George R.R. Martin’s Fantastical Realm

Who better to ignite our imagination with such a bar as this than the longtime Santa Fe resident and author of one of the most popular fantasy worlds of our time? His as-yet unfinished seven-book series was adapted into eight seasons of HBO’s wildly popular Game of Thrones. Named for the medicinal pain-relieving remedy of crushed poppy flowers that serves as a sort of morphine for the characters in A Song of Ice and Fire, Milk of the Poppy is now the newest chapter in Martin’s fantastical Santa Fe kingdom. 

“We’re imagining what you could get at a medieval apothecary with weird cocktails,” says Sokhang Pan, Milk of the Poppy’s beverage director, of the roughly 300 glittering bottles of spirits on shelves above the rounded bar. “It’s a reinterpretation of things that already existed,” he adds. “We’re focusing on older spirits—Armagnac, pisco, eau de vie—that allow us to imagine what cocktails were available in a medieval apothecary’s time.” While Milk of the Poppy’s original menu of small bites included creative fare such as the Desert Dweller, a ragout of rabbit and rattlesnake, the kitchen is now shifting to a more seasonal approach.

Head bartender Andy Pollack brings me a Paraíso. Exotic and almost too pretty to drink, the unusual, delicious cocktail tastes slightly bitter and not too sweet. It combines arrack with fruity notes of rhubarb, strawberry, fennel, and rose, topped with a thick layer of frothy egg whites. “Arrack is a really old spirit,” Pollack says, explaining that this cocktail is his fresh take on a traditional egg white sour. “It’s postmodern at its finest, taking something old and reinterpreting it.”

Martin has been reinterpreting the historic Railyard District into something more fabulous since 2013, when he bought and reopened the Jean Cocteau Cinema on Montezuma Street. The theater is housed in the same 1910 adobe building as Milk of the Poppy, along with Beastly Books, his bookstore and coffee shop devoted to fantasy, sci-fi, horror, mystery, cross-genre, and speculative fiction. “We want this little pocket of Santa Fe to be a community hub,” Pan says.

A garden patio with 30 seats shared by the theater and the bar overlooks the can’t-miss Sky Railway dire wolf- and dragon-adorned trains, which Martin co-owns. Although the adventure railroad, which offers themed rides on the 18-mile spur line to Lamy, is not a part of the author’s Highgarden Entertainment, which operates the cinema, the bookstore, and the bar, Sky Railway acts as an engine for the entire Martin realm and the neighborhood in general. 

“George doesn’t want the spotlight,” says Sarah Jones, Martin’s New Mexico business coordinator. (Martin declined to be interviewed for this story.) “He’s very grateful to be contributing to the Santa Fe economy and creating a place to grow the arts. He was lucky enough to have had his imagination sparked as a kid, and now this is his gift.”

Martin has been writing for most of his life. “A lot of his early story inspiration was Have Space Suit—Will Travel,” Jones says, referencing the 1950s Robert A. Heinlein young adult novel. His favorite film is the 1956 sci-fi classic The Forbidden Planet. This narrative spirit is not only coded into Martin’s DNA, but it also flows through each enterprise of his Railyard domain. 

“Storytelling is our through line,” says Al LaFleur, creative director of Highgarden Entertainment. 

I ROUND THE CORNER TO THE JEAN COCTEAU CINEMA, where the revelry of Wednesday Punk Rock Karaoke Night provides the soundtrack. Rainbow strobe lights flash through the theater, as brave souls of all ages take the stage with a microphone to belt out tunes by the Cure, David Bowie, and Echo & the Bunnymen with help from lyrics projected onto a large screen. Some of these singers, I’m sure, are finding their courage in the cocktails named after movies at the theater bar in the lobby, where a group of card sharks are dealing Texas Hold’em on Wednesday Poker Night. 

This treasured arthouse offers weekly screenings of cult classics, obscure movies, and new releases, along with events with comedians, authors, artists, DJs, bands, drag performers, and magicians. “It’s a hidden gem,” LaFleur says.

One of the few independently owned single-screen cinemas left in the country, the theater was opened as the Collective Fantasy Cinema in 1976 by a group of local hippies, then renamed by a new owner in 1983 to honor the famous French filmmaker, poet, and artist. The doors were shuttered in 2006. Had Martin not rescued the space in 2013, it likely would have gone dark forever. While extensive renovations added high-tech lighting and comfortable new seats, the arthouse vibe remains. 

Mark Bryant had a front row seat to Martin’s contributions to the Railyard. “When I first moved to Santa Fe in 1994, my office overlooked a largely barren part of the Railyard,” says the editor, publisher, educator, and co-founder of the Santa Fe International Literary Festival. 

Today, the Railyard sees nearly a million visitors each year, providing space for locals and out-of-towners to come together for Saturday morning farmers’ markets, summer concerts, or a craft cocktail. “It took years for the Railyard to become this great neighborhood community,” Bryant adds. “George has played an incredible part in it.” 

I return the next day to hang out at Beastly Books, named for Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film adaption of the French fairy tale Beauty and the Beast and for the television fantasy drama of the same name, which Martin worked on as a staff writer during the 1980s. Opened in 2019, the bookstore and coffeehouse was a natural extension of the theater. “As the cinema started holding author events, the bookstore came to life,” Jones says. 

The shop is filled with sci-fi and fantasy titles, along with games, banned books, and rare, signed, and first-edition volumes. Superfans from near and far visit to secure a signed copy of anything by Martin and to purchase collectible coins from his fictional Westeros continent, sparkling dragon pins, and other items related to A Song of Ice and Fire. 

Dionna Cheatham, who’s read both A Song of Ice and Fire and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms series, has traveled from Richmond, Virginia, to browse the shelves. “I thought, ‘Why not go see George R. R. Martin’s bookstore?’ ” she tells me. “Being in here feels like I’m reading his books again.” 

As patrons patiently wait for drinks, I spot a few otherworldly characters hanging around. The Iron Giant, a replica of the robot from the 1999 film, seems to greet me with a grin as I step into the main room, even though he has no mouth. To his left stands a life-size figure from The Forbidden Planet clutching a ray gun, and a giant werewolf wearing tattered clothing looms in a corner—a nod to Martin’s short story about werewolves, “Skin Trade.” 

Events such as the Wednesday Writers’ Den, book clubs, author readings, and an old-fashioned Saturday morning cartoon hour extend the stories beyond the page. “It’s a reflection of George,” says bookseller and barista Sachi Magańa, “a place to get artists involved and build a community stronghold.”

OUT OF NOWHERE, ROBBERS on horseback gallop up to our open windows on Sky Railway’s Outlaw Express. As the train slows to a stop somewhere in the Galisteo Basin between Santa Fe and Lamy, the guitar player, who’d been serenading us with old-timey cowboy and blues songs, goes silent. All the passengers watch as the riders somehow make their way inside our car in a flash. 

We’re in the midst of a Wild West melodrama, complete with guns, gold, and cocktails. (This is, after all, George R. R. Martin entertainment.) The 1924 Orion Car’s handsome wooden interior matches the Old West storyline. Scenes for Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film Oppenheimer were shot in this car, adding another layer of legend to the themed train ride. It’s one of 23 tours offered by Sky Railway, which include the Stargazer, Speakeasy Express, Pablo’s Holiday Express, and the top-selling Sunset Serenade. 

Investors Bill Banowsky, founder of Violet Crown Cinemas and Nuckolls Brewing Co.; philanthropist Catherine Oppenheimer, co-founder of the National Dance Institute of New Mexico; and Martin founded Sky Railway in 2020 to rescue the historic Santa Fe Southern Railway from the scrapyard. “George didn’t want it to just be a scenic railroad,” says Bryan Deutsch, Sky Railway’s director of entertainment, sales, and marketing. “He wanted to focus on entertainment. He grew up playing with trains and imagining holdups and loved the Wild West, so for him it was one of the first things that he mentioned.” 

Local artist Joerael Numina painted Sky Railway’s two diesel engines in vivid purples and blues, one with a dire wolf and the other with a dragon. “George wanted to take another step, so we got a technician and both engines blow smoke,” Deutsch says. “The dragon roars and the wolf howls.” 

As with each of Martin’s other properties, there’s nothing else like Sky Railway. “The train is something different—immersive and adventurous,” Deutsch says. “It’s an escape from everyday life.”

As I step off the train and head back to reality, I think about something Bryant told me that echoes what I’ve heard from Martin’s fans and the people who make his worlds turn. “People love George not just because of the remarkable books he writes but because of this community he creates,” he said. “It’s a real neighborhood that’s not just about commerce and buying stuff. It’s about having fun and coming together in a community that celebrates art, farm to table, the outdoors. They bring a lot of George’s humor and sense of mischief.” 

Lynn Cline is looking forward to the HBO series based on Martin’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, debuting in early 2026.