The Whisque (pronounced like the drink) was an exciting project because it gave us the opportunity to totally reconfigure an existing building that was not designed as a restaurant. For the owners, the location was undeniable, at the top of a bluff on Albuquerque's Westsdie. The new dining room and patio have commanding views of the Rio Grande valley with the river bosque in the foreground and the Sandia and Manzano mountains in the distance. The challenge was to re-image the vacant drug store property into a new restaurant without the stigma of the previous use. Baker A+D collaborated with design firm Jones-Baker and produced a popular and successful restaurant for this area of Albuquerque. The Whisque's patio has won "Best Patio" in Albuquerque, The Magazine's annual awards for two years running.