The Quarters Saloon and Grill

[3/11/13]
I don't know why we haven't been here. I'm not really a snob, but I thought it was mostly for a younger crowd or bikers (of which I'm neither). But after a disastrous experience at another restaurant in town (see review for Grace O'Malley's) we were still thirsty AND hungry!
We walked in and sat down and almost immediately were greeted by our waitress. She took our beer order. We mentioned nachos. She asked, "loaded?" We said yes and off she went. She was back within 6 minutes (not kidding!) with a plate piled high. We told her of our situation and she said, "yea, we get that a lot." What??
Anyway, while I was away from the table the manager brought us salsa ("this was just made by our Chinese chef." Double what??) But it was delicious and added the "just-right" touch to our above-average nachos.
And we met new friends from Houston! This place is conducive for that.
Needless to say we will frequent Quarters when we are back in Ruidoso. Don't be like me and prejudge an establishment--you will miss a true diamond in the rough!

Stopped in for a drink, after having some beers at Dreamcatcher.   Was staying in Ruidoso for the night and was looking for some places to go to.   Ughhhh wish I never had set foot in there.

Its not that I do not like dive bars, some of my favorite bars are rather divey.  This place just seemed a more than a bit sketchy.  Within a few minutes of sitting at the bar, a nearby patron asks me if I have any pot.   And then my Lone Star bottled beer was 4.25!  For freaking Lone Star.  

The other patrons looked rather skeezy too.  Oh well, live and learn.  I think the only redeeming quality I found was that they have a decent selection of beers on tap. But then so does Dreamcatcher, so thats where I will go next time.

Once upon a time, several years ago, Quarters was a blast. I used to look forward to my trips to Ruidoso, so that my friends and I could hang out at Quarters and drink our faces off. They had friendly staff, a jukebox with all the classic rock you could ask for, and good food to boot.

That was several years ago. Now, it's as if a giant jet plane picked up every wanna-be thug in the world, dropped them off at quarters, and switched the jukebox out so that it only plays spanish music and hip-hop. It's a disgrace.

If you must go to Quarters, I'd suggest going during the day. The staff is pretty friendly, and once in awhile some nerdy white girl like myself will put her hard earned money into the jukebox, and you'll be briefly graced with the sounds of Led Zeppelin. While you're nervously sitting in your booth, hoping and praying with all of your might that the "gangsta" in the booth across from you doesn't approach the jukebox, you can ask for a shot of Jack Daniels. The friendly waitress will bring you over a "shot", which consists of the actual cap of the JD bottle half-full of whiskey. Whiskey that goes down real smooth because it's undoubtedly watered down. When you drink your cap full of whiskey and ask the waitress if you can have two more shots, because the first one was rather small, she'll snicker and look at you as though you're a raging alcoholic.

After your three cap fulls of booze, you can eat, but I wouldn't recommend it. I'm pretty sure that the cook is the one who is getting all of the actual "shots", because he surely MUST be drunk when he slops his version of food onto your plate and expects that you will eat it. It's crap, and will make you violently ill. Not sure what happened to the cook they used to have, but clearly, he is no longer there.

Now. Nighttime at Quarters is a whole other story. If hip-hop, horrible dancing, and even worse fashion sense is your thing, then Quarters may just be the place for you. As stated previously, Quarters is a wanna-be thugs dream. Hip-hop music blaring out of the speakers so loudly that you can't even hear yourself think. Obnoxious, drunk, giggly girls who are laughing and screeching so obnoxiously that it will surely make your ears bleed. A bunch of "gangstas" on the dance floor who aren't really dancing, but are doing the whole "lean like a cholo" thing. Lukewarm beer. Rude waitresses. However, the one thing Quarters does provide is an endless supply of photo opps. There's no shortage of girls wearing the ever popular "low-rise" jeans, but aren't wearing the proper tops to go with them. Low-rise jeans and improper tops equals ass crack galore! So you can take photos all undercover-like if you just kind of scoot to the side and have your friends pretend they're taking a picture of you and only you. Same thing for the dance floor. You can mosey on out there and pretend to dance, have your friends pretend to video you, while they're actually videoing the ass hat doing his gangsta dance next to you. That way, you can make fun of him later without getting a cap popped in your ass. Also, you can upload it to YouTube so you can show your kids what they DON'T want to be when they grow up.

Quarters blows.