Two happy hours we keep returning to.

Two happy hours, two different missions. We use them for different parts of the trip and different kinds of evenings, and between them they cover most of what you'd want from a Santa Fe afternoon-into-evening drink stop.

Skyfire at Bishop's Lodge is our favorite happy hour spot in Santa Fe — discounts on delicious bites and drinks, available Monday through Friday, 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM. The view is the reason. Bishop's Lodge sits in the foothills just north of town, and Skyfire's outdoor space looks back across the Tesuque Valley toward the Sangre de Cristos. On a sunny afternoon, with a margarita and a couple of small plates, it's about as good as outdoor drinking gets in this town.

The afternoon move — and we mean it specifically as an afternoon move — is to roll up between 2:30 and 3:30, sit outside, order one of the cocktail discounts and a couple of the smaller bites, and let the day slow down. Pair it with a morning hike at Sun Mountain or Atalaya, then drive up to Bishop's Lodge for the cool-off. By the time happy hour ends at 5, you're recharged for whatever the evening is.

Dinner for Two, near downtown, is the upscale evening one. Wednesday through Sunday, 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM — a slightly later window that bridges into the dinner hour. The discounted menu pulls from their full kitchen and bar, which means you're getting actual upscale food and cocktails at meaningful savings, not the standard happy-hour-meaning-bar-snacks that some restaurants do.

We use Dinner for Two as the dinner that doesn't want to be a full reservation. Show up at 5, order two small plates and a couple of cocktails per person at happy hour pricing, and you've had a dressed-up dinner without the full sit-down commitment. It's also the right move on a night where you don't want to drive — both houses are close enough that you can grab a ride into town and back without losing the night to logistics.

Together they cover the spectrum. Skyfire is the sunset-in-the-foothills, view-and-margarita afternoon. Dinner for Two is the upscale-but-flexible early evening. Neither requires the planning that a full Sazon or Geronimo reservation does, and both deliver something specific.

Practical notes. Skyfire's happy hour is weekdays only — easy to forget that the great view is closed on weekends for that price. Dinner for Two's window ends at 6:30 sharp; arrive by 5:30 if you want to actually order at the discount. Both are seasonal in their outdoor configurations — Skyfire is outdoor-first and shifts indoors in winter; Dinner for Two has its full setup year-round.

Pair them across a single trip rather than treating them as either-or. They're not the same evening. They're two different uses of the same idea — that the right Santa Fe afternoon is two cocktails and a small plate somewhere with a view, and the right Santa Fe early evening is two cocktails and a small plate somewhere upscale.