Josef Centeno’s new Downtown Tex-Mex restaurant, Bar Amá, receives early praise today for its libations program, which highlights tequila, mezcal, and Chihuahua’s lesser-known agave spirit, sotol. Digest’s Bill Esparza spies something else unique among the bar’s shelves now in the form of bacanora, a distilled liquor mostly found in Sonora. Both spirits, each specific to separate Mexican states, are made with different agave varietals than the more common Blue Weber, with their hearts roasted for days in earthen pits and tasty profiles with more in common with mezcal than tequila. Esparza, L.A.’s noted Mex-pert, credits bacanora for “a pure, balanced flavor that is superior to any mezcal in town” and calls the featured brand, Cielo Rojo, “worth the trip to Bar Amá alone.” Meanwhile, we’re still holding our breath for a bar with enough cojones to bust out the raicilla. [Digest]
