Doug Lanham, the founding partner of Jinja Bar & Bistro, has put a lot of thought into the food, ambience, and service of his three Asian restaurants (one in Santa Fe, two in Albuquerque). He told us, “We wanted to provide a memorable sensory experience that our guests can have, and we really worked on our layout. We worked on the acoustics, the music, and the lighting, so if you were sitting at a table having a conversation, you can still hear the music. You can make out the words but still have a nice, pleasant conversation with someone, and there’s no bright lights shining in your face. We brought in a sound engineer and a lighting specialist to create a warm feeling in our restaurants.”
After graduating from UNC Chapel Hill, Doug spent 35 years in the restaurant industry, the majority of the years with Brinker International (Chili's Restaurants.) He says, “Norman Brinker was kind of the godfather of casual dining, so I learned a lot from him.”
Doug told us, “I was semi-retired in Santa Fe where I met some great folks. We threw some of our talents into the pot and came up with the Jinja concept that started in 2000, and we did quite a bit of research before we opened in Santa Fe in 2002.”
The research included hiring restaurant consultant Paul Liu from Denver, and then traveling to New York, Chicago, and San Francisco to sample Asian cooking. The menu was developed by tasting dozens of dishes and then including their favorites.
Doug says, “There are five different countries represented on our menu... Japan, China, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia.” All three restaurants feature travel posters and paintings from Pacific locations that really give each place an authentic atmosphere.
Quite a few of the paintings were done by the late actor Gene Hackman. He and his wife, Betsy Arakawa were partners in the Jinja restaurants. Many of the paintings by Hackman were in the style of Paul Gauguin, in keeping with the Pacific theme of the restaurant’s decor.
Doug related a story about a particular mural that Hackman produced. “Many people didn’t know that Gene was an incredible artist. I mean off-the-charts good. When we remodeled the Santa Fe location, we had a fifteen-foot blank wall, and we asked Gene if he could paint a mural to fill the space. Initially, he balked at the idea of working in that scale, but we razzed and teased him into taking it on. Three weeks later, he called us to his studio and revealed this incredible mural that’s about thirteen by five feet. That’s the piece everyone comes in to see.”
When Hackman and Betsy passed away, Doug was inundated with reporters asking about the couple after they found out about their relationship with Jinja. He found much of it to be insensitive. Doug says, “These people were our close friends, and we found that some of the questions were distasteful about the circumstances of their passing.”
You’ll have to drive to Santa Fe to see the mural, but the food and atmosphere of the two restaurants in Albuquerque are consistent with the Santa Fe location. They are known for their creative bar offerings.
Info about all three restaurants, including their menu, can be found at https://www.jinjabistro.com/.
I was thrilled to cover this restaurant. It's been one of my favorite ABQ restaurants for some time. The ambience is warm and inviting, the food is delicious, and the service is great.
-Richard Lakin, editor, ABQ City Lifestyle