We’ve come across a lot of ques­tions about what we do. If you can’t find an answer here, go ahead and ask; we’re chatty.

ALL PHONE NUMBERS IN 505.

1. How and when did you start?
2. Why An Under­ground Guide?
3. Why the extra “r”?
4. What makes you underground?
5. How many Guides are there, and where can I get mine?
6. How does it work?
7. What’s your guid­ing edi­to­r­ial principle?
8. How did you choose which details to dis­play about a business?
9. Why’s the map only show one location?
10. What’s the rela­tion­ship between the book and website?
11. Why do you review some non-NM-based chains?

1. How and when did you start?

2005. A National Poetry Slam plan­ning meet­ing. Eric had the idea, Adam had the design gump­tion, and they solicited reviews from friends to cover enough ground. This here’s the full story.

2. Why An Under­ground Guide?

We believe we’re doing it just one way, and despite our best efforts, can’t rep­re­sent everyone’s opin­ions. We’re not the under­ground guide; we’re just one per­mu­ta­tion of an under­ground guide.

3. Why the extra “r”?

It’s the orig­i­nal spelling of the city’s name. Leg­end has it a gava­cho rail­mas­ter couldn’t pro­nounce “Albur­querque,” and so changed the sign. As we’re crea­tures of his­tory at the Guide, we have restored and work with the orig­i­nal spelling.

4. What makes you underground?

Our approach, our com­mit­ment to qual­ity local busi­ness, and our reviews. We adver­tise exclu­sively home-grown busi­nesses, which in sev­eral cases has made us the only place that busi­ness has ever adver­tised. We swear a lot, and some­times behave with­out much regard for tact. Not every­thing we refer to is “under­ground,” but the way we talk about it always will be.

5. How many Guides are there, and where can I get mine?

As of early 2011, there are five: 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. They’ve come in var­i­ous names, edi­tions and quan­ti­ties. You can still pick up a copy of the 2010 Guide right here, for a small dona­tion! No. 6 is in progress, due to drop in November.

6. How does it work?

We solicit reviews from any­one who’s patron­ized a busi­ness three times or more. We fig­ure three is the min­i­mum vis­its nec­es­sary to smooth outlier-experiences, like an abnor­mally help­ful or rude employee. We take reviews in all forms – from full-blown essays to a list of adjec­tives – and whit­tle them into Guide style, while try­ing to main­tain the orig­i­nal fla­vor. We’ll never cover all of Burque – there’s too many awe­some busi­nesses, and more open all the time. But we fig­ure if you write a few reviews, and get your friends to, we can cover a lot of ground. And with a wider base of opin­ion, the Guide becomes less top-down, always sin­cere, and more useful.

7. What’s your guid­ing (ha) edi­to­r­ial principle?

We see the cost asso­ci­ated with print as an invi­ta­tion to be con­cise – and direct. In our print edi­tions, we try to pack in as many qual­ity reviews as we can. It’s lead us toward the no-bullshit style we’ve become known for. Here on the web, we’re into main­tain­ing that sen­si­bil­ity, though it’s excit­ing to have some wig­gle room.

8. How did you choose which details to dis­play? Why no hours?

We try to bal­ance what’s most use­ful with what’s most prac­ti­cal for us to maintain. As hours are the most flex­i­ble ser­vice change a busi­ness can make, we fig­ured we’d rather not take respon­si­bil­ity for giv­ing you bad info. We do include phone num­bers, and web­sites when­ever possible.

9. Why’s the map show only one location?

That func­tion­al­ity is out of our grasp, so the map is of Loca­tion 1. If you’re a PHP guru-type with a desire to help, we’d love to hear from you.

10. What’s the rela­tion­ship between the books and the website?

As of 2011, we think of the web­site as the whole she­bang. Of course, we also love pro­duc­ing books and printed mat­ter. Each year’s printed Guide is a lit­tle exper­i­ment in book design and pro­duc­tion – an arti­fact of our inter­pret­ing the guide­book form, and a snap­shot of Burque’s indie busi­ness offer­ings. We also include spe­cial con­tent in the books which can’t be seen on the web, such as our now leg­endary Don Schrader Ther­mome­ter Paper Doll.

11. Why do you review some non-NM-based chains?

While we do frown on chains invad­ing our per­fectly awe­some local offer­ings, some­times, albeit rarely, there’s just no one local offer­ing a com­pa­ra­ble prod­uct. If you spot some­one in the list­ings you think has a com­pa­ra­ble or bet­ter local coun­ter­part, let us know!