Milk of the Poppy — Restaurant in Santa Fe

I'm a big GOT fan so I took the trip from Albuquerque to visit Milk of the Poppy. Upon arriving at 6:15p I joined a line of confused patrons waiting to get inside. There's no signage which I think is supposed to add to the mystique of MOTP. I'm all for mystique and building suspense however in my opinion there should be some bread crumbs on the outside of the building or on the website giving patrons an idea of procedure/what to expect. After 20 minutes we were allowed in by a polite door man who informed us of the bar only ordering system.

The decor is fantastic. It's constructed with beautiful materials and interesting knick knacks strewn around the room. I had the "Oh Sherry Baby" which was lovely. My wife had "Trouble in Paradise" and she enjoyed it.

From a business perspective, in my non restaurant business owner opinion, MOTP has potential. As it stands the framework can make some changes to enhance the customer experience. Keep the mystique but add some standard procedures for customers. For example, signage on the outside of the door that says, "Thank you for your patience. We will allow you inside once there is enough capacity." Once inside it would be beneficial to adopt tenets of the restaurant model. The doorman can be more effectively utilized to sit patrons down and give them the MOTP spiel "Welcome to MOTP, here's the mission and here's how things work." Also, servers would be largely beneficial for a couple of reasons. It would ameliorate the bottleneck of people ordering exclusively with the bartenders as well as provide them much needed support. The bartender did an excellent job with drinks, and fielding questions from confused patrons. Unfortunately, the workload on the bartenders is untenable. They should make the drinks and servers should take the orders.

With a few tweaks MOTP can be a lucrative business and enjoyable speak easy-esque venue. I would like to see MOTP become profitable so that it sticks around and is not simply a hole in George R.R. Martin's pocket that closes...

So I hate writing bad reviews but after two experiences at this place I have to. First off, it’s overpriced. The atmosphere is spooky and awesome but the drinks are meh. On top of the fact that the bartenders are rude, unfriendly, constantly eye rolling like they hate their lives and don’t want to be there.

Experience 1: Went in with a group for a friend’s birthday. I bought her one Negroni and then had 2 drinks myself. So 3 drinks total. Somehow my bill had 5 Negronis on it + my original drink which was just meh. As a fellow bartender I was like “oh well maybe some of the rest of my party accidentally put drinks on my tab. I’ll just pay it forward and figure it out with them later.” Nope. Everyone paid for their drinks. I just got over charged with 3 EXTRA DRINKS.

Experience 2: A group of us came in after opening night of our show to have one drink in celebration. We came in pretty close to the closing time and apologized for it but they said they still could accommodate for one. GREAT. But they punished us for it. Eye rolls, no communication, rudeness, purposefully slow service (I’m a bartender, I know what you are doing dude)… we were kind and patient anyway and not everyone ordered something.

Then, my friend got $18 Champagne that was flat. The bar back noticed and went to go open a new bottle and we watched the bartender bark at her for it. It’s 18!!!! And this is your job. If you don’t want to bartend then don’t do it. If you don’t want to accommodate us then turn us away. But come on dude.

I will not be back here and I will continually tell people to not go here. Go Tonic instead or any of the new places popping up. Fellow bartender to...

I think my favorite (somewhat unrelated) highlight is that Sokhang is the bartender at Milk of the Poppy. We had the opportunity to have Sokhang 's drinks at Radish and Rye and I am SO pumped he works at a really fun themed bar! Sokhang 's drinks are AMAZING! Well balanced and absolutely delicious. My favorite cocktail out of this menu is Dark Winds. Really love the incorporation of beets. Probably one the most delicious beet-based cocktail I've ever had. I think the place decor and menu design is cute & opening night was fun. The food is creative and beautiful. We tried the rattlesnake pasta dish and it was yummy. I am not quite sure what I was expecting with the rattlesnake but it mostly tastes like.... chicken (?). So worry not. It's not weird if you're wondering. The quail was delicious as well.

I was a little confused by the door man person but it made sense because we saw George R R Martin at (his own themed) bar and it's probably best to have a big person manning the door just in case lol.

I am happy to see creative new places in Santa Fe and I hope this place continues to bring in patrons who love fantasy and literature 💓⚔️🧙‍♀️

P.S- It was definitely a highlight to have seen George R R...