Customers watch a bartender do magic under the cloud at Mixtli. Credit: Ron Bechtol

When the prestigious Michelin dining guide issued its first Texas edition last fall, its sole San Antonio star went to Mixtli, Southtown’s purveyor of “progressive Mexican culinaria.”

Mixtli — a Nahuatl word meaning “cloud” — focuses on regional Mexican cuisines with one eye on culinary and cultural history and another on the future. No surprise that the current menu, Mexico 1848, was already fully booked for March at this writing.

My advice: get on the mailing list.

Suggestion number two: drop by Mixtli’s adjacent bar. It’s as inventive on the cocktail front as the kitchen is at the food frontier and reservations aren’t required. Also, a modest re-do has made the small space more user-friendly — no longer do patrons seated at the bar feel like a kids with their chin on the grownups’ table.

As with the food menu, the cocktail list changes seasonally, providing an excuse, if you need one, to indulge frequently. An earlier visit introduced me to Nixta, a Mexican Licor de Elote, or corn-based spirit, that uncannily both tastes and smells of masa and has been on my own back bar ever since.

Hanging out in a closet of mine is The Smoking Gun, a device I bought a few years back that may need to be hauled out again due to inspiration provided by Mixtli’s Smoked Manhattan. But even having the gun at the draw, I’m more likely to order the drink here due to its other specialty preparation: fat washing.

No, this is not a new form of liposuction but rather a process in which a fatty substance (bacon is popular when paired with bourbon) is melted, stirred with a spirit, left to infuse, then frozen enough so that any congealed fat can be strained off.

In Mixtli’s case, the fat is corn butter, which is “washed” in both tequila and mezcal. The drink is brought to you under a glass dome swirling with smoke — yet another reason to order this at the bar. When the dome is lifted, smoke does indeed get in your eyes, but more importantly makes itself known on the tongue. There’s not a molecule too much or too little.

Once the air has cleared, more subtle flavors of plump corn and pungent mole bitters emerge. It’s a beautiful drink and definitely not your abuelo’s Manhattan.

The smoky vegetal notes in Magdalena’s Kitchen come about a little more naturally as a result of mezcal and chamomile — perhaps abetted by caramelized onion. Caramelized onion, you say? My thoughts exactly. I’m not sure how they achieved this — more infusing, perhaps. But the sweet and pungent onion flavor does come through, subtly, all balanced by lime, poblano and a salt solution scented with masa. Again, be happy to let the pros do this one.

The prettiest drink of the evening was El Libre, based on tequila and rum. Not a combination I usually think of as obvious. In the “drink to me only with thine eyes” sense, the electric ruby color first attracts, followed by a transparent shard of melted sugar and a proudly large ice cube “branded” with the Mixtli cloud logo. Sage and blackberry, a handsome pair, dominate the taste spectrum, with lavender shyly following behind. I’m not sure what the jocoque — it’s usually a kind of sour cream — contributes. Maybe a tad of lactic tang. But as the drink was crystal clear, Mixtli might have employed some clarification trickery. I’ll spare you the details of that process. Whatever the mixological magic, the drink was perfect down to the last, by-then-pale-pink, drop.

Among the other drinks that caught my attention was the Miner’s Coffee, using the above-mentioned Nixta, Mexican whiskey and Licor 43. Think Carajillo with more depth and finesse.

But even the diehard boozehound would do well to examine the list of non-alcoholic drinks. It’s among the most artful and appealing I have seen anywhere. The “aromatic, tangy, effervescent” El Desafio, for example, combines pickled cherry, lavender and sage with sparkling water. And the Poetic End, served warm, marries hibiscus with yerba buena, rosemary, lemongrass and agave. Got to be good for you.

There’s also a small but thoughtful wine list with a few Mexican bottles.

The response when asked about bar snacks and small plates was “coming soon,” which has been the case for some time now. When management gets its head out of the clouds long enough to deliver, the Bar at Mixtli stands to become star-studded in its own right.

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This article appears in Mar 5-18, 2025.