What is El Patrón New Mexican Restaurant & Cantina?
El Patrón is Albuquerque’s idea of a Mexican restaurant, transplanted whole to 8977 N Scottsdale Road, Suite 500, in the Shops at Gainey Village, the busy corner just south of Doubletree Ranch Road in Gainey Ranch. It opened in January 2024 in the space that had been Bandolero Cocina de Mexico, and it is the first location outside New Mexico for Jimmy and Nadine Daskalos, who had run the original on Montgomery Boulevard in Albuquerque since April 5, 2012.
The distinction the owners insist on is “New Mexican,” not Mexican. It means roasted and peeled Hatch green chile, a deep red chile made for braising, and a Serrano cream sauce that the menu describes as not for the faint of heart; Nadine jokes that the whole menu is red, green and Serrano cream. The kitchen was set up by a chef brought from Albuquerque, and the couple say the menu has been named Best in New Mexico seven years running. On the plate that means carne adovada, pork shoulder braised in red chile; green chile chicken lasagna; blue corn seafood enchiladas; chile rellenos, posole, stuffed sopapillas, chimichangas, baby back ribs and a 14-ounce chile-rubbed ribeye served with cheese enchiladas.
The room is bright and loud by design, with chandeliers, strong colors, a front patio behind big windows and a back patio kept for private events. Happy hour runs all day in the bar and on the patio, which is the single fact most people remember about the place. The owners split the year between Albuquerque and a house in Scottsdale, and when they announced the opening on Facebook, In Business Magazine reported, Albuquerque transplants and Phoenicians who vacation in New Mexico showed up as soon as the doors opened.
It is for them, for the brunch-and-gym crowd that treats Gainey Village as a second living room, and for anyone who has eaten a green chile cheeseburger in Hatch and wondered why Scottsdale had nothing like it. Our verdict: the only honest New Mexican kitchen in the city, better at chile than at steak, and the best reason to stay for lunch after a Gainey Village errand.
Ordering at El Patrón
Get the chile right. Everything hinges on the sauces. Order enchiladas, burritos or stuffed sopapillas “Christmas” to get red and green together and decide for yourself, then add a side of the Serrano cream for the taquitos and chips. Heat varies by harvest, so the kitchen blends hot and mild chiles through the year; ask the server where this month’s batch lands. For the difference between the two colors, see our note on green chile and red chile.
Order the New Mexico plates. The carne adovada, red chile-braised pork shoulder with a choice of sauce and tortillas on the side, is the dish the Albuquerque regulars drive for, and guacamole is its usual side. The green chile chicken lasagna (noodles, braised chicken, mushrooms, cheese, Serrano cream) and the blue corn seafood enchiladas (white fish, shrimp, calabacitas) are the house inventions. The all-day menu also lists five tacos, nine burritos, five enchiladas, tamales, chile rellenos, huevos rancheros, red or green chile con carne, posole, fish tacos, fajitas, baby back ribs and seafood plates. Published prices in 2024: a red chile chicken enchilada plate $22 (cheese only, $19), achiote glazed salmon $33, and the ribeye and enchiladas, a 14-ounce prime ribeye with cheese enchiladas, pinto beans and rice, $42. Dessert is sopapillas with honey, a churro sundae or pan de elote with cinnamon ice cream.
Sit in the bar. The published hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and happy hour is all day, every day, but only in the bar and on the front patio. House margaritas, cocktails, wine and tap beer run on nightly specials. The dining room is for families and the back patio books for private parties, so a couple wanting the deal should ask for a high-top. For the rest of the city’s deals, see our Scottsdale happy hour guide.
Timing and the crowd. Gainey Village is the busiest brunch corner in the city on weekend mornings, when Hash Kitchen a few doors down runs long waits, so El Patrón’s 11 a.m. opening makes it the easy second choice for a late Saturday lunch. The opening weekend in January 2024 was a mariachi party for International Mariachi Day, and the bar is the loud half of the room on any Friday. Reservations are not required; call (480) 590-8180 for groups. Parking is the center’s lot off Scottsdale Road or Doubletree Ranch, shared with the Village Health Club, so expect to circle at peak hours.
What to skip. The steaks are competent, but at $42 the ribeye is paying for the enchiladas beside it; the chile is the point, and the adovada delivers the same red chile for half the price. The baby back ribs are on the menu for the table that will not eat chile.
The Albuquerque restaurant that came to the brunch corner
Gainey Village was built around 2000 as the neighborhood center for Gainey Ranch, and its restaurant row on Scottsdale Road has been a proving ground ever since. Sam Fox opened Bloom at 8877 in 2001, his first Valley restaurant; Cask 63 replaced it in January 2012 and was locked out by its landlord not long after, according to New Times; Hash Kitchen later made the corner the home of the DJ brunch. Suite 500 held Bandolero Cocina de Mexico, a Mexican cantina, immediately before El Patrón. What the press does not record is why Bandolero ended or exactly when; the Daskaloses described the change as a rebrand under new owners.
Jimmy Daskalos was not a newcomer to the trade. Born in Albuquerque, he started working in restaurants at 10, took an accounting degree from the University of New Mexico in 1987, passed the CPA exam, and ran insurance and payroll companies while owning restaurants on the side: Yanni’s (2001 to 2012), Mykonos, and Nick & Jimmy’s, the restaurant he launched with Nick Kapnison in 2009 and closed in 2024. He opened the first El Patron on April 5, 2012, in the 11,689-square-foot former Garduño’s at 10551 Montgomery NE, one of the largest New Mexican restaurants in the city, and later a second on Wyoming Boulevard; KOB reported the Montgomery building listed for sale or lease as the company looked at smaller drive-through formats. Nadine Martinez-Daskalos, also Albuquerque-born, spent a decade on radio, holds a master’s in business, and brought the family recipes.
The Scottsdale opening was quiet and then not. Mouth by Southwest found the restaurant open by January 19, 2024, celebrating International Mariachi Day with live music and happy hour all weekend. The press release went out January 30 and KTAR, the Scottsdale Independent and What Now Phoenix ran it within a day; In Business Magazine’s March profile called the restaurant “the boss of New Mexican cuisine,” and Arizona Foothills Magazine named the couple Trendsetters to Know. The built-in audience was the story: Albuquerque has been sending retirees and second-home owners to Scottsdale for decades, and the Facebook announcement alone filled the room.
That audience explains a gap in the city’s dining. Scottsdale has Sonoran, Interior Mexican, Tex-Mex and resort Southwestern in depth, as our guide to the best Mexican restaurants in Scottsdale lays out, but New Mexican cooking, the red-and-green, Hatch-roasting, sopapilla-with-honey tradition, had almost no representative inside the city limits in the 2020s. El Patrón arrived with a seven-year “Best in New Mexico” claim we could not independently verify, an Albuquerque chef and a serrano cream sauce, and simply filled it.
Honest assessment: this is a confident, well-run import that knows exactly what it is, and the chile is as good as the owners say. The room is corporate-bright, the steaks are an afterthought, and current hours and prices beyond the 2024 press were not published anywhere we could reach, so call before a late dinner. For green chile in Scottsdale, though, there is no second choice, and the all-day happy hour makes a weekday lunch at Gainey Village one of the better deals on Scottsdale Road.