The streets may not be lined with gold, but it's as if they're lined with green chile — close enough

As many of you know, Inc. magazine recently ranked Las Cruces as the No. 9 small city in the nation for doing business.
So you would expect to find some entrepreneurs here, right?
Well, in the past week, without really trying, I encountered two such entrepreneurs.
One is Richard Cole who, along with partner Bob Baur, owns and operates the Toucan Market at 1701 University in the Pan Am Plaza.
The other gave me his name simply as José, and he owns and operates El Vaquero, basically a mobile burrito stand.
While the two businesses are pretty much on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of scope and scale, they are both taking advantage of the things putting Las Cruces No. 9 on that list.
Both are providing a service, working to find their niche among our diverse and growing population, and then working to keep customers satisfied while hoping to find new ones.
For Cole and Baur, they're providing things they could not previously find as grocery shoppers in Las Cruces.
"Natural foods, organic foods, gourmet foods," Cole said. "That's our niche."

Yeah, you can find Heinz ketchup and Campbell's soup at Toucan Market, but that's not what's featured. What's featured are the items you can't find other places, including their own Toucan brands of soups and ketchup. They have hundreds of different cheeses.
And did you know there are gluten-free beers?
Neither did I.
But you can find them at Toucan, along with a lot of other unique beers, and lots and lots of wines.
Cole tends to hang out in the back part of the store, near the beer and wine and liquor. I barely had a chance to talk with him between his time spent helping people with wine and beverage selections. He's knowledgeable on the subject, customers sought him out, and he was attentive and helpful.
The other staff were equally friendly and helpful, something Cole said is a focus of the store and its employees.
I discovered El Vaquero on Holman Road just north of U.S. 70 for breakfast one morning. José works out of a big, orange, boxy stepvan. The menu is limited — breakfast burritos, regular burritos, and hamburguesas.
That morning I had the brisket burrito for $2.65. He made it there on the spot, and it was big and tasty. There was another guy standing outside the truck eating a brisket burrito, and when he finished, he ordered another one. It was that good.

Mine stayed with me all day, in more ways than one. Next I'll have to try one of his green chile cheeseburgers.
José has been doing this for a few months, at least that's what I gathered from our limited conversation. His English was better than my Spanish (mi español es muy mal), but we did not exactly have a meaningful discourse. I understood enough to know that if I go back to Holman Road in the next few days, before 5 p.m., I can try out that hamburguesa chile verde con queso.
Speaking of green chile cheeseburgers, I recently made the three-minute walk from the Sun-News office to Day's Hamburgers for a late lunch consisting of a double Great Day with cheese and green chiles, and some fries. The sign says Day's has been around since 1932 and, for all I know, they may still be using some of the original grease. Thank God 75 years of technology has not managed to kill the classic greasy burger.
Like all great green chile cheeseburgers, the Great Day is less a meal and more an experience. These are old school burgers. The faint of heart (figuratively and literally) need not apply. No flame broiling here. Just plain fried on a griddle. Probably enough cholesterol to fuel a battleship for a few miles.
But when you're eating at Day's, you put your dietary concerns on the shelf for a few hours.

About three-quarters through, I began to hallucinate, overwhelmed with the wonderful flavor and the sheer quantity of the food. I'm sure, technically, it was some sort of blood-sugar overload, but I'll call it a state of green chile burger bliss. It was like the time when Bart and Milhouse drank the all-syrup Squishee at the Kwik-E-Mart.
A couple of days later, I read this in the Sun-News:
"Meditation for World Peace will take place from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesdays through June 26 at 116 W. Las Cruces Ave. (directly across from Day's hamburgers). Cultivate a calm, happy mind through the practice of meditation."
I don't think it's a coincidence the meditation is right across from Day's.
I cultivated that same calm, happy mind through the snarfing down of the double Great Day.
Perhaps the meditators know that, and figure they can find some new recruits already mentally and spiritually prepared.
I also think the Great Day helps promote world peace. I know I couldn't think violent thoughts after eating my burger. I also was so stuffed, I couldn't move quickly enough to do anything non-peaceful. I also was pretty dang close to falling asleep.

What I have not found so blissful are the streets of Las Cruces. While living in Alamogordo the past 11 years, I've made dozens of trips to Las Cruces. And generally I can get around to all the main drags.
But when you live here, and you go in and out of all the little different stores and shopping centers, you realize how many streets there are, and how none of them are perpendicular, and none of them go in a straight line, and half of them are one way, and a quarter of them go in circles, and some of them change names mid-stream for no apparent reason.
You're on one road, and you drive halfway across town, and you look up and you've unintentionally wound up back on the road where you started.
It's the thoroughfare equivalent to Doc Watson singing the bluegrass classic "I'm My Own Grandpa."
And the roads and buildings are deceptive.
A road that looks like a back alley for 50 feet could suddenly turn into a major arterial. And a road that looks like it will take you across town will suddenly turn into a dead end.

And a place that looks like an abandoned building could have a great store or restaurant.
I had lunch at International Delights at 1245 El Paseo last week. A very cool place, but I would never have found it without someone else's guidance. It's tucked into the corner of a shopping center, and even when you're right upon it, you have to look closely.
You go through the patio (a great area for dining al fresco) and once inside, you find a wonderfully appointed restaurant with all sorts of unique fare. If you're into coffee and wi-fi, this is the place for you, complete with late-night hours.
Lots of Greek and Middle Eastern food made fresh for your plate. You can buy many of the items for your own kitchen from a small area of the restaurant devoted to a grocery store.
I was not too adventurous with the menu that day and went with the tuna sandwich on pita, with the cream of green chile soup.
If you haven't guessed by now, I''m a sucker for all things green chile.

Richard Coltharp is special sections editor for the Sun-News. He can be reached at rcoltharp@lcsun-news.com. Perhaps not surprisingly, Richard has regular appointments with a gastroenterologist.