City: Santa Fe, NM

Category: Nightlife

Telephone: (505) 982-2565

Address: 319 South Guadalupe St.

Description: The Cowgirl is Santa Fe’s most visible happening spot, no matter what time of day. It combines a reasonably priced restaurant, bar, and mini-museum as well as an entertainment space for music, comedy, and improv theater. The walls and mantels of the front room are filled with all sorts of western knick knacks and memorabilia. The bar itself is a copper-topped half-rectangle made from barn-board planking with some barstools constructed from tractor seats. Resting their boots on the iron footrest are real cowboys, urban cowboys, artists, bankers, cooks, doctors, EMTs, farriers, furriers, good ol’ boys, and jus’ plain folks. This room also serves as the stage for live music that might be blues, folk, country and western, or rock ’n’ roll. You can hear the music in the large dining room in the back whose glittered walls feature dozens of black-and-white archive photos of honorees inducted into the original Cowgirl Hall of Fame. In summertime, musicians play daily on the spacious, attractive front patio from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Cowgirl specializes in “deep Southwestern barbecue with a twist,” served up by waitresses in full cowgirl regalia. Signature dishes are Texas mesquite-smoked barbecue, although you can find char-grilled fish and veggie offerings here, too, as well as traditional New Mexican chile-based food and a butternut squash casserole. The menu also offers chicken-fried steak, burgers, jerked chicken salad, and other Louisiana specialties. Ranch breakfasts are served on weekends, and include steak and eggs, smoked salmon Benedict, and French toast. In winter, the restaurant opens its Mustang Room—reserved for private parties in the summer—to diners looking for a tonier atmosphere. There’s also a billiards room. The Cowgirl is open Monday through Friday 11 a.m. until 2 a.m. (midnight on Sundays); it opens at 8:30 a.m. for breakfast on weekends. No checks.