Where to Drink Mezcal and Eat in Denver

If you happen to be in Denver and like mezcal, here’s a little roadmap.

Finn’s Manor

From the moment I saw the citrus, frangipanis, pineapple slices and cinnamon sticks floating in the glass bowl like a tropical punch kaleidoscope, I knew Finn’s was going to steal my heart. Come for the punch and the extensive agave spirits program. Let the picnic tables and the food trucks in the large patio keep you for longer.

Curio

Curio is located inside the Denver Central Market, where you can find timeless market anchors (fish market, butchery, bakery), a few eccentricities and one of the best chocolate stores I’ve come across. The convenient part about it is you can order food from anywhere in the market and then sit at the bar. Curio feels like an inviting neighborhood bar— but in the neighborhood food hall, which I guess is a staple of most cities now. They have a list of seasonal standard cocktails for $9 (man, I love drinking in other cities), house cocktails, local beers and wine. I was there during Mezcal Week and they made a white rosita with Vago Elote, Cocchi Americano, Carpano Bianco, and Salers. If you see something similar on the menu, go for it. Brass Tacks is by the same owner and has similar vibes. 

Temper Chocolates and Confections

If there is something that I have a weakness for it’s expensive artisanal dark chocolate bars, but they are healthy for you anyway, right? Temper has an excellent curation of bars from all over the world and will give you samples, so at least you know you’re good putting down $11 for a 62% dark chocolate bar with dates & fennel made in Dubai. They also make inventive truffles in collaboration with local businesses, like the O’Dell Brewing Co cucumber lime gose dark chocolate. In the same food hall as Curio.

Americal Elm

Come here for seasonal neighborhood bistro fare, and definitely for the cocktail menu run by Jesse Torres. There are a lot of drinking options divided into categories like “fresh & lively” and “complex & adventurous” and “boozy & alluring,” similar to my typical mood progression on a date (just missing “sleepy & ready for netflix”). My favorite drink was The Brave: mezcal espadin, tequila blanco, averna, dry curaçao, bitters, served at room temperature. Because of the way it’s served with nothing cold to dilute or mask the flavors, you can easily taste each the ingredients. It was a new cocktail experience for me, and I’m trend forecasting room temp cocktails for 2020. 

Palenque Mezcaleria 

This is a Denver version of a Oaxacan mezcaleria, with brick walls and Mexican leather barrel chairs and agave-dedicated art crawling the walls. Come here for a great selection and knowledgeable staff. 

El Taco de Mexico

There are so many great burrito traditions from California to the Southwest, and one of them that I was eager to try is a smothered burrito in green chile. I grew up on the tightly wrapped mission-style burritos of my hometown and remain partial towards it for my go-to, but I’ve come to appreciate each burrito experience instead of comparing them. I was directed to this counter-service restaurant that probably hasn’t changed since it was opened by Mexico City natives in the 1980s. It’s the kind of menu I love: simple, affordable and many types of pork. The green chile is peppery and sweet but not particularly spicy, and poured over a forearm-sized burrito of your choice (the special is a green chile pork) and sprinkled with melted cheese. I’m not sure if the green chile had anything to do with making a burrito of that size seem light, but I somehow ate that whole thing. It was the perfect hangover cure. 


I didn’t get to go to these places but they participated in Mexico in a Bottle and I liked everything that I ate: Dos Santos, Super Mega Bien, X’tabai Yucateco, and Que Bueno Suerte.

Six more places to eat and drink in Ensenada and the Valle de Guadalupe (with a stop for coffee in Tijuana)

It had been a year since I’d been to the Valle de Guadalupe and Ensenada because clearly my brain was taken over by aliens and I forgot how much I love it there. It’s always the casual decadence that gets me: oysters many ways, an abundance of craft beer options, a morning mezcal with an uni/scallop tostada. It was overcast most days so there wasn’t much of a sunset to see but in a way that’s fitting for Ensenada, where the only measure of time should be your hunger or thirst. Until, if you’re lucky enough to be staying on the water, the sky is dark and the waves soothe your food coma into a good night’s sleep. Here are a few places I went to this time. 

TrasLomita

TrasLomita is like if someone designed a movie set of a restaurant in Valle de Guadalupe: hidden behind vineyards tables sat under fairy lights, cooks casually worked the grills, and water trickled into a lily pad-covered pond, where a little turtle perched on a rock stretched out its limbs as if in a yoga pose. The chef, Sheyla Alvorado, exemplifies the flavors of the valle: produce fresh from the garden, seafood galore, and depths of smoke.

The signature dish here is the chicken with perfectly crispy skin, tender meat (I mean who makes white meat that good?) and the essence of mesquite in every bite. But don’t miss the vegetables here— they’re worked on the grill too and the kale that came with the grilled octopus was silky and crunchy, as if put on the fire and then dipped in a layer of fat. We also started with the oysters grilled with bone marrow, pistachios, and sheep’s cheese melted on top. The dessert was tropical beach meets grandma’s kitchen: arroz con leche, cajeta ice cream and cold burts of guayaba fruit. So basically we kept it super light.

Tacos Fénix

You’ve probably visited this taco stand already as it is known as Ensenada’s best fish taco. In my many times visiting Ensenada I had not been here because my ex-boyfriend makes the best fish tacos I’ve ever had, and at the time had a Baja style taqueria in LA which I ate at constantly. I was always disappointed whenever I had a fried fish taco anywhere else. But not here. I was taking my parents on a beer crawl of Ensenada (read on) and these perfectly battered tacos were a necessary pit-stop. Tacos Fénix is celebrating almost 50 years in operation and it’s no wonder why.

Madre

Between our rum from Michoacan, locally made gin and a great bacanora, we feasted. It’s here where my parents immediately got the vibe for restaurant culture in Ensenada: it’s fine dining but without the pretension, where being a coastal city and not far from the border lends itself to a blend of pride for local ingredients and exploration.

We started with a mixed tiradito sprinkled with local seaweed, and oysters with melted chile tatemado butter. For our main I’m glad we tried the quail as well as one of my signature happy-place meals in the region is a breakfast plate of over easy local quail eggs in Rosarito. The tender meat came with a guayaba mole and a soft quail egg.

My favorite surprise of the night was the gin and tonic, a botanical treat made with TJ-based elmira gin and laced with dill, dried fruits and lime zest (the gin on its own is enjoyable too). They serve an affordable pre-fix meal for lunch, a la carte dinner, and it’s good to know that they are open Monday nights too. 

Cervecería Doble C

A new location for these guys who were priced out of their previous spot on the water, this definitely felt like a work in progress in terms of ambiance. Then again, that’s not usually why people go to breweries. There are picnic tables inside and a terrace overlooking the port on top.

They had three beers on tap: a hazy IPA, a sour mango and the cleverly named Cabrown porter. Ensenada can get cold easily, so a light porter was exactly my mood while the sun set. 

Lucky Irish Pub #4

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve found myself in an Irish pub in a foreign country next to a Bon Jovi poster, under the glow of a Robbie Williams live-in-concert video wondering how the hell I got there (although let’s be honest, probably a cute guy). But the times when an Irish pub has opened up to an oceanside beer garden with taps of the best craft beer in the region? Only once at the totally originally named Lucky Irish Pub. Located off the highway in El Sauzal, if you walk through the original pub you’ll find a garden with 80 beers on tap sectioned by brewery and a kitchen window serving Baja-style pub food (oysters, ceviche tostadas, other non-wing and jalapeño popper things). If you want to sample from Baja’s craft brewers, this might be the best place in the whole area. On Tuesdays beers are 50 pesos.

Savory

This is a health-oriented breakfast place in the same building as Barra D Cafe and Mezcaleria La Penca. I am normally not a hotcake girl because I reserve pancake time for my 4-year-old twin nephews in Topanga, but if you want something healthy and hearty to start your day I would get a verde smoothie and a stack of whole grain hotcakes topped with fruit here. 

On your way out: Pichino’s in TJ

If you read my blog regularly you know that I am a sucker for a cold elaborate coffee drink in Mexico— something about always being hot and in a food coma. There’s a damn good one here called the espresso fizz: espresso, lemon juice, simple syrup, pineapple shrub and soda. It got me through TJ and over the border line after a long day (and weekend) of food and drinks. This is a new spot by the cocktail guys at Nortico, which you should also visit but more on that in another story coming soon.