New Mexico Restaurants

Watch the Albuquerque Thunderbirds blow your parasol away with a flurry of high-flying layups, booming dunks, and leisurely strolls down the lane with today’s Groupon. For $15, you get two box-seat tickets (a $40 value) to watch the Thunderbirds take on the L.A. D-Fenders on Saturday, March 13; the Erie BayHawks on Friday, March 12; or the Fort Wayne Mad Ants on Wednesday, March 10. Your tickets include all box-office and arena fees. All games are at 7 p.m. and there is no purchase limit. This is the perfect outing for sports fans, family gatherings, and seasonally unemployed professional gift wrappers.

Keith West-Harrison can't squeeze his job title on one line of a resume. Yes, he's an aesthetician. But he's also a lifestyle coach, celebrity beauty advisor, humanitarian, and self-proclaimed "eco-urban shaman." In 2009, New Mexico Business Weekly included Keith's name on its annual "40 Under Forty" list, celebrating his entrepreneurial excellence and achievements at his airy, urban spa, Great Face and Body.

Amid gleaming hardwood floors, international decorations, and lots of black leather, the team at Great Face and Body caters to the skin needs of all ages. Specialists freshen frontages with both preventative and restorative facials, ranging from 20-Something treatments to the None-of-Your-Damn-Business facial for clients 60 or older. Services employ only organic and sustainable beauty products, which Keith and his posse develop and handcraft in the store using many locally cultivated ingredients. The spa also integrates 5,000-year-old Native American, African, and Ayurvedic wellness principles to provide a challenging tongue twister to any reporters who stop by for interviews.

In addition to its perennial made-from-scratch chocolate and vanilla flavors, Chillz prepares one special flavor a day (single scoop, $3) and previews its monthly menu on the site. Like the mayfly, these delicate flavors rise up from the earth and die within a day, their flavor but an ephemeral memory. February's heartbreakingly mortal flavors ran the gamut from horchata to lavender to Lucky Charms to white Russian to carne adovada. The Chillz menu is also populated by sundaes, floats (done up with either soda, coffee, or energy drink, $2–$5), and "concretes," custard blended with a topping of your choice ($4 for a regular). Toppings dot the menu like 33 desert flowers in the spring, including blueberries, cookie dough, pecans, maple syrup, and more. If you feel that a puny cone doesn't challenge your stomach, try the eight-scoop, eight-waffle, eight-topping challenge. Finish the behemoth in 30 minutes and the friendly staff rewards you by giving it to you for free; otherwise, you'll be buried in custard concrete.

Climbing at Stone Age is nothing like grappling the plywood-and-plastic climbing walls at a company picnic or showing Mom how you can reach the top of the telephone pole. Stone Age's walls are covered with state-of-the-awesome textures that mimic the conditions of real rocks (indentions, protrusions, overhangs, underhangs, cracks, and pissed-off eagles in their nests). Veteran climbers say rock climbing is like running a marathon, but the adrenaline rush comes in shorter, more intense bursts. Indoor climbing is a great way for someone to get started, or a perfect after-work and hail-, snow-, and meteor-shower-proof indoor alternative for experienced climbers who want continuous practice. It's also a great workout that builds up boulder shoulders and promontory pecs.

You're probably thinking, "That sounds great, but I've never bought a car or a computer without first reading the Wikipedia definitions for car and computer—I'm not about to buy a Groupon either without a briefing." Well, neither would we, and since this is everyone's first Groupon, allow us to briefly explain how it works.

At the three locations of Sun Care Spray Tan & Skin Care Salon, customers use sunless spray booths, light therapy, and tanning beds to help get toned and bronzed. Beds of varying strengths and Mystic Tan booths allow customers to add color to their skin without napping on freshly painted benches in the park, and beds filled with pink-glowing bulbs help to tone skin. The salon's red-light therapy aims to painlessly promote circulation, fortify cellular walls in order to increase firmness, and banish eczema, stretch marks, and acne.