After more than 20 years in Albuquerque, locally-owned Flying Star Café will open its first café outside city limits on 200 South Camino del Pueblo in historic downtown Bernalillo. On Monday May 19th 2008 at 6am. At the crossroads of four growing communities (Bernalillo, Placitas, Northern Rio Rancho, and Algodones), the eighth Flying Star is a living embodiment of the company’s own crossroads—a celebration of the past with a nod to the future.
That nod comes in the form of a 7,500-square foot restaurant with panoramic mountain views, a raised dining area fanned with street-opening windows, and a riverbed-like patio shaded with native Burr Oak and Chinese Pistashe trees. On-site baking of Flying Star’s signature homemade breads, handcrafted pastries, and artisanal cakes and pies, returns Flying Star to its original Nob Hill roots as a neighborhood bakery.
Roots are a treasured theme throughout—the center’s logo is a tree with roots. Two interpretative signs give homage to the past when the lands were kindly lent to the Sisters of Loretto Convent to grow food. That sense of community is preserved today—as Flying Star engaged the handiwork and collaboration of an architect team of Ansaldi Shaw Design, Edward Fitzgerald & Associates, and built by Klinger Constructors. Highlights include Indigenous materials used for the adobe wall, and two hand built fireplaces from third-generation local adobe builder, Sculptured Adobe.
In addition, Flying Star formed a partnership with Sandoval Community Arts, a nonprofit organization, who will be working with community artists and students to create and paint a grand mural of Bernalillo’s historic timeline inside of the café for all to celebrate.
Next to the Flying Star is the aptly named Las Huertas retail space, three buildings that will host 12,000 square feet. Flying Star is currently in negotiations with local retail partners.
“We’re a roadhouse—a place to stop and hangout,” said Jean Bernstein, owner of Flying Star. “Bernalillo is in the process of continually being re-settled. There is a huge wave of migration to the old yet newly forming community. It’s almost like the new frontier of hundreds of years ago. The Railrunner represents this migration—which we believe is one of the greatest things to happen to our area.”
Flying Star is a little bit urban in the middle of richly rural historic neighborhood—a small symbol of change and a big symbol of being fascinated with what’s to come. “We’re crossing that bridge,” said Bernstein from new café’s site. In essence, “we’re on the road to where people are going.”
Contact: Lindsay Lancaster, Flying Star Café
255-1128x110, Lindsay@flyingstarcafe.com