Mary's Bar

Several years ago I was doing an art show in Santa Fe, NM. During the week or so I spent painting in the area, I came across the little village of Cerrillos just south of Santa Fe. It’s on the beginning of the Turquoise Trail, so named for all of the turquoise mined in the area.

Cerrillos is a very quaint, little village typical of the Southwest. Heavy Mexican influence in the adobe architecture, iron and or wooden gates in the adobe walls, the requisite Catholic Church, a few artist’s studios, dirt streets and a really cool “old town” district which comprises all of two blocks. Not too many of the places are open anymore except for a couple of antique stores and an old bar. The old buildings and town have been used in several movies however, “Young Guns” and “Vampires” to name a couple of the more recent ones. I did a nice watercolor of what used to have been the old Wortley Hotel.

One of the more interesting “establishments” in town is Mary’s Bar. It is located right on the corner of Main and 1st Street. Mary’s is still open to the public…you might say. Although I’ve been back to Cerrillos several times over the last couple of years, and even did a painting of the building, I’ve never ventured into Mary’s Bar. This time my traveling companions and I decided to check it out.

We pulled our Harley’s up and parked them against the low adobe wall in front. From the outside, Mary’s doesn’t look like much. In fact most people, other than the locals, probably wouldn’t bother going inside. It didn’t even look like it was open. Cautiously we opened the door and peeked inside. There was an old lady sitting at a table right up front. Tim asked her if they were open and she replied, “I’m here aren’t I?” We filed in.

The room was dimly lit, even for a bar and the house keeping was…well let’s just say a bit lacking. A black and white cat walked down the length of the bar to greet us. I asked the lady, “Are you Mary?” “Last time I checked!” she replied. We ordered a couple of beers, petted the cats and chatted with Mary. She’s 95 years old, born in Cerrillos and quite the character. We had a fabulous time listening to her recant her life experiences. Several times she mentioned that she was mad at God because he wouldn’t take her yet.

If you make it down there, don’t expect too much. As Mary repeatedly said, “If you don’t like it, the door swings both ways and you are welcome to leave.”

Here's Sister-in-Law Donna chatting it up with Mary. She was a real hoot.

Kathy and I toasting a cold one to my sister Mary.

Hmmm...he seems to like that.

Yea, OK. I'll be your buddy. You're welcome.

We'll probably be checking back in at Mary's Bar whenever we're down that way. That stop made our trip. Good times. If you do a search for "Mary's Bar, Cerrillos, NM" on google you'll find several YouTube videos and other sites with comments by those who have stopped in. Check it out.