This place is dark, what did you expect from a basement? We came into town on a Sunday, having no idea New Mexican bars were only open until midnight. They were playing some good music and had terrible B horror movies on the TV so there was entertainment. Good pours for decent prices and our bartender was pretty cool
Review Source:Hole in the wall, punk rockish, stiff drinks, great music, everybody welcome. "the non official gay bar" as was told to me by some locals. Integrated crowd and super easy to meet people! Not pretentious and has a ton of character. My drink was served in a sugar jar. If visiting Santa Fe I recommend going down for a drink and seeing for yourself!
Review Source:I was visiting here over the holidays. My girlfriend grew up in Sante Fe but left when she was pretty young so we didn't really know where to go drinking. Most everybody suggested this place so we went. I was a little bit worried, seeing as most of the sort of hipsterish youth culture there, at least from my encounters, puts williamsburg to shame in terms of general rudeness and arrogance. I had to listen to this guy brag about having never spent a dollar on tattooing in his entire life for like 45 minutes while staring at his arms which look like a special ed finger painting class project. At another place not the matador. Regardless that wasn't so much an issue here. Everybody in the bar was super polite. We had a psychobilly sorta bartender who was extremely nice. Might be a brooklyn thing but I don't think I've ever in my life seen a bartender sincerely apologize for anything before but this guy spilled a little of my beer and bought me a shot and proceeded to apologize till I was halfway into the beer. A real gentlemen. Lots of great music and cool Troma movies. I would go back.
Review Source:This is where the locals go, but are still welcoming to tourists. In fact the bouncer liked that we were from Colorado.
Cash only! No cell reception since you're in a basement.
Drinks poured well. Can't complain on the overall experience, but I knew I wasn't going to use their restroom. Just had a feeling it wouldn't be good.
Only had one drink here, but would definitely go back for another when in town.
Bartender was nice, she offered to put my dinner leftovers I was carrying in the fridge. Great service. Cold drinks. Other patrons were nice and seemed quirky, in a good way. Yup, liked this little dive bar. But it might not be for everyone, you'll know as soon as you walk down the stairs and through the door.
Don't Bother.
I should have gotten the hint when they wouldn't let my dad in who is 60yrs and looks more like a biker then the poser rock-a-billy bartenders. Â
They wouldn't let him in because he didn't have ID, but he has gray hair and a gray handlebar mustache.  After laughing at the doorman for  a few minutes, he let is in.
Then it got worse. Â The little bartender seems to start trouble he can't finish. Â My cousin paused when ordering her drink so he took all 4 of our drinks away. Â Like he's in such a rush he can't deal with us? Â Give me a break, it is Santa Fe...
Then at one point, he grabbed a drink straight from my buddy's hand from across the bar. Â My buddy wasn't causing trouble but after that happened, we all blew up. Â
The other tall bartender was cool about it all but the little guy ran and hid in the corner after we tried to confront him. Â He wasn't even man enough to deal with the trouble he caused. Â
I bring lots of tourists to that town every summer. Â Dive bars are definitely my speed but not this one thanks to the BS staff - Â Posers. Faux-hipsters in the desert that couldn't fit in anywhere else in the country. Â
I'll take my tourists elsewhere. And enjoy drinking in a place above ground and bigger then a shoebox.
I love this place! Â The bartenders are passionate and fantastic and mix up a mean cocktail (or provide bottle water -- free of charge!). Â The atmosphere is punky, funky, fun with a perfect amount of confidence (and/or attitude). Â Sonically speaking, they play great tunes, sometimes movie videos other times they'll have a DJ. Â The place is small and usually packed with good hearted-folks. Â There is primative (in a good way) art on the walls and otherwise jammed packed with said movies and bottles and bottles of booze. Â A really fun place to let loose... go there!
Review Source:This is not really a dive bar, but a hipster bar. The crowd was neither older tourists who stick to their lame restaurants nor snotty brats, but affable young kids.
They have a limited selection of booze. Even more limited considering that I ordered a Jameson's neat and saw it come out of a Jameson's bottle, but it really didn't even resemble an Irish whiskey. The obvious give-away was the high amount of sweetness. Maybe the residual radiation from Los Alamos to the west and the Trinity test to the south altered the molecular structure of the whiskey? I'm not really complaining because the pour was big, the price was affordable, and we still had a fun time. Besides, 99% of the young patrons wouldn't know the difference between different whiskies anyhow. Ultimately, all was good.
Let me preface this by saying I usually hate dive bars. Â The cheap drinks never seem to outweigh the atmosphere but at the Matador it was fun, with cheap drinks, and a good atmosphere. Â It was a little hot (but it's in a basement) and the music was not too loud so I thought it was great.
Review Source:We look for dive bars wherever we go and when we heard this place had a punkish appeal we were all over it. Walking downstairs we encountered a dark small area with mostly seating right at the bar. Â Posters and fliers everywhere. Some original most not. Ordered our drinks and they had no change. We were told,"Drink until we have change,"
We did. Music was played off albums that we weren't allowed to look through and when we made a suggestion we were told ,"No!!" because we didn't say "Please." hmmmmmmmm. Punksters must have manners in Santa Fe, especially when you're on the plaza.
Drinks were strong and worth the seven dollars for Jim Beam. Next time we'll head over on the weekend. Might be more friendly. Â Might have music we can suggest. Might not.
This place is BAD ASS. Â I went on a Wednesday night at about 8 and left at midnight with a good buzz and good times. Â They had a DJ there spinning pre-90's and obscure punk/rockabilly/psychobilly. Â They have a flat screen on the wall as soon as you walk in and had Jaws playing while the DJ was doing his thing (no sound of course because that would be stupid). Â I was paying the same for drinks here as my local dive/punk bars back in AZ. Â Bartender was rad as hell too. Â
at 8pm there were a couple of people in there that seemed just to have wandered down the stairs into the joint...by 9 it was packed with a very broad mix of people. Â Some creepy foreign German Guys that kept to themselves, some gay skaters, some of your old punkers, some greasers, and the randomness continued. Â
Like I said..when I left...I had a good buzz and felt like my night was accomplished for getting out of my room for a little bit.
I think I'm going to go back there tonight.
I kind of dig this place because I lived in the Northwest for 8 years and it reminds me of a little neighborhood dive you might find in Seattle or Portland. Hip music of various genres, weird videos playing, dank and dark. The cooler-than-thou vibe the workers, DJ's, and some patrons occasionally put off is a bit tiresome - you're hipsters in Santa Fe, folks - even hipsters in New York, where I also lived, are considered total d-bags by anybody but themselves and their own clique.
Frankly I would go here a lot more often if the music wasn't always so friggin' LOUD. I'm not some grumpy Gus, but give me a break. Perhaps I'm at that age where when i go out I like to enjoy a conversation with the people I'm with or the new people I might meet. I like music, and I don't mind loud music at a bar generally, but this place is ridiculous. I don't know what moron or deaf-mute has control of the volume knob, but I don't think I've ever been involved in a conversation here that didn't necessitate screaming in each other's ears and saying "What? What? What?" a hundred times.
I seriously don't know what their end game is with the loud music - pushing patron turnover? Announcing to pedestrians their existence? Trying to scare off the squares from their hep-cat scene, Daddy-o? Drowning out the wailing voice of their own tortured souls? What on earth is up with the volume, people?!?!?!
I PROMISE you people, I have been in many a dark and dank hipster dive bar in this world - from Dublin to Denver - and not ONE of them has ever played their music that loudly.
They have beer and drinks, and will give them to you for cash only. Is there anything else to say? They had some weird old movie on the TV and a ton of VHS on a bookshelf at one end of the bar. There was standing room only and the bathrooms were tiny and right in the middle of the space. I don't know what you're supposed to do there except pound drinks and try to look cool. It was too loud for conversation and the bartender got really snippy and yelled at some girl for taking her drink. I didn't follow the drama, but it gave me a bad vibe, as the place did generally.
Review Source:This is a decent basement dive bar in the old part of Santa Fe. It really is a ray of sunshine (darkness) in an otherwise touristy hell. Good tunes, Session bottles and a LAME selection of tequila for a SW bar. What are you people thinking? This place is proof that hipsters don't know a thing about drinking.
Review Source:Serving my Fernet and ginger back in two adorbs mini coke glasses meant that I could somehow finagle them both into the same hand and be able to shake my ass (and the other hand) to the LCD soundsystem tracks playing REAL LOUD. Two in a row! That's fantastic!
Thank you dive bar, thank you. Just the right timing of some red lit grit into my weekend. I didn't have any other needs or expectations.
This afternoon, while navigating the plethora of tourist tchotchke shops that surround the Santa Fe Plaza, my husband and I stumbled down a narrow set of stairs, following the faint sound of The Pixies and lured by the single red lightbulb, which, as everyone knows, is the universal flag of the dive bar. Â
Once our eyes adjusted to the absence of light, we settled in on a couple of barstools and perused the punk rock posters on the walls and ceiling, while the affable bartender queued up a few well-earned Stolis and continued to roll out an excellent Sunday afternoon playlist. Â
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Â there's not much better than the inadvertent discovery of an excellent bar on a gusty Sunday afternoon.
First off I don't drink, but I'm going to review this bar anyway.
While visiting Santa Fe from the east coast, we were about to start exiting the city when we heard music coming from some random staircase on the side of the road. We saw it was The Matador and decided to venture in.
When we got downstairs we noticed that it was a tiny dive bar with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs blasting. Like others have said it's not for everyone and it does have a punk rock feel to it. I'm not a punk fan but I did enjoy this place. The walls are littered with various show posters which always adds a cool atmosphere to anyplace. There was a TV up by the ceiling that was playing True Romance and from the large selection of DVDs by the side I take it that there's always something playing on it. My only complaint was that the music was a little bit too loud to hear what we were talking about but other than that this place was enjoyable.
My friend and I had already tied one (or a few) on and were headed home for the night when we heard some killer music coming from somewhere. Â Indie/Punk beats calling out through the night as we walked by--we had to find out where this sound was coming from. Â
As we headed towards the music, Â a sign stating, "The Matador" appeared and I yelled, "THIS is the place I wanted to go to! Â We have to go in!" Â And so, already drunk and stumbling, we wandered down the stairs into a non-touristy oasis. Â The cool kids are in this joint. Â
I had read the reviews and it seemed that folks were a bit frightened of The Matador. Â Upon entering, I realized that the folks writing these reveiws are the same folks who are visiting from Nebraska (don't hate; I'm a native Husker), have a camera around the neck and sandles with black socks. Â They just ain't hip enough to appreciate the vibe, man! Â I felt right at home and loved every minute of it.
We met some strange characters, had some very interesting (i.e. drunken) conversations with a local crazy and listened to a DJ spin some killer tunes.
THIS is the bar to go to in Santa Fe. Â Leave your socks/sandles at home.
This place is NOT for everyone. Â It is definitely a dive-y, punkish, counter-culture style bar. Â (If you're afraid of bikers, for example, don't bother coming in; one local club hangs out there often, wearing their colors.) Â Music can be loud and is often punk, hard-rock, metal or ska. Â Floor is cold concrete, the place itself is dim, and it is all cash-only. Â Films play constantly (with subtitles), stuff like -Doctor Strangelove-, -Kill Bill-, etc.
(Both times I've been here, touristy-looking folk have come down, looked around, and left without saying a word. Â I'm sure it happens all the time.)
The regulars and bartenders are very friendly and talkative, provided you leave your attitude at the door. Â Prices can be a bit steep, but people need to remember where it is: just off the plaza and pretty much right across from the Lensic. Â The rent must be astronomical; they have to cover it somehow.
They've got a full bar and a handful of decent beers.  They've also got an  espresso machine as well and pull great cups.  (Plus they  make a fab Irish coffee.)
I LOVE it here. Â The owner (a friend of a friend) is from the D.C. area and it definitely shows in the bar and the attitude. Â Love having a little piece of home just up the hill.
Hooray for a safe dive-bar right near the plaza!
If beer and hard-a and not much else are what you look for in a bar- The Matador has it all! The bartenders are friendly, they play great music and they even have excellent films playing on a large screen so everyone has something to look at.
There is a loud speaker pumping music outside the front door (which is actually a basement door) and this scares away old people and losers.
If you aren't drinking alcohol, they don't make fun of you while they serve you endless waters.
You are apparently allowed to bring in outside food to eat at the bar while you booze it up.
Like I said, they play great music and films with subtitles on. It's just an easy place to be.
aka The Dresden, in my book.
been coming here since it opened so i'm partial to it - great bartenders, love the movies playing constantly and random DJ's, Stella is always ice cold and a cash-only bar means i won't get hammered & buy the house a drink.
no food (although i saw a hot dog machine in there once) and i think they still do coffee (ahem, sorry, espresso) in the mornings. Â great for when you find yourself waking up outside the front door from the night before.
About as much of a dive bar as you will find in Santa Fe without entering places where there is a real risk of being a victim of criminal activity. Has kind of a punk rock feel to it.. Â Kind of expensive for what it is, a little cellar bar in the basement of a building with a TV showing strange movies and horror flicks, and often filthy restrooms. Â But it is sort of a "hipster" joint, by the standards of somewhat sleepy Santa Fe.. There are much cooler bars of this sort in Albuquerque (e.g. Atomic Cantina, Burts Tiki Lounge), but this is an OK option if you live in Santa Fe or are visiting and want to go to a place that feels "rough" Â and "edgy" without really being rough.. If you want true "roughness", there are of course other places in town where you can hang out with real life gang members..
Review Source:I consider this a great personal discovery in Santa Fe. Â
I am not concerned that 20 people reviewed it before me. Â Whatever to them. Â I found The Matador without the help of their reviews. Â Curiosity led me down the narrow flight of stairs with music thumping out of a little speaker on a lower step. Curiosity led me down the stairs and through the blue door.
Bartender Johnny was hip and cool to chat with, drinks were good & I'll be back to this great local flavor dive bar next time I'm in Santa Fe. Word. Whatever that means.
Its downstairs and off the beaten path just a little ways. Â You'll walk right by it if you aren't paying attention just as you would a hippie street performer doing Phish covers. Â
As close to a dive bar as you are going to find in Santa Fe. Â Good tunes, eclectic crowd, and decorated in that "look what I found at the thrift-store" aesthetic. Â Perfect. Â
If you're looking to avoid the turquoise/green chili/isn't adobe nifty-tourist crowd (or just the flakey new age locals), then this is definitely your (slightly overpriced) cup of schwag beer.
On a side note: $4 for PBR? Â Ummm. . . Â that's almost blasphemous, but it is Santa Fe so you'll have to take what you can get.
HEART. HEART. HEART.
Yes, some people might consider this place a dive bar, but I call it a hipster bar. Â Cool people, cool bartender, cool place.
The walls are decorated with local art...everything from an oil painting to local drawings people have done on paper to even local flyers for events around town. Â Not much seating, very close knit and dark. Â I was on sensory overload...people with pink hair, people coming from a wedding, people clearly in town for the holiday weekend....oh man. Â I didnt know where to look first. Â
Note: Â If you're not looking for this place you WILL miss it. Â It's underground, about 1100 SF and serve Pabst. Â They also have a FULL bar and a cooler at the end that shows all their beers. Â The bar tender does not have time to go over all the beers with you, so look in the cooler. Â (That's one cool thing about dives/hipsters...bar tenders doing really give a s*it about you). Â
Thanks Matador. Â You rock.
Walking up, the man in a white button down loudly said to his lady friend "They have to be from the east." Yes, sir. I am. And, while I am not Boston-crazy, I don't appreciate the look of disgust when I say that I came from there. Even worse than Boston, apparently, is Texas, where my friend is from. That got downright derision. Nonetheless, we live here for now, were with a long-term resident, and are not tourists.
So, it's not Matador's fault they have a loud jerk hanging around outside. And he clearly wasn't representative of the bar staff, who look very rockabilly and pretty tough. The bartender was everything I would want in a bartender.
Actually, a lot of people here looked tough or rough or both. Everyone seemed generally older than I expected. And the crowd was weird. WEIRD. The young punky looking girl with the old hippy. The nerds and the guys with slicked back hair and tattoos. Us.
Overall, a fine bar. Not as comfortably dive-y as Gooski's in Pittsburgh, or the old BBQ Bar in Orlando, but probably the only straight up bar in Santa Fe that is legitimately interesting. Although my non-Texan friend's vodka RedBull seemed a bit steep at $10.
i am from Denver and am used to dive bars with lower priced drinks and cool people... Â this place was rad. Caeser, i think was the owner, was super personable, bought us drinks, and was very entertaining. Santa fe kind of sucked, there weren't any cool bars besides this one unless you wanted to pay $6 for a budweiser (not in a strip club) and this place made me feel at home. I loved it here. If you are into food and not afraid to spend some money, go eat at the Compound, i had one of the best meals of my life there and Mark Kiffin is one of the best chefs around...
Review Source:This was 28 minutes of my life on my last venture to Santa fe.. Dirty, skanky basement bar. Loud, smelly, not sexy.
Was not here last time i checked. Â
My friend and i sat in a room with what seemed to be 2 couples and a few friends. Somewhere i missed the love connection, He got some guys digits and i had horrifying drunk deja vu 2 nights later.
Good Tequila, its always good. And seemingly good place to find an encounter.
This is a place of a different breed in Santa Fe. The Matador has a funky, scummy, slightly stanky appeal. Though very small, it would probably be an interesting venue for an intimate show. They only accept cash which is a bit of an inconvenience but do provide an ATM. They have seemingly over-priced cocktails but the bartender made me one hell of a martini. Though adobe is a huge part of what makes Santa Fe so cozy and beautiful, its a nice change from the western style nightlife pervading Santa Fe.
Review Source:Three bucks for a PBR and four for a good pour of well whiskey isn't bad for Santa Fe, especially right off the plaza. Entertained by exploitation horror on the TV at the bar. Some good classic show posters on the wall, interspersed with framed examples of the results of a google image search for "pop." Tiny basement location provides decent atmosphere.
Around eleven thirty on a saturday night the well-dressed dinner crowd shuffles off and is replaced by a fairly decent late twenties, early thirties crowd. There's no good spot to gain access to the bar - you'll have to elbow some people out of the way to get the bartender's attention.
If you want a real working class dive bar in Santa Fe, go to Rocky's and listen to terrible karaoke. For what it is, the Matador is cool little spot.
When I bought my Santa Fe sundress at Vive La Femme in Chicago, Stephanie was psyched that I would be spending 6 weeks in Santa Fe. "You have to go to The Matador," she said, and even wrote it down for me on a card. So I came to The Matador with very high expectations. I ended up going on a Monday night, since it was my cousin's birthday. I think I was surprised by how small it was, and that it faintly smelled like incense or bathroom cleaner, which was better than the stink bomb some kid threw in later that night. I was disappointed by the small beer selections, and surprised by the $5 I paid for one Negro Modelo. But then again, this is Santa Fe.
However, by the end of the evening, I could see why The Matador is a new fave among the younger crowd in Santa Fe. The old concert posters, the music playing from the bartender's I-Tunes library, the movie in the background. The Matador has a grungy, dive bar feel that  does not otherwise exist in downtown Santa Fe. Sitting in the nifty little room off to the side on rather comfy benches, I felt like I was in Chicago around Augusta and Western or someplace in Rogers Park. And everyone deserves that low-key hip bar, don't they?
What a great little find in Santa Fe! Â Definitely a dive bar, but clean and very friendly. Â I think the bartender was the nicest bartender by whom I've ever been served! Â Very sweet and appreciative, our service was great all night.
The music most of the night was punk and rock, and they were showing American Hardcore on the flat screen TV. Â Mostly stool seating, there is a small alcove with benches.
There's a great cross-section of folks at this bar - gay, straight, and all different races. Â This is the kind of place I like to frequent, and I'm happy that there is a bar like this in Santa Fe. Â Will definitely be back on future visits!
everyone was telling me about this new bar in town called matador, saying it was just like a small manhattan dive bar.
but its just a regular pure dive bar. it's downstairs in this basement with no windows, an all cash bar, and a crappy tv. no real attractions/reasons to go to the bar. the drinks were middle of the road but in an all cash bar thats hurting. and there are tons of other nice bars right around there (excluding evangelos).
so maybe go to see what it's about, but you prob won't see me there.
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