Anna and I stopped for the night in Albuquerque.  We had no particular reason to stop there — it was just a convenient place to break our mad dash back to Las Vegas.  On Yelp I found a restaurant called Antiquity in Old Town that sounded interesting, so we took the exit for the restaurant and discovered a Best Western Plus right by the off-ramp.  It had thoughtfully provided an area with tables outside for smokers (above) where Anna I rendezvoused for the half mile walk to the restaurant.

The place turned out to be jammed, with a 45-minute wait for a table, so we passed the time in the Old Town plaza, which has few really old buildings but was pleasant enough at twilight.

Antiquity turned out to be worth the wait.  It’s housed in a genuinely old building just off the plaza, dimly lit with wooden dividers between the tables.  “Very romantic,” said Anna.  “Too bad I’m here with my brother.”

The restaurant specializes in filets of beef wrapped in bacon and broiled, which is what I had.  It was delicious.  Anna had a perfectly cooked salmon filet.  The service was slow, because of a big party in attendance, which gave us time to quaff many alcoholic beverages and shed the tensions of the road.  The staff was extremely friendly and apologetic about the wait.

It was raining when we went back outside after the meal, and we didn’t know if the area of our walk was safe at night, so we asked the staff for the number of a taxi service — but this they would not supply.  Instead the owner himself appeared and offered to drive us back to our motel in his own car, which he did.  He was a cheerful fellow, and told us that the next day would mark the 15th anniversary of the opening of the restaurant.

A fine last night on the road — with the pleasant discovery of a good restaurant and some good people in an interesting place.  It’s the sort of thing that can still happen on what’s left of The Great American Roadside.

Click on the images to enlarge.