The Rail Yards Market takes place in Albuquerque’s old railroad workshops. Photo © Zora O’Neill.
The galleries and gift shops around the plaza can blur together after just a little bit of browsing, but the Blue Portal Gallery (2107 Church St. NW, 505/243-6005, 10am-4:30pm Mon.-Sat., 1pm-4pm Sun.) is a nice change, with well-priced and often very refined arts and crafts, from quilts to woodwork, by Albuquerque’s senior citizens. And the street vendors set up on the east side of the plaza are all artisans selling their own work, at fair prices.
Just outside of Old Town’s historic zone, the Gertrude Zachary showroom (1501 Lomas Blvd. NW, 505/247-4442, 9:30am-6pm Mon.-Sat., 10am-5pm Sun.) is the place to go for contemporary turquoise-and-silver jewelry.
If you arrived in Albuquerque unprepared for the sun, Old Town Hat Shop (205-C San Felipe St. NW, 505/242-4019, 10am-5pm daily) can set you right, with one of the better selections of hats in the city, for both women and men, in styles ranging from full-on cowboy to proper city slicker.
An emporium of American Indian goods, Skip Maisel’s Indian Jewelry & Crafts (510 Central Ave. SW, 505/242-6526, 9am-5:30pm Mon.-Sat.) feels like a relic from downtown’s heyday. Whether you want a turquoise-studded watch or deerskin moccasins, it’s all here in a vast, overstocked shop with kindly salespeople. Don’t miss the beautiful murals above the display windows and in the foyer; they were painted in the 1930s by local Indian artists such as Awa Tsireh, whose work hangs in the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe.
Another throwback is The Man’s Hat Shop (511 Central Ave. NW, 505/247-9605, 9:30am-5:30pm Mon.-Fri., 9:30am-5pm Sat.), just across the street. It stocks just what it promises, from homburgs to ten-gallons.
Set in the old Santa Fe workshops south of downtown, Rail Yards Market (777 1st St. SW, 9am-3pm Sun. May-Oct.) is a festive gathering of arts and crafts, produce, snacks, and live music. With a lot of creative Albuquerque-pride T-shirts for sale, it makes a good place to shop for offbeat souvenirs—and it’s a great chance to see inside the positively majestic old buildings where locomotives for the Santa Fe line were built from the ground up.
Start your stroll on the west end of the Nob Hill district, near Girard. Masks y Más (3106 Central Ave. SE, 505/256-4183, 11am-6pm Mon.-Thurs., 11am-7pm Fri., noon-5pm Sun.) deals in all things bizarre, most with a south-of-the-border flavor; here’s where to get the outfit for your Mexican-wrestler alter ego.
The A Store (3339 Central Ave. NE, 505/266-2222, 10am-6pm Mon.-Sat., noon-5pm Sun.) specializes in home furnishings for the Southwestern hipster, such as flower-print Mexican tablecloth fabric and handmade candles. The jewelry here, much of it by local designers, is very good too. Across the street, tasteful Hey Jhonny (3418 Central Ave. SE, 505/256-9244, 10am-6:30pm Mon.-Sat., 11am-6pm Sun.) stocks gorgeous sushi sets, hip handbags, and travel guides only to the coolest destinations.
Nob Hill’s hip businesses expand a little farther east every year—now “upper Nob Hill” extends east of Carlisle. You can keep strolling this way for highlights such as the Absolutely Neon (3903 Central Ave. NE, 505/265-6366, 11am-6pm Mon.-Sat.) gallery of new and vintage signs. Farther on are a whole slew of antiques marts, comparable to those in Los Ranchos.
For excellent craft work, head to the shop at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (2401 12th St. NW, 505/843-7270, 9am-5:30pm daily); not only are prices reasonable, but the staff is happy to explain the work that goes into various pieces.
The gorgeous Los Poblanos Farm Shop (4803 Rio Grande Blvd. NW, 505/938-2192, 9am-5pm daily) sells soaps, bath salts, and lotion scented with the organic lavender grown in the adjacent field. It also stocks an excellently curated selection of garden gear, books, kitchen supplies, and locally made snacks.
Along 4th Street between Montaño and Ortega in Los Ranchos is a strip of shops collectively called the Antique Mile. There are about a dozen huge stores and converted houses crammed with jewelry, vintage clothing, furniture, and architectural salvage.
Every Saturday and Sunday, Albuquerque’s flea market (505/315-7661, $5 parking) takes place at the fairgrounds (enter at Gate 1, on Central just west of Louisiana). It’s an interesting outlet where you can pick up anything from new cowboy boots to loose nuggets of turquoise; socks and beef jerky are also well represented. Stop off at one of the myriad food stands for a snack—refreshing aguas frescas (fruit juices, in flavors such as watermelon and tamarind) and Indian fry bread are the most popular. It allegedly starts at 7am, but most vendors get rolling around 9am and go till a little after 4pm.
Excerpted from the Fourth Edition of Moon Santa Fe, Taos, & Albuquerque.
