The Cooperage

Certainly no better than good. If you are the type who will eat anything, then you deserve this place.

A musical group (JT & the Clouds with Allison Russell from Po' Girl) was appearing at Cooperage, so we gathered some friends to have dinner there before the show. Cooperage is a throwback steak/prime rib/lobster shrimp & salmon/salad bar joint with little to recommend it other than its interesting decor. It's like sitting in a barrel. And just as noisy.

The salad bar, not the best in town, has fresh stuff that is replenished often, The best thing about it is that it is free with your dinner entrée. It is pretty ordinary and unimaginative. The accompanying soups, clam chowder and crab soup, looked like disasters waiting to happen. I know I shouldn't have, but I tried a small cup of the crab soup. What harm could there be in this? Well, I'll tell you. The soup was disgusting: thick like library paste with embedded strings of what may have been some kind of crab meat (hard to tell), torturously salty, and horrid tasting. The color reminded me of something that had already been eaten, I had to down a full glass of water, gargling along the way, to get the taste out of my mouth (I needn't have bothered -- what was to follow was no great shakes anyway). I knew better than to have the clam chowder, which is never to be trusted here in the desert, because the clams usually have the taste and texture of pencil erasers.

LP had a slab of Filet Mignon, which was good. Dr Jane had a burger that was slightly better than good. RRP and I had prime rib. Mine had a strip of gristle and fat (see the photo), but they were cooked to our specifications (medium for RRP and medium-rare for me). The taste was good, as was the creamy horseradish stuff. I have had much better (and cheaper) at the Tastee Diner, a cowboy-redneck bar-diner in Laurel MD, one of my favorite dives. Surely you can find better beef than Cooperage stuff at many other places in Albuquerque. The steak fries were lightly greased and almost crispy on the outside, but mealy and tasteless on the inside.

The meal ranged from ho hum to very poor. The wines were swell -- the kitchen didn't have a chance to murder them.

But the music was great.

If you are going to a show here, eat someplace else before you arrive. Anyplace. If you are not going to a show or event, shun this place. Don't say I didn't warn you.