Luke's Root Beer Homepage

Luke's Root Beer Reviews

Route 66 Malt Shop

Home Made Root Beer

1720 Central Avenue SW, Albuquerque, New Mexico

        The Route 66 Malt Shop is a tiny cafe on historic Route 66 run by the owner-cook-bottlewashers Diane Avila and Eric Szeman.  It serves great food, and has outstanding home-made root beer on tap.  The root beer is brewed on-site, and served up in frosty, ice-cold mugs.  I'm looking forward to trying the root beer float, with Dreyer's ice cream, which Diane tells me "creams down the root beer."  Mmm!  Well worth a visit while you are in ABQ.

Review

        A very rooty nose.  Nice bite, with lots of root going on.  Not too sweet, but hearty and smooth, smooth, smooth.  Rooty aftertaste lingers pleasantly, tickling my taste-buds.  It has a dense flavor that is impressive.  It's an adult brew, its complexity and sophistication and rootiness would probably disappoint kids expecting the sugar-water they think of as root beer.  "Very rich," says Nancy, "the Guinness of root beers."  This is a wonderful root beer, one of the best.  It illustrates the importance of small, roadside restaurants in keeping up the tradition of great root beer.

Luke's Numbers  (8/25/03)

Ingredients: According to Diane Avila, "water, cane sugar, root beer extract, and CO2."  She lets it sit two days to take on the full root beer flavor.  

Acquired:  Route 66 Malt Shop, Albuquerque, New Mexico.  $2.50 for a large mug, $2.00 for a small mug.

Available:  Only at the Malt Shop, in ice-cold mugs.                

Luke's Root Beer Homepage  +  Root Beer Rankings

2001 Root Beer Taste-off  +  2002 Root Beer Taste-off

Luke Cole's Homepage