15 Best Tequila Places to Drink Tequila Around the US

If booking a trip to Mexico is out of the question, these bars and restaurants are your next best option

No matter how you drink your tequila — sipped, in a shot, with a side of fried chapulines, or stirred into a Oaxacan Old Fashioned — there are plenty of great places in the country to do it in.

And not all offer the same salt-rimmed margaritas and standard bottle offerings. One serves vintage bottles from since-passed mezcaleros; another organizes bottles by agave type, allowing drinkers to compare and contrast different species. Others make creative cocktails that let mezcal, bacanora, raicilla, or pechuga shine. There are high-fi bars for drinking many, many margaritas and dim and divey cantinas with stellar selections of rare mezcals. One commonality: all of the following bars are very fun places to enjoy tequila. Thirsty? We thought so. Here are the best places to drink tequila in the United States.

Adiõs (Birmingham, Alabama)

By Mexico City standards, this is a great bar. Tropical plants fill the space, the cocktail list is full of unique agave cocktails, and the walls are covered in antique Mexican stained glass and prints from Arch.Oax, a Oaxaca-based mixed media artist. But the thing is, this Mexican accented bar isn’t in Mexico at all: it’s in Alabama.

Mexican-born owners José Medina Camacho and Jesús Méndez managed to transplant the music and energy of the Mexican capital into this Birmingham tequila lounge. Vibes are transportive, the bottle list is long and the cocktails are creative, like the Miel de Maguey, a tequila-based martini riff, or a mule spiked with tajin and chamoy.

Suerte (Austin, Texas)

Helmed by Food & Wine 2021 Best New Chef Fermin Nuñez, Suerte’s drink menu also  earned the team  a James Beard beverage program nomination this year, and is organized by agave type in an effort to educate drinkers on the diverse flavors each species offers. Like your agave spirit with smokey, roasted notes? Let them introduce you to agave angustifolia. Prefer your sip more tropical and floral? There are seven different bottlings made with agave cupreata. Once a month, explore agave further via their monthly mezcal field guide dinner series, which serves dishes from a specific state alongside pours of agave spirits from that region.

Tommy’s Mexican Bar & Restaurant (San Francisco, California)

The co-owner of Tommy’s, Julio Bermejo, was appointed the Ambassador of Tequila for North America by the CNIT, and has been sharing the gospel of high-quality agave spirits ever since. His bar is constantly packed, but who is surprised - it's where you can order the original Tommy's Margarita, created by Julio himself in 1987. He cut out triple sec and added in agave nectar —- the same plant tequila comes from — to make a bright, fresh, and now-classic margarita. Try one sip, and you'll understand why Tommy's Margarita is made the world over.

Rreal Tacos (Atlanta, Georgia)

Rreal Tacos’ bottle selection lists out over 200 tequilas and 100 mezcals. But skip passed the bigger names to the cache of nicher agaves, like tobala and wild-grown ciushe, and alternative agave spirits, like sotol, bacanora, and raicilla. Beverage director Arturo Salgado’s personal favorite bottlings include G4 Extra añejo, a tiny-batch Jalisco tequila with notes of citrus and white pepper, and Siete Leguas’ rich, vegetal añejo.

La Cava del Tequila, Epcot Center (Disney World, Florida)

If you need a respite from funnel cakes and ride lines, veer over to Epcot’s dedicated tequila bar. The Mexican Pavilion watering hole has one of the largest collections of tequila in the world, all of which are offered in the form of tastings, flights, and specialty margaritas (including a frozen blackberry margarita created by Neil Patrick Harris). For $150, a certified tequila ambassador will guide you through any of the above. Don’t skip the complimentary fried chapulines.

Picos (Houston, Texas)

This Lonestar State institution houses hundreds of bottles of agave spirits within its walls, and many are exclusive to the restaurant. Buy a bottle from the restaurant and store it in one of the 60 private lockers in Picos’ private tequila room;. every time you visit, settle in and your selection will be brought tableside for you to enjoy in a Riedel tequila flute, over a large ice cube, or mixed into a margarita. Picos also happens to be the birthplace of the shaker margarita.

Escondido (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

Hidden inside Centro, a laid-back taco joint in Minneapolis, is a teeny 14-seat agave lounge with avast selection of mezcals. The menu is organized by agave types (almost a dozen, including potatorum, marmorata, salmiana, and karwinskii) that you can explore in single sips or in the form of a flight. The latter includes verticals of tequilas, an exploration into pechuga, infusions, or specific agaves, or a tour through regional spirits like bacanora, sotol, and raicilla. Come in for a drink, or sign up for one of agave expert Todd Mulhair’s educational tastings to brush up on your espadins and ensambles.

Stellar Adventures (Scottsdale, Arizona)

While not a physical bar, Scottsdale-based Stellar Adventures brings an agave-sipping experience of sorts to a rugged trail surrounded by agave plants. Start by taking an ATV or Hummer tour of the Sonoran desert, then wind down with a guided tequila tasting where you can enjoy the spirit neat or in margaritas. Plus, you’ll get to try diabla-spiced shrimp and consome-dipped birria tacos from the nearby Cien Agaves Taco & Tequila

Caviar Kaspia (New York, Los Angeles)

“They have an excellent selection of caviar and one of my favorite all-time pairings is Joven tequila and caviar,” says Bertha González Nieves, CEO and co-founder of Casa Dragones. “It’s an elegant way to celebrate a birthday or any special day.”

Bad Harriet at Hotel Jerome (Aspen)

“There’s no better place to enjoy apres-ski or sunset sipping thanhere,” says Nieves. “Hotel Jerome continues to innovate, with Mexican bartender residencies and plenty of pop-ups.” She finds the  multi-course cocktail tasting menu exceptional, though this also happens to be a great venue for sipping something special neat.

The Cabinet (New York, New York)

From the mind of Greg Boehm (Cocktail Kingdom, Katana Kitten) comes a tiny agave bar with over 400 mezcals and just six-or-so bar seats. Located in the former Mace space, expect great cocktails and excellent exploratory mezcal and tequila flights highlighting hard-to-find bottles, including a pechuga made with venison and fermented desert plants, as well as a mezcal made from agave convallis harvested on cliffsides. The vintage mezcal list includes some of the last bottles distilled by legendary producer Don Larenzo Angeles Mendoza before his death in 2016, and bottles from the ‘90s by agave botanist Agustin Guendulain (both $34 for one-ounce pours).

Palo Santo (Atlanta, Georgia)

Ordering up agave cocktails and matching Mexican plates certainly isn’t a bad idea at this sceney supper club, but the real draw is the tequila and mezcal cart that circulates the dining room. Flag it down, and beverage director Antonio Morales will walk you through pours, pair them with what you’re eating, and then serve up your pick in a classic margarita or simply straight alongside your choice of a scorpion, agave worm, cricket, or orange slice garnishes.

Bar Lula (New York, New York)

This bar from the folks behind  The Wayland and Goodnight Sonny boasts a full agave book, peppered with everything from dozens of Del Maguey bottlings to a Bozal pechuga made with a Ibérico ham hanging in the still. There are dozens and dozens of bottles for every flavor preference, or if you prefer, there are creative cocktails like a Toasty Negroni (pineapple-infused mezcal, sesame oil campari, cocchi, and pineapple) or a Mexican Mai Tai, with mezcal, martinique rum, avocado orgeat, and coconut.

El Carmen (Los Angeles, California)

This Los Angeles institution is over 50 years old, and offers more than 400 different tequilas and mezcals, including incredibly rare bottles picked up over the last half-century. Dark and divey, the walls are papered with Mexican wrestling posters, the menu is packed with carnitas tacos, black beans and rice, and margaritas, and tequila flights are curated to whatever you’re craving.

Mexican Sugar (Dallas, Texas)

The 200-bottle-deep tequila list at Mexican Sugar can be overwhelming. To help you keep track of every one, Mexican Sugar introduced a dewey decimal system-led agave library. Browse through selections, then ‘’check out’ a bottle, and receive a library card. Track the date you drank it, write down your tasting notes, and compare and contrast your notes with those from previous guests.

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