Santa Fe – Day Drinking in this Charming Southwestern City

Sometimes life just isn’t going your way, and you need to step back and re-evaluate things. That’s exactly what I was doing: isolating and recovering from life at my sister’s. And that’s when she said, “Why don’t we just go to Santa Fe for the weekend?”

Now, I have never been to Santa Fe. I’ve never been to New Mexico, not even on a drive through to get to somewhere else. So I was all for this idea. Plus, it was only a 4-hour drive from Peggy’s house, so why not?

This was a pretty quick decision with only 3 days until departure, unlike our usual months of research and reservations and planning. Peggy had been there before and had a few places she still wanted to try. We knew a little of where we wanted to be and a did a little social media research. We had enough for a skeleton itinerary to begin our journey and a reservation at The Eldorado Hotel. So off we went.

Where to Stumble back to after a day of drinking

When visiting Santa Fe, you really want to book a hotel near the Plaza. All the shopping, restaurants, and bars are in this area. It’s more expensive than outlying areas but will save Uber rides (or fighting over who has to DD). Stay where the action is, you’ll never regret it. We settled on the Eldorado Hotel , and it was a great choice, beautiful and well located.

Sister Side Note (ssn) – I’ve been to Santa Fe quite a few times and have always dreamed of staying at the iconic La Fonda on the Plaza but it did not work for this trip. If you get the chance, do it and let me know what you think!

Upon check-in at the Eldorado was where we met our new friend, Jay, the front desk manager. He’s just adorable and was happy to give us a list of places he considered our best stops for a must-try trip.

But first, sustenance

Jay sent us to Tia Sophia for breakfast. Luckily, it was where I had already picked out. Jay solidified our faith in him. It turned out we were a little late for breakfast, but happily settled on the special of the day, which came with the sopapillas that all the reviews raved about. The reviews were spot on, the sopapillas were light and fluffy and mouth-watering. A bottle of honey and a shaker of cinnamon and sugar waited on each table, and now I’m lost in the oblivion of lust for these little pillow-y doughy slices of heaven.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the rest of the meal was outstanding, the service was amazing, but now I’m hyper-focusing on those sopapillas. Just carry-on with the reading and I’ll stay here.

Time to get to drinking

The Coyote Café was our first stop; partly because it’s the iconic Santa Fe café, but partly just to get it done and out of the way. It was kitschy, that is the first adjective that comes to mind. Loud, splashed with all the colors, and packed. Our service was mediocre at best, definitely no time or desire for personalized service in this place, no chitchat, no ability to ask a lot of questions. But it is cute and is an open-air covered patio over-looking the street kind of perfect.

We didn’t eat, but the shrimp and corncakes looked incredible, as did the nachos and the tacos. For our one and done theme of the day, I chose the Caramel Mai Tai – white rum, guava, and black strap – with a caramel rim. Different, but the caramel weirdly blended with the rum and guava really worked. Peggy stuck to her wheelhouse with the Cantina Crush – Vodka and Passion fruit which she found to be too sweet for her. I liked it and thought the sourness offset the sweetness – as is usually the case with my sister and I (her sour, my sweet, you get it, right?).

A Little Wander through Town

A walk became a necessity because we were still full from our visit to Tia Sophia’s, and to let you know there are things to do in Santa Fe besides drink. We wandered to the Loretto Chapel. The Chapel houses the famous spiral staircase. The spiral staircase, featured on “Unsolved Mysteries”, built by a mysterious carpenter who then disappeared. It’s quite the legend and is very beautiful.

Santa Fe is also the state capital of New Mexico, and the capital grounds have a beautiful sculpture walk.

Then there is The Plaza. In the center of the downtown district, it has vendors selling their crafts, a few notable architectural features, and a great place to spend some time outdoors. We passed by several times on the course of our visit, and it is beautiful and peaceful, even in the chaos of all the people.

Los Poblanos

Los Poblanos Farm Shop is a beautiful gift shop with all local products, bath, beauty, artisanal food, and a bit of alcohol. The Los Poblanos Ranch is located in New Mexico in the Rio Grande Valley, with gardens and lavender fields. Yes, there are a lot of their own lavender products for purchase.

BUT, also in the farm shop is the Bar Norte. And it was one of our favorites. Beautiful, in a Jane Austen kind of way (if Jane Austen was Southwestern instead of English), stunning details to connect the local heritage with beautiful lighting, old pictures, leather benches with fluffy pillows, and a gin forward menu.

They have their own botanical gin label, and a lavender gin as well. You can sample the gin in the farm shop, or you can try some of their beautifully curated cocktails in the Bar Norte. We, naturally, opted for both. Our waiter, Walter, copped to being hungover and having woken up on a friend’s couch, but he was still funny and recommended the cocktails he deemed important for us to try on our one and only visit. We chilled in the air-conditioning and sang Seasons in the Sun, and it was very relaxing and laid-back experience.

ssn – not that I want you to stop reading, but this was my favorite stop! I fell completely in love with this space, the vibe and the shop. The outdoor patio was lovely (but it was unseasonably hot out!).

Two Drinks In

And we were struggling with the heat and feeling pretty worn down. So, what’s the perfect solution? A hand and foot massage, of course. An hour-long stop in at the One Sacred Body Spa, we found zero gravity recliners, infused oxygen, and an amazing foot massage. Finally, we were feeling like us again and headed back out to get busy on our list.

ssn – One Sacred Body is connected to Apothecary Dining. Apothecary is nutrient-rich, gluten-free, vegetarian/vegan friendly, sustainable, so on. “Alchemy Tailored to Your State of Being”. Very woo-woo. Very Santa Fe. We did not try it but by evening…it was packed!!

Secreto

Secreto came highly recommended, as all their bartenders are certified mixologists, and their cocktails are well-respected among their peers. This stylish bar resides in the St. Francis Hotel and consider their menu to be “Garden-to-Glass” concept, a play on the whole farm-to-table movement. The lounge was busy, but we grabbed two seats right at the bar.

It has a dark wood, smokey feel to the place, but the light fixtures were incredible. I opted for the drink they are best known for: the smoked sage margarita (and that explains the smokiness of the bar). Peggy had the Butternut Squash Old Fashion, and dare I admit, she won that round!

Our mixologist, Andy, was amazing – super busy, eyes on everything and everyone, but still polite enough to engage people in conversation. We were blown away by his knowledge. Our discussion turned to tequilas where he informed us that they don’t carry Patron because it is not a sustainably run business. They don’t carry Casa Azul because of their infusion techniques. It was great to learn that they are putting in to practice the values they hold with regard to quality and sustainability.

ssn – Secreto has a great feel. It definitely has that “hotel lounge” feel, but in the good way. Happy couples and groups chatting about their day and their plans. Lively, upbeat and paired with great service. The Hotel St. Francis Hotel is fabulous and I would recommend a stay here. The (newly renamed?) steakhouse, Wolf and Roadrunner, has the prettiest patio in Santa Fe, IMHO.

The Closest Thing to a Speakeasy

There are no speakeasies in Santa Fe, much to our dismay. The closest thing we could find was Tonic. It is not hidden, there’s a sign on the street. But it is down a little alley, off the street. And it was cute. Follow the alley to the end, and there’s a door on the left. There is the bar to the right, it was this beautiful blue space with low-key jazz feel and a mirrored front bar that reflects the light perfectly.

The left of the entry opens into this enclosed patio space with big open windows with a very Mediterranean feel to it. Bar stools line the drink counter around the windows, so the whole space feels huge, airy, and open.

That being said, I didn’t love it. I wanted to, I desperately wanted to. But the whole place left me with a meh, are we done here feel, almost like the vibe. It made the list of best place for a cocktail in New Mexico (msn article “Have You Tried the Best Cocktail Bar in Your State?“), and I didn’t get it. We were disappointed that they had stopped carrying food, aside from a charcuterie board, and they were out of one of the ingredients for the drink I wanted.

The server immediately had this friendly vibe, but then I heard him giving the exact same welcome to everyone else as they came in. So clearly rehearsed down to the cute little side comments. And the cocktails were good but had the same problem we ran into at many places, confusing ingredients that you don’t know what they are, and an attempt to be quirky and original instead of focusing on simply amazing cocktails. Maybe it was just an off day for Tonic, we hope so.

Matador

We had passed The Matador several times on our walk. It’s a basement bar, with cement stairs leading down from the sidewalk. It looked Dive-y and we were in for that. However, when we got to the block at opening time, we could hear the loud music coming from the basement and Peggy was a “Nah!”. But we were already there and committed and it was hot out, so we ventured down into the darkness.

The Matador is a cash only bar (there’s an ATM in the back), dark, locals’ kind of place. Music pumping out of the speakers – 70’s, 80’s and earlier country – so a bit of the twangy stuff, and some of the stuff our parents listened to. Think Johnny Cash, Hank Williams (Sr!), there might have even been some Roger Whitaker in there. We may have sung along to a couple of tunes.

The bartender was a little rough, but fabulous, just what you would expect from this kind of place. We had two blueberry kamikaze shots. Served in mini old-fashioned Coca-Cola glasses, and they were PERFECT. The bartender even said “whoa” to how good they were. In the end, it ended up a great, laid-back spot and we loved it. But by then we needed food.

ssn – I sure was not feeling the dive-y, loud 70s Country blasting up from the door. I’ll admit that I was wrong. It was just the change of pace we needed!

La Boca

We had been saving our last stop for the food. Tapas at La Boca. We didn’t have reservations but were lucky enough to score two seats at the bar (you will definitely want to make reservations). The bartender was friendly, but clearly overwhelmed and frazzled (he kept audibly sighing). The floor plan is open and light, a pretty minimalist design, but it fits the feel. La Boca’s chef has been nominated 6 times for a James Beard award, so we were very excited for this meal.

Peggy opted for the Smokey Pineapple Mojito, which was delightful. I had a Brother’s Old Tom gin with the Fever Tree Lime and Yuzu tonic (yes, I paid money for the same drink I have at home with a better gin). The lady sitting next to us was a solo digital nomad, so our conversation was amazing discussing the benefits and drawbacks of nomad-ism, plus sharing tips and tricks from our travels.

We opted for the Manchego Frito (fried Manchego cheese, it was amazing), the chicharrónes (I love some Spanish-style chicharrónes and they were fantastic), and the croquetas (we love some jamon croquetas!).

The food was superb, the drinks were refreshing, and the service was bustling, but friendly. We will definitely recommend La Boca if you need dinner in Santa Fe. Tapas are always fun way to try a lot.

Shutting it down

Of course, by the time we came out of La Boca, we had to dash for a great spot to see the sunset. We got to La Fonda on the Plaza for the premier spot in town, the Bell Tower Rooftop Bar…. Just in time for them to tell us the bar was closing.

We didn’t need anything more to drink, we just wanted to see the sunset, so they let us pull up some chairs at the railing. It was very weird that they didn’t adjust their closing time to accommodate the sunset. It wasn’t even fully down and they were sweeping through collecting everyone’s tableware. But it was a beautiful view.

We headed back to the Eldorado, noticed the bar was empty and decided we needed a White Russian to close down our day. The bar at the Eldorado is called Cava, it sits right off the lobby and is probably one of the prettiest hotel bars we’ve been in. Beautiful lighting and white chairs, it was lovely, but also completely dead by 9 pm.

However, the benefit of an empty bar is that we got a lesson in making the perfect White Russian (the key is to put the vodka in a cold glass BEFORE putting the ice in). It was really cool to watch, and we learned something new!

Then it was off to bed for a scenic drive home the next morning.

Honorable Mention

We had breakfast the next morning at Café Pasqual’s. It is the place for breakfast in Santa Fe. You need to get in line early! They fill up fast. By the time they had been open for 15 minutes, they had a 45-minute wait for a table. They offer a community table for those that don’t mind sharing their space, a 10-topper right in the middle of the room. It looked fun, and I would have happily sat there had we known. The food was amazing, the staff was amazing, the room was beautiful, and it was a great way to close down our Santa Fe experience.

ssn – Cafe Pasqual’s is a Santa Fe institution and it is worthy of the hype. We were seated right next to the host stand (he was delightful and hilarious!) and you could tell the people that had been in before from the newbies. When newbies came in and were told it was a 45-min wait, they would leave, when veteran diners came in, they would gladly put their name on the list. If you know, you know.