Horrors! Blood Sausage opens in ABQ
With its black painted walls and “blood” splattered tables, one of Albuquerque’s latest restaurants is intended to be both an homage to ’80s horror movies and its namesake item — blood sausages.
Blood Sausage, located at 138 Harvard SE, opened March 16.
Co-owner Cameron Markham said the idea for the restaurant came from a childhood love of ’80s horror movies and a desire to open a haunted house themed restaurant with “elevated offerings.”
By late last year, he and his partner, Elizabeth Blankstein, had landed on an idea that would later become Blood Sausage.
“Originally we had thought maybe we just open a horror bar,” he said.
However, they decided on also offering food, and blood sausage seemed like an obvious choice for a restaurant themed around slasher films.
Markham said his interest in blood sausages stems from he and Blankstein’s proclivity to test out more adventurous items on menus while dining out and Blankstein’s Tawainese origin since a version of blood sausage is often found in Taiwan.
“My partner and I are both really, really big into very adventurous culinary things, so anytime we go out whatever is the most, like, out there thing in the world to try, that’s usually what ends up being our favorite thing,” he said.
The menu serves three different types of blood sausages made in-house and inspired by German, United Kingdom and Taiwanese recipes.
For slightly less adventurous diners, the restaurant also offers a chicken sandwich, a pork burger, chilled noodles, grilled cheese and several types of fries.
In addition to food, the restaurant also serves beer and an “exceptionally nerdy” wine list, Markham said.
This is not Markham’s first restaurant endeavor.
Santa Fe diners may recognize Markham and Blankstein as the duo behind the Asian fusion restaurant Liu Liu Liu.
Blood Sausage is open from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
For more information, visit bloodsausagerestaurant.com or call 505-265-9452.
Icon Cinema takes over former Movies 8 spot
The newest location of Icon Cinema may be inside the former Movies 8 location on San Mateo, but according to cinema owner Stetson Snell, the theater is nothing like what you may remember.
The former budget theater has undergone a drastic “multimillion dollar” renovation that’s more than just a new coat of paint, he said.
“It’s a complete remodel,”
he said. “... Basically everything new that we could put in the building we did.”
Icon Cinema, at 4591 San Mateo NE, opened April 29.
Snell said the renovation included replacing and updating nearly every part of the eight-screen theater from the movie screens and audio systems down to the fixtures and wall curtains.
“You won’t even recognize the place when you come in there,” he said.
One of the largest changes, Snell said, was switching out the more traditional movie theater seating for Icon Cinema electric leather recliners with electric headrests, which decreased the number of overall seats in each theater.
Snell said the chairs are standard in all Icon Cinema locations, but this theater also features privacy pods — a first for the New Mexico-based company.
Each seat comes with screens able to be raised to separate individual seats from other movie goers or to create “pods” of several movie goers.
“You don’t want any other guests around you being able to disturb your movie in any way,” he said. “Whether that be if they’re breaking the rules being on their cellphone or any other distraction like that.”
Snell said each new Icon Cinemas theater going forward will include the dividers.
Like other Icon Cinemas, movie goers at the San Mateo location have access to unlimited refills of popcorn, sodas and frozen slushies.
For more information and to see movie showtimes, visit iconcinemas.com.
Big Lots to open new ABQ location
Big Lots, a national home discount company, is poised to open a new location in Albuquerque later this month.
The new 34,000-squarefoot location, at 9500 Montgomery NE, opens Saturday.
To celebrate the grand opening, the company is offering scratch-off cards with a potential $250 discount to the first 100 customers, according to a news release announcing the opening.
For more information, visit biglots.com.