When you ask Burqueños these days what they think of Gertrude Zachary, you’ll inevitably get some line about never steal­ing a dia­mond baby tiara from the store. It’s from the first sea­son of Break­ing Bad (the tiara was actu­ally white gold and cubic zir­co­nia, to be cor­rect), and Gertrude Zachary doesn’t actu­ally sell tiaras for babies. In fact, they don’t sell any tiaras at all. Well, okay, they might if you ordered it custom.

Gertrude Zachary is the grande dame of the empire of jew­elry, gifts and antiques in Albu­querque that car­ries her name, but she’s appar­ently well-known beyond our hum­ble envi­rons. A few years back, she built a cas­tle down­town to show­case her stained glass and reli­gious art col­lec­tions (and, osten­si­bly, to live in as well). It’s really hard to miss if you’re wan­der­ing in the south pats of down­town — there’s a giant fence and a lot of “gee, that place must be haunted” around it. And with good rea­son: it’s a fuck­ing cas­tle. Even the Wall Street Jour­nal made a photo essay about it.

If you haven’t seen the cas­tle (and really, how have you missed it? Google it RIGHT NOW), you’ve prob­a­bly seen her adver­tis­ing around town. She’s got two jewelry/gift stores – in Nob Hill and Old Town – and a “secret” antiques store down­town. Con­trary to pop­u­lar belief, the antique store does not require a pass­word, or even an appoint­ment any­more. Just wan­der on over, ring the bell, and take a gan­der at some of the finest old fur­ni­ture this side of the Rio Grande.

GZ does make some qual­ity jew­elry, although you may feel it’s a bit “old” for you. There’s a lot of New Mex­i­can in it (and by “New Mex­i­can,” we mean “turquoise”), but it’s going to last you a long time, and you’ll prob­a­bly pass it on to your next of kin. Along­side her own jew­elry and those of a select few other design­ers, GZ sells house­wares, cloth­ing and other things, mostly made for the upscale female con­sumer. If you’re look­ing for a gift for your mom, grandma or aunt, you prob­a­bly can’t go wrong here. Just pre­pared to open your wal­let a lit­tle bit. This high-quality stuff comes at high-quality prices.

And if you’re shop­ping for gold head-jewelry for a new­born, well, we’re going to have to send you else­where. And call you crazy.