Santa Fe Spirits Downtown Tasting Room — Restaurant in Santa Fe

My first experience at Santa Fe Spirits Tasting Room was after the Folk Art Festival. It is a small but intimate space (6 at the bar, only a handful of tables, then some patio seating) but it is well done with a refined Southwestern atmosphere and beautiful exposed wood beams. The intimate space is perfect because it allows their staff to shine on an interpersonal level. Miranda is very knowledgeable about the spirits and her craft, will make excellent recommendations for you based on your tastes and preferences, and is a lovely conversationalist... possessing all the qualities of a most excellent bar tender. While we didn't get to see Sam work behind the bar on our second trip to the tasting room (as we were sitting elsewhere at a table because it was much busier) he was comparably enjoyable to have.

The cocktail menu is well thought out with solid classics using the "in-house" craft spirits, as well as some rather inventive one using local NM ingredients (piñon, prickly pear/tuna). Their Manhattan uses "secret sauce" which I can only imagine is their special blend of vermouth (and perhaps other ingredients?) aged in a barrel, which produces a high quality Manhattan with their whiskey. However, I am very much a fan of one of the more creative liqueurs I've ever seen, the Atapiño. Using the Silver Whiskey as a base, the spirit is aged in barrels filled with a damn near irresponsible amount of piñon nuts! Then when removed from the barrel, Ponderosa Pine sap is added for sweetness and caramel color. Apart from being a noteworthy and highly unique Americana craft spirit, it is delicious and as such I bought a bottle to take home with me my first time there.

My favorite cocktail there utilizes the Atapiño, the Knotty Pine. Atapiño, lemon juice, damerara simple, egg white, and bitters. It tastes like misty autumn camping in a woodsy cabin!

As far as food goes, there is an Italian joint next door with good woodfire pizza. There are menus at the bar and they'll walk your order over from next door.

Overall, I've had great experiences there and the music is always great (live...

I give them 3 stars instead of 5 because of the customer service we received. We went when tourism was at its lowest and we had the whole place to ourselves (which was wonderful), but the waitress/bartender was so unfriendly and short with us. She made us wear a mask eventhough there was nobody else there, and the charcuterie board we ordered had old meats on it that had turned grey from sitting in the fridge for so long. They tasted so bad I couldn't finish them. When we tried to be friendly and make small talk with the waitress she had nothing to say and went into the back, not even coming back to see if we wanted to order anything else. I was hoping this place was going to be one of the highlights of our trip,...

Be prepared to be astounded. Leave any expectations at the door. Just walk in and try. You will be happy you did. The cask strength single malt single barrel is really complex and does not “feel” like a high proof pour, but it is. The Sherry barrel finish is a wonderful complement to the base product. It is bottled at the perfect moment.

The Atipino is a massive awakening as to why you should “leave everything at the door.” Try to Pigeon hole this one and you’ll be so lost. I bought 2 bottles to take home, a mixer and a sipper.

The prices are out of this world good. Try any of the flights, and you’ll see what I mean.

The mixology there is spot on. Well devised drinks...