M'tucci's Profiles - Michael Lewis
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After several months of sharing M’tucci’s news and offering my insights into Italian food, culture and travel, the partners at M’tucci’s thought I should properly introduce myself. So here, in abbreviated form, is my long, strange restaurant and photography trip (45 years in less than 1,000 words).
While I have worked as a server, bartender, line cook, prep cook, and baker, I’ve also worked as a commercial and editorial photographer. For the past 30 years, I’ve shot assignments for TIME, Newsweek, Smithsonian, Harley-Davidson and National Geographic. My work has taken me to all 50 states, every Canadian Province and 49 other countries, including multiple trips to Italy.
It all began with me fleeing the cold winters of Missouri for the sunny skies of Central Florida where I worked for a small chain of restaurants that specialized in steaks and salad bars. I was in the management training program; learning to serve, to tend bar, and to do the daily butchering necessary for that night’s service. The most interesting part was being behind the bar in the 70s, when business men still came in for martini lunches and lingered in a dark bar with no windows.
As the company was preparing to open their fourth location in Gainesville, I was selected to open and run the seafood bar, and spent several weeks driving the coastal areas of Florida searching for the best sources for shrimp, crab and oysters. The management team had already located to Gainesville when we got the bad news that the construction was running late and the opening was delayed two months. Several of us were watching a John Denver Rocky Mountain High special on television one night and two days later we were driving to Colorado.
American Basin - Colorado
My first trip out West, camping around Aspen and near Tierra Amarilla, NM, was the beginning of my love for the West. I moved to Aspen a month later, got a job tending bar in a Chinese restaurant (lots of Mai Tais and Fogcutters) and doing prep work by day (minced garlic, julienned ginger and deboned whole chickens with a cleaver - there were no knives in the kitchen). During my four years in Aspen I worked as a waiter, a breakfast cook, in catering and as a baker. I also developed a passion for photography while trying to capture the beauty of the Roaring Fork Valley.
Seeing myself at the crossroads, I chose journalism school over culinary school and returned to Florida. I finished college in Miami during the Marielito Cuban Boat lift, the Liberty City riots, and the Haitian diaspora. Working as a photographer at newspapers in Georgia, then at television stations in Florida and Ohio, I finally came to my senses and returned to Colorado and began working as a freelance photographer.
Travel and travel photography became my specialty and, based from Denver, I photographed four travel books for National Geographic, two in the U.S. and two in Canada. As I was wrapping up the Eastern Canada book for the NG America’s Outdoors series, I got the assignment to photograph a book that would be the companion to an 8-hour NGS/PBS series on Africa. During the next two years I made six trips to the continent shooting stories (often with a British film crew) in eight different regions.
We were telling stories of everyday Africans and didn’t touch on politics, war or famine, so I really wasn’t in danger, except for the time when the crew and I boarded a small Russian jet in Agadez, Niger, with a Russian crew who had spent the last hour in the small airport bar drinking shots of vodka. Worst flight ever!
I was living the photographer’s dream: trekking with a Tuareg camel caravan to trade salt in Niger, experiencing the Epiphany observances in Ethiopia, traveling up the Niger River in Mali and living among fisherman on Lake Victoria in Uganda.
To promote the book and television series, a week of programs were scheduled at NGS headquarters in Washington, DC. A couple of the subjects from the book and film were flown from Africa to appear on “Oprah” with the series’ executive producer. Unfortunately, the date was 9/11/2001, my flight from Denver to D.C. was forced to land in Kansas City, the entire week of “Africa” was cancelled and nobody in the U.S. cared about a book or television series on Africa.
I continued to shoot photo assignments for magazines and corporate clients. Also, I was the part owner of a small restaurant in Colorado, where I was drafted into running the kitchen at night during the busy summer season. Creede is where I met a wonderful woman, who had just finished the photography program at Brooks Institute. After a 3-month trip through South America shooting stories and travel photos for NGS and a few NGOs, Jennifer and I moved to Mexico, got married on the beach and started a photo business.
Jennifer and I taking the leap!
We moved to the island of Cozumel, thinking we would get work shooting advertising photos for resorts. However, destination weddings were becoming a big business in the area and we spent the next eight years photographing beach weddings and underwater trash-the-dress sessions.
For a variety of reasons, we decided to return to the U.S., gave up our Mexico resident visas, and moved to Albuquerque.
As it turned out, I found the perfect home for my skills and my interests with M’tucci’s. I am as proud to be associated with M’tucci’s as I am to have been a National Geographic photographer. Both have an unwavering commitment to quality and both consist of people with a passion for doing the best work possible.
In the coming weeks, you’ll meet some of those people who are responsible for M’tucci’s Twenty-Five, which will open in February.
NEWS FROM M’TUCCI’S
M’tucci’s Twenty-Five
M’TUCCI’S TWENTY-FIVE JOB FAIR + ONLINE APPLICATIONS
4949 Pan American Highway NW, Albuquerque, NM - Next to Tomasita’s - South of Jefferson
Saturday, January 11 from 10:00am - 4:00pm * Sunday, January 12 from Noon - 5:00pm
We are looking for skilled and motivated servers, kitchen staff and bartenders. You can apply for a position at any of our locations online by clicking here. Applicants should come to the job fair with a resume and should have completed the online application.
Artist’s rendering of the bar and lounge at M’tucci’s Twenty-Five
M’tucci’s @ Lava Rock Brewing Company
You are going to love the new eggplant parmesan sandwich. Pair it with the new Birra M’tucci’s, an Italian lager. A refreshing new beer, made in the international pilsner style with Perle and Saphir hops.
Another beer in the works is a Red Ale, which will be aged in the bourbon barrel in which the M’tucci’s Maker’s Mark Private Select was aged.
Happy Hour Monday - Friday 3:00 - 6:30
Happy Hour Menu features The Burger, a 10” Margherita or Pepperoni Green Chile Pizza, Charcuterie Boards and Wings for $7, . $1 off all pints. You can catch your favorite team on one of our large five screens.
$5 basket of Wings all day for the NFL Playoffs Saturday and Sunday
Live Music at Lava Rock, we’ll have live music every Thursday from 6:00 - 8:00 and Fridays from 8:00 - 10:00.
January Live Music - Thursdays @ 6:00 and Fridays @ 8:00
1/3 - BuddhaFunk
1/9 - Kirk Mathews & 1/10 - David Vigil
1/16 - Stanlie Kee & 1/17 - Kyle Martin
1/23 - Melissa Rios & 1/24 - Cali Shaw
1/30 - Oscar Butler & 1/31 - Mario DeHuerta
M’tucci’s Italian
Weekend Specials
Cut of the Day - 24 oz Hand Cut Porterhouse, Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus and a Balsamic Reduction
Pan Seared Swordfish - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Artichoke, Sautéed Arugula, Caper Lemon Sauce
Ravioli - Pesto Ricotta Ravioli, Iberico Chorizo, Artichoke, Shallot, Spinach, Light Lemon Cream Sauce
Braised - Rosemary/Milk Braised Lamb Shank, Creamy Polenta, Grilled Asparagus, Braising Sauce
M’tucci’s Moderno
Weekend Specials
House made Lobster Ravioli - Cold Water Lobster and Crab served with Wild Pink Shrimp, Bay Scallops, Grape Tomatoes, Basil & a lobster cream sauce.
Pan-Seared Scallops - served with creamy garlic mashed potatoes, roasted artichokes, sautéed organic baby arugula and topped with lemon caper butter sauce and smoked prosciutto powder.
Our Chianina Flat Iron Cut of the Day - is perfectly grilled the way you love it and served with house made crispy saltwater potatoes, grilled asparagus and our traditional Italian Salsa Verde.
Harris Ranch Boneless 14oz Ribeye Steak - served with Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, Grilled Broccolini & a Truffle Artichoke Puree.
Live Music
Tonight 8:00: Melissa Rios
January 9 @ 7:00: Stanlie Kee
January 3 @ 8:00: Cali Shaw
See you next week. Ciao!
