M'tucci's is Home

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I’ve been thinking about food and restaurants a lot lately, which isn’t surprising, since that’s part of my job. It’s also one of my passions. How did a guy who grew up in a small Midwest town, with a mother who didn’t particularly like to cook and wasn’t very good at it when she did, get here?

I suppose the easy answer is years of travel and exploration, in addition to meeting the right people. The 10 years I spent working in restaurants before I left the industry for journalism school and a 38-year career as a photographer certainly contributed to it.

I’ve been musing about this lately, partly because of M’tucci’s Founder Jeff Spiegel’s passing, but also because of the hours I spend looking at reviews on Google and restaurant recommendations and reviews on Facebook food pages. A local page, Albuquerque Foodies has a lot of followers, with wide-ranging opinions on every restaurant in the city. What is a foodie?

While living in Denver in the 90s, there was a group of us that enjoyed home-brewing beer and having monthly wine-themed dinner parties (a country or a varietal was chosen for the theme). That’s probably when we started using the term '“foodie”. I don’t recall if we had a definition for what made a person a “foodie”. I considered myself a foodie because I believed in the concept of “living to eat, rather than eating to live”. I also consider myself a “food snob”, but not a “food bully.” A food snob cares only about what they eat. My definition of a food bully is someone who thinks everyone else should like something because they like it. There are a lot of “food bullies” on social media. Such is life.

Most of what I learned about food, outside of working in and patronizing restaurants, I learned from food writers and newspaper restaurant reviewers. The vast majority of those writers had worked in the food business and understood the demands of putting great food on the plate everyday from open to close. Now, with social media, everyone has an opinion and is all too willing to share it. I don’t begrudge anyone voicing their opinion about “a great green chile cheeseburger” or the “best french fries”, the best this or that. However, sometimes I think they miss the point of restaurants.

During my years of solo travel for National Geographic or some other magazine, I loved going into bars or restaurants and meeting new people, talking with the staff or the person next to me at the bar.

Many times the conversations were more memorable than the food. The point was, for that evening I belonged to and felt like I was part of a community. My good friend, Jack, with whom I have traveled in Mexico, Belize, Cuba and Italy, one time turned to me after I had engaged a stranger in conversation, “You would talk to a tree if it would talk back!”

In Greenland at a small guesthouse, I remember that the conversation was better than the narwhale stew, which didn’t take much since the stew was awful. While in Nepal after a long day of trekking the Himalayas, a warm plate of lentils, rice and chapatis was incredibly satisfying, but it was made better by swapping stories with other travelers. Traveling across the Sahara with a Tuareg camel caravan and a British film crew, the goat stew with rice and a cold beer were enhanced by stories told by the crew around the campfire.

I believe that my years working in kitchens as dishwasher, prep cook, baker and line cook made me more appreciative of good food. However, it was when I met Jeff & Katie (I started to name everyone, but let’s leave it at “the family”) and began my journey with the M’tucci’s family that I started thinking about the restaurant's role as a community. Being part of M’tucci’s has reminded me of Jeff’s beliefs that a restaurant is more than a place for great food and drinks. Restaurants are a gathering place where you meet friends and make friends.

One of the reasons that I love being part of the M’tucci’s family is because it is a welcoming family, very welcoming to each other and to guests.

He once wrote, that in today’s world with families scattered across the country, social clubs closing and people living more isolated lives, restaurants are the place where you can create or rekindle your social life. He was adamant that whoever walks through our doors is treated like guests in our home. With Jeff, the word hospitality wasn’t just the name of our industry, it was his mantra.

I see it and feel it every time I walk in the front door or through the kitchen. The greetings, the handshakes and the hugs are real. Happy Hour begins at 3:00 at all M’tucci’s, which also is the usual time for a shift change. If you are at the bar or in the dining room for a late lunch, watch how our servers, bartenders and cooks greet each other when they arrive. The family feeling starts with them and it is extended to you.

Next time you are at a bar (even if it’s not one of ours), put your phone away and start a conversation with the stranger next to you. You just might discover that the food tastes better and that you are now part of a wonderful community. Maybe Jeff didn’t create it, but he certainly laid the foundation for it.

M’tucci’s Receives

Rust Award for Excellence in Ethical Business Practice by For- Profit Business

New Dessert Menu Today at All Locations

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

Ravioli - Cherries, Vanilla & Ricotta Filling - M’tucci’s Bacon, Red Onions, Asparagus, Gorgonzola Thyme Cream Sauce, Pecorino, Micro Greens $25

12 oz. Veal Chops - Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Grilled Lemon, Balsamic Reduction $36

Pan-Seared Swordfish - Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Grilled Artichokes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $33

NM Red Chile Sackett Farms Pork Shoulder - Herbed Creamy Risotto, Braised Collard Greens $25

Weekend Cocktail

Cherry Glacier - Absolut Vanilla Vodka, Maraschino Liqueur, Fresh Lime Juice, Simple Syrup


M’tucci’s Moderno

24 oz. Porterhouse - Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Sautéed Broccolini, Italian Salsa Verde $43

Pan-Seared Ruby Trout - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Broccolini, Roasted Artichoke, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce, Prosciutto Powder $29

Lobster Ravioli - Baby Scallops, Pink Shrimp, Grape Tomatoes, Lobster Sauce $27

Weekend Cocktail

Sunny at 7:00 - Beefeater Gin, Falernum, Lychee, Fresh Lime Juice, Simple Syrup, Angostura Bitters

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

Pork Chop Picata - Grilled Sackett Farms Pork Chop, Polenta, Grilled Broccolini, Lemon Butter, Capers, Scallions $25

Pan-Seared Swordfish - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Braised Greens, Artichoke Hearts, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $33

8 oz. Picaña Steak - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Charred Broccolini, Creamy Horseradish Remoulade $33

Weekend Cocktail

Spring-tini - Bacardi Rum,Orange Liqueur, Fresh Lime Juice, Simple Syrup, Muddled Blackberries

Belfast’s Breakfast - Jameson’s Irish Whisky, Benedictine, Angostura Bitters

M’tucci’s Bar Roma

Chicken Cacciatore - Leg & Thigh Braised in Colonnata Butter, Tomato Ragù with a medley of Ions, Mushrooms, Celery and Carrots, Spicy Linguine Cacio e Pepe $21

Pan-Seared California Sea Bass - Garlic Whipped Mashed Potatoes, Braised Arugula with Garlic, Seared Stem-on Artichokes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $33

Weekend Cocktail

Lollipop Chainsaw - New Amsterdam Peach Vodka, Triple Sec, Fresh Lime Juice, Cranberry Juice

Live Music for March

M’tucci’s Bar Roma - 6:30pm Wednesday & Noon Sunday   

3/17 TBD

3/20 Gilbert Uribe 

3/24 TBD

3/27 Lani Nash 

M’tucci’s Moderno - 6:30 Thursday & 7:30 Friday  

3/15 Cali Shaw

3/21 Oscar Butler 

3/22 Alex Maryol 

3/28 Shane Wallin 

3/29 Grace Marks

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five - 6:30 Thursday & 7:30 Friday    

3/15 TBA 

3/21 RJ Perez 

3/22 Javier Ortega 

3/28 Eryn Bent 

3/29 Gilbert Uribe 

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!