Biting limes, licking salt, and tossing back tequila shots may have worked fine back in college, but Mexico’s centuries of agave tradition deserve more respect. These Southern bars and restaurants let you savor additive-free tequilas, mezcals as silky as they are smoky, and lesser-known alternatives like sotol, bacanora, and raicilla, along with cocktails well beyond the margarita.
Adiós Bar
Birmingham, Alabama
Cofounders José Medina Camacho and Jesús Méndez both came to the United States from Mexico as young children in the mid-1990s, so they’ve grown up with a changing agave scene. They opened the cocktail bar Adiós in 2022 to bring the flavors of Mexico City and beyond to Birmingham, including a robust selection of agave spirits and even house-made tepache, a lightly fermented, low-alcohol pineapple beverage.
What to order: Camacho likes to first steer the tequila curious to a pour of añejo, served neat. “A lot of people who are new to the agave world have a misconception that it’s abrasive,” he says. “When tequila sees a little oak, it rounds it out. You’ll get more notes of fruit and honey.”
Suerte
Austin, Texas
Suerte is an acclaimed restaurant on Austin’s East Side, with a cookbook and a Michelin Bib Gourmand that it earned in 2024. But don’t sleep on the agave-heavy bar list, which covers tequilas, mezcals, destilados, sotols, and raicillas, as well as rare lechuguillas from northern Mexico and bacanoras from Sonora. The bar even stocks high-proof bottles, such as Ocho Puntas, that hew closer to the 1949 Mexican standards, which required tequila to be a minimum of 45 percent alcohol by volume.
What to order: The Soraya cocktail is a mouthful of flavor, blending mezcal and blanco tequila with sweet vermouth, amaro, mole bitters, and the chipotle-like smoked red jalapeño called chile morita.
The Story of Mi Cariño
Charlotte, North Carolina
When Hector González-Mora and Vince Giancarlo decided to launch Mi Cariño (“My Darling”), the chefs’ new gastro-cantina and mezcalería, beverage director Henry Schmulling was ready. He’d been traveling in Mexico for years, and while he’s struggled to get all of the bottles he wants, the list now boasts around two hundred, including rarities like pechuga mezcals—distilled with spices, fruits, and proteins.
What to order: The Carajillo Carousel blends Spanish Licor 43, cold-brew concentrate, bitters, and saline with your choice of spirit, including mez-cal or tequila. Schmulling likes to add Fernet-Branca to his.
Las Almas Rotas
Dallas, Texas
Calling Las Almas Rotas “a shrine to the spirits of Mexico,” owner Taylor Samuels says his focus is “one hundred percent Mexican spirits, from north to south, east to west, everything made in Mexico.” That also extends to Mexican gins and rums. Flight selections offer an excellent introduction to agave’s range, and the bar also hosts private guided tastings in its Spirits Room. Or sign up for regular Agave 101 classes.
What to order: Samuels centers his cocktail menu on classics, so consider a Negroni made with Rey Campero artisan mezcal from Oaxaca, sweet vermouth, Campari, and mole bitters.
Patria Mezcalería
Atlanta, Georgia
Chef Octavio Aguirre Ruiz hails from a family of agave farmers in Jalisco. Opened in 2023 as Pata Negra (a childhood nickname from his black feet after walking in agave fields), his mezcalería in Midtown recently changed its name to focus on family and tradition, and his extensive collection of Mexican spirits aims to tell the story of his homeland’s culture. “Our goal is to educate,” he says.
What to order: Who says mezcal can’t play well with others? The Hasta La Raiz cocktail combines joven (young) mezcal with Mexican rum, piloncillo (unrefined brown sugar), and chocolate bitters. “We try to use all Mexican ingredients.”
Still thirsty? Keep reading:
>> Spicy Serrano and Cucumber Margarita
>> Viva la Margarita! How Mexico City Is Redefining the Ubiquitous Cocktail