The Room: Fantastic New Mezcal Bar in San Miguel de Allende

Luciano and Ana Sofia Offer a Curated Collection of Delicious Mezcal

A local entrepreneur here in San Miguel de Allende contacted me last year with a question: Did I think the city was ready for a restaurant with a featured focus on mezcal? It could be that because some know me as an avid mezcal maniac, they may also think I have my finger on the pulse of San Miguel’s dining landscape. Not really. This is how I put it…

“You know there’s a pretty serious mezcal bar that’s been open here for over three years, but I’ve only been there twice,” I said with a wince.

My point was that—even someone as maniacal about mezcal as I—hasn’t necessarily been supporting major mezcal spots much. The obvious reason is that I’ve got the best selection of artesanal mezcal I know of. But I’ll admit this brought me to reconsider. Of course the last couple of years have been tough on everyone, and many of my friends and I saw the wisdom in either meeting up at our homes—or at least frequenting a limited 2 or 3 places with which we were very familiar. And we certainly have been going regularly to our beloved Mezcal-Art as I wrote about here.

But I decided I should make an effort to support more local mezcal joints. So Cecilia and I did actually go to the aforementioned mezcal bar a couple of months ago and enjoyed it. Then we heard about The Room Mezcaleria.

Luciano and Ana Sofia, proprietors of The Room Mezcal Bar in San Miguel de Allende

Even though San Miguel has a pretty solid reputation for dining and drinking establishments, the population (about 175,000) may not be great enough to support a place that truly does focus on one thing. In order to survive and thrive, some may find they need to expand into other things too.

But it could be that Luciano and Ana Sofia are experiencing the classic “right place/right time” scenario. My opinion is that 8 years ago—maybe even 4 years ago—mezcal was not enjoying the prestigious glow it is right now. A Mexican friend had opened a bar here that focused on both mezcal AND craft brewed beer around 2014. Sure, I went there all the time, and so did some of my friends. But the manager admitted his frustrations back then. Some gringos liked mezcal and a nice Porter, sure. But not enough of them. And, as he explained, it was mostly younger Mexicans popping in, and they were primarily looking for cheap beer.

It folded. :-/

But I’m delighted to say that both times I’ve been to The Room smack dab in Centro, the patrons have been almost entirely Mexicans, they come with fairly large groups of friends—and they’re into the mezcal!

Ana Sofia y Luciano

Both Ana Sofia and Luciano have only been in San Miguel a few years. He’s from Mendoza, Argentina. She was actually born in Colombia, but adopted by an American diplomat. This meant she grew up in various overseas locations, then lived in L.A. in recent years. They met here in late 2019, fell madly in love and discovered their mutual passion for mezcal.

It only made sense for them to make that pilgrimage to Oaxaca, but they would have to wait until restrictions eased. And what happened when they finally made it there, you ask? Did they merely drink mezcal, enjoy the palenque experiences and consider it a “nice time”? No, sir. They could think of nothing else but coming back to San Miguel de Allende and opening their own mezcal bar.

The Room was born.

The Room’s Mezcales

It’s a funny “problem” to have: my mezcal maniac friends and I primarily buy our stuff straight from the mezcaleros in the campo. I call it funny because I have no doubt that what we get is some of the best stuff anywhere. The thing is…I frequent a couple of mezcal related social media pages, and it seems I’m always reading about the branded mezcales and finding everyone’s comments on them—both in the US and here in Mexico. Certainly we’ve had one now and then, but mostly we don’t feel motivated to try many of them, knowing that at least some of them are going to have that mass-marketed, supermarket flavor.

No mames.

But after trying at least fourteen different distillations at The Room, I now know there are plenty of outstanding mezcales within that branded universe.

(left) Libertador Cirial, (right) Vago Elote Espadín

For our first visit on January 22nd, I started off with the Libertador Cirial. What a way to begin! This was full-flavored and with all the complex characteristics I remember from the few Ciriales I’ve had before. Beautiful!

For awhile now I’ve noticed people posting their thoughts on Vago’s Elote. I found it unusual since I don’t think I’d ever heard of elote (corn) being used in a mezcal. But I’ve heard of stranger things, and maybe this would be nice. Sadly the maestro behind it, Aquilino Garcia, died in 2020; so you’ll notice the one I had was made by “Hijos de Aquilino Garcia.” (Sons of Aquilino Garcia.) I may have detected a bit of roasted corn flavor in there, but can’t say I was ultimately wowed. It did just strike me as a solid, artesanal Espadín.

(left) Macurichos Tepeztate, (right) Macurichos Tobasiche

Also in January I asked my new friends at The Room if they had any lovely Tepextates for me to try. Out came the Macurichos Tepeztate. Baboom! Very nice. When we returned on March 12th, I got to sip Macurichos Tobasiche. Also first rate. I notice Macurichos is based in Santiago Matatlán where we’d just visited in February.

(left) Origen Raiz Cenizo, (right) Noble Indulto Salmiana

I won’t mince words: I am partial to the mezcales of Oaxaca. There, I said it. But Luciano poured me a delightful Cenizo from Durango by Origen Raiz. Nice, complex flavors! One day maybe I should really go to Chihuahua and Durango to see what else can be found there.

Once again I won’t dance around a topic: I have not historically been a fan of Salmianas. It really sucks because I live in the land of Salmianas; they’re everywhere here. But I’m glad to see that once in awhile I find one that stands out pretty well. In this case it is Noble Indulto, which my friend Alejandro Vasconcelos is the co-founder of. Would I like a little more pop than 42%? I would. But it’s been explained to me that Salmianas just don’t have the sugar content of many other agaves; so it’s a bit of a challenge. That said, this is one of the good ones and even recently won an award of being among the best 99 mezcales in Mexico. Congrats, Alex!

I’ve sampled many other expressions at The Room Mezcaleria from Alpha Centauri, Sagrado, Samavel and El Cortijo. What I love about it is that I find their prices very reasonable. Further, if I choose a one ounce shot it is exactly one half the price. I really appreciate that, since I’d rather try as many as possible when I go—and 2 ounce shots means limiting myself considerably.

Then Ana Sofia told me about a new one they’d just received. Apparently a contact of hers mentioned he came across a single case of bottles that had been distilled in 2004—but that had somehow gotten shoved to the back of his cellar! That’s a damn long time in the bottle. She mentioned it was an Espadín/Cuishe ensamble. Nice. Kinda reminded me of my friend Placido’s Espadín/Cuishe I’ve written about before. So she pulled it out and I gave it a go. Mezcales Cosmicos, huh? Great. Delicious. Then I turned the bottle around…

Mezcales Cosmicos’ Espadin/Cuishe (front and back)

WUT?! I had just let Luciano and Ana Sofia try a taste of Placido Hernández’ splendid Tepextate I got while visiting Oaxaca recently. Ana Sofia especially swooned over it. But right there on the back of the ensamble she just served, Placido’s name was clearly spotlighted as the maestro mezcalero! I had to message him, and although it’s been 18 years, he was able to confirm that he made such a distillation at that time. You gotta love it: mezcal is still a fairly small world. I very recently wrote about Placido here…

Final Thoughts on The Room Mezcaleria

As I touched on earlier, there was a time here in San Miguel de Allende when finding really good mezcal wasn’t that easy. Yes, it was possible. The thing is that if you didn’t know precisely what you were ordering, there was a really good chance it was going to be marginal or terrible. :-/

This is NOT the case now.

Even at a growing number of restaurants, there is often a nice list of respectable mezcales. I’m also excited about another friend’s opening of a new restaurant in town with a serious focus on mezcal. We’re still not sure when it will be ready, but “soon” I’m told.

I can’t imagine that The Room won’t satisfy—and blow the socks off of—anyone who is a fan of mezcal. Not long ago I was at a mezcal bar that shall remain nameless. I’m sure there are some people there who know the spirit somewhat, but when I asked the bartender for something really big, beautiful and flavorful, he seriously pulled out a very well known, weak, lame, mass-marketed mezcal. I was stunned.

So what I’m saying is that this will NOT happen at The Room. Ana Sofia and Luciano are true fellow Mezcal Maniacs—and this is obvious upon first meeting them. They seem to enjoy pulling things out they think you’ll like and watching your eyes as you sip!

So you may have noticed I like to extend an invitation to all fellow Mezcal Maniacs internationally to let me know if you’re coming to San Miguel de Allende—as I’d love to have you over for a tasting at my house. I’d still love that. But the good news is that a visit to this town can also include an increasing number of other spots to drink the good stuff. Just more reasons to come! Let me know if you do.