Late Tuesday, A Muddled Thought tracked down the location of the rumored upcoming tequila bar from Death & Co's Phil Ward. Today we decided to drop by and take a look around and see what the cocktail maven has up his sleeves.
As reported, the place will be called Mayahuel, so named after the Aztec goddess of fertility (the agave plant spouted from her grave). It is indeed owned by Ward, who is no longer at Death & Co., and his partner Ravi DeRossi, a co-owner of Death & Co, Desnuda, and the Bourgeois Pig, and yes, it will be centered on tequila and mezcal cocktails. Ward tells us that while there are a lot of places to drink tequila around town, no one is approaching the spirit with the Death & Co ethos, focusing on quality and well made cocktails over a quantity of offerings.
The bar will feature seven mezcal cocktails, three beer cocktails, two punches, two sangrias, and 11 various tequila cocktails. But this isn't just a bar. No, Ward and DeRossi are in the final stages of hiring a chef. The menu will consist of a number of small plates and tapas, all making a nod towards, natch, Mexico. Ward tells us half of the menu items will be traditional Mexican and the other half with be up to the chef; "I don't want to put the chef in a box," he says.
As for the layout, the downstairs features a bar, two small booths, and a long bench at the entrance, while the upstairs—masked in red lighting—holds a number of low couches and tables. It's compact for sure, but they're making the most of the space. Ward and DeRossi hope to open by the first week in May, but we've heard they're open for friends and family drinks now. File under, game changer.
