Cocktail bar
Unclaimed profileMírate
Los Angeles, CA · $$$
Inebrious
Beverage Program Score
The editorial take
Mírate, a Mexican restaurant and bar on North Vermont where Los Feliz shades into East Hollywood, treats the drink as the load-bearing wall of the room, and its cocktails read like the kitchen's pantry run through a blender and a cask instead of the usual composed-to-the-chef list. El Taquero #2 folds a spiced-gold-rush of pineapple and al pastor honey around asiento y tostada-washed Mal Bien x Mírate espadín with Oaxacan pineapple brandy and Alma Tepec; El Güero pushes the margarita toward an aguachile, building on a nopales granita, coconut and an avocado-washed Don Fulano Fuerte; El Pulquero rebuilds a Gibson from destilado de pulque, pulque vinegar and pulque onions. The backbar is stocked through the venue's own bottling collaborations — Mal Bien x Mírate espadín, the Alambrique Serrano x Mírate rum blend and cask #6, El Tesoro x Mírate reposado and Tromba x Mírate tequila, plus a Satvrnal x Mírate lacto gin — which gives the program a hand in what arrives with each pour. A full margarita bench, a trio of slushies that includes a rum-plus-mezcal two-part build, a clarified coconut milk punch, and low-proof ancestral drinks like nitro pulque and tepache round out a category that has something for a first date and a mezcal obsessive in the same visit. The spirits side leans on the same Mexico-only sourcing — espadín and bacanora, destilado de pulque, a sotol crema, Xtabentún and a Mexican junmai from Sinaloa — and effectively doubles as the raw material for almost every cocktail on the page.
- What should I order?
- Order the drinks the way the menu builds them, from ancestral to big. Decompress with a Nitro Pulque or a glass of Tepache while you read the list, then go straight for El Taquero #2, whose pineapple, al pastor honey and tostada-washed espadín is the most complete expression of the house style. Follow with El Güero if you want the aguachile-margarita idea, or El Tocayo (El Tesoro x Mírate reposado and espadín, house mole bitters, sal de chapulín) for the Oaxacan-old-fashioned direction. The slushies are a real program, not a garnish: Mi Sancho leans into the coconut-pineapple rum colada and El Escándalo // 22 stacks two slushies into a rum-plus-mezcal pairing. For a cleaner finish, the Fruit Cart Gimlet and the Cadillac Margarita with the El Tesoro Paradiso añejo float show the technique-driven side. Mention the backbar and ask about the day's pipe-poured pulque; the venue's own cask selections, especially the Alambrique Serrano x Mírate line, are worth a neat pour before the final round.
- Who will enjoy this place?
- Agave-and-ancestral-drink obsessives are the natural audience: people who want espadín mezcal, bacanora, pulque and sotol in one list, and who will recognize the Mal Bien, Alambrique Serrano, El Tesoro and Tromba collaborations as a signal of a real program. It also works for cocktail regulars who want the tiki-frozen and clarified-punch range, and for diners who want the drinks to carry a full Mexican meal rather than bracket it. Because the bar takes walk-ins at the counter and communal tables first-come, it is an easy room to settle into solo or over a snatched happy hour. It is not aimed at guests who want an exhaustive international spirits shelf or a classicist-only cocktail menu — the entire identity is Mexico-sourced and contemporary.
- When should I go?
- Dinner and drinks run nightly: Sunday through Thursday 5:00-11:00 and Friday and Saturday 5:00-12:00, with the kitchen closing an hour earlier each night, so the bar carries the last stretch of service. Weekend brunch runs 11:00-3:00 and a small-bites window sits between 3:00 and 5:00, which is the quietest opening to drink and snack. The slushies and margaritas make the Sunday-through-Thursday window and the weekend afternoon the most relaxed; Friday and Saturday night are when the room is loudest and the counter fills earliest. Arrive during dinner's opening hour if you want the bar without a wait, since first-come-first-served bar and communal seats go quickly on peak nights.
- What should I expect to spend?
- Much of the current online cocktail menu does not list prices, but a few anchors are explicit: Tepache $6, Nitro Pulque $8, Pasita $12 and the El Escándalo // 22 two-slushy build at $22. The venue's own published record puts the general cocktail range at roughly $17-26 before tax and gratuity, which sits in line with the room's price point. The VINOS DE MEXICO list, by contrast, is fully priced: whites and reds run $17-18 a glass and $68-72 a bottle, the sparkling and skin-contact are $15 a glass and $60 a bottle, and the Sinaloa sake spans $16-25. Budget a second round if you plan to work through the margaritas and slushies, and note the venue's 4% equitable-living-wage surcharge added to each check.
- What makes the beverage program distinctive?
- The drinks are inseparable from the venue's own bottling relationships. Rather than pouring off-the-shelf agave, the backbar is stocked with collaborations the house has with names like Mal Bien, El Tesoro, Tromba and Alambrique Serrano, including an espadín, a repo, a blanco, a rum blend and a cask #6 Oaxacan rum under the Mírate co-label, plus a Satvrnal x Mírate lacto gin. On top of that sits a cocktail list that uses the kitchen's seafood pantry as flavor: an aguachile-and-nopales-granita margarita, an al-pastor-honey gold rush, a pulque Gibson with pulque vinegar, and a watermelon daiquiri built on a three-way distillery collaboration — all finished with house mole bitters and sal de chapulín. The drinks edge further into Mexico-only territory with a Sinaloa junmai, sotol crema, bacanora, Xtabentún and fresh nitro pulque, and the whole thing coheres into one producer-and-agave thesis that few rooms chase this deliberately.
Beverage categories
We only score what a venue sets out to do. Categories a venue doesn't attempt are left unscored rather than penalized.
Cocktails
A destination-grade, Mexico-only cocktail program that treats agave and ancestral drinks as both ingredients and point of view: an aguachile-and-nopales-granita margarita, an al-pastor-honey gold rush on tostada-washed espadín, a pulque Gibson with pulque vinegar, a clarified goat-milk punch on Mexican gin, a full margarita bench, a trio of slushies including a rum-plus-mezcal two-part build, and low-proof tepache and nitro pulque — all finished with house mole bitters and sal de chapulín.
Menu strengths
- — The cocktail list is genuinely original and ingredient-driven, translating the kitchen's Oaxacan pantry — aguachile, nopales granita, al pastor honey, tepache, pulque, chamoy — into drinks rather than decorating a standard template
- — A slate of house producer collaborations (Mal Bien x Mírate espadín, El Tesoro x Mírate, Tromba x Mírate, Alambrique Serrano x Mírate) gives the cocktails an ingredient signature no other bar can copy
- — The range is unusually broad for its size — classic-leaning margaritas, technique-forward clarified punch and gimlet, frozen slushies, and low-proof ancestral pours — so a first date and a mezcal regular never share the same experience for long
Standout selections
- — El Taquero #2 - a spiced-gold-rush on asiento y tostada-washed Mal Bien x Mírate espadín with al pastor honey and Oaxacan pineapple brandy, the fullest statement of the house style
- — El Güero - the aguachile-and-nopales-granita margarita on avocado-washed Don Fulano Fuerte, the menu's boldest kitchen-crossover idea
- — El Pulquero - a Gibson rebuilt from destilado de pulque, pulque vinegar and pulque onions, an ancestral riff you will not find as a standard version elsewhere
- — El Escándalo // 22 - the slushy that stacks Mi Sancho and La Cariñosa into a rum-plus-mezcal pairing, the frozen flight that best shows the range
Pricing: Much of the online cocktail list is unpublished, with explicit anchors only on the ancestral side (Tepache $6, Nitro Pulque $8, Pasita $12, El Escándalo // 22 at $22); the venue's own published record places the general cocktail range at roughly $17-26 before tax and gratuity.
Spirits
A deep, Mexico-only distillate program built through the venue's own producer collaborations rather than a bought-in shelf: espadín mezcal (Mal Bien, San Bartolo), a Mexican rum blend and cask selected with Alambrique Serrano, El Tesoro and Tromba tequilas, bacanora, destilado de pulque, a sotol crema, Xtabentún, a Satvrnal lacto gin and a Sinaloa-made junmai sake — the same sourcing that powers almost every cocktail on the page.
Menu strengths
- — Exclusive house co-bottlings — Mal Bien x Mírate espadín, El Tesoro x Mírate reposado, Tromba x Mírate tequila, and the Alambrique Serrano x Mírate rum blend and cask #6 — give drinkers access to spirit expressions made for this venue alone
- — Ancestral depth is genuine: fresh and destilado pulque, nitro pulque, bacanora, sotol crema and Xtabentún place the program well beyond the tequila-and-repo default
- — Mexico-only sourcing is enforced across every category, even to an unusual Sinaloa-made junmai sake and Mexican-made gin, giving the spirits program one coherent thesis rather than a scattered world shelf
Standout selections
- — Mal Bien x Mírate espadín - the two-agave house espadín that appears in El Taquero #2 and El Tocayo and is the clearest entry to the Mexico-only collaborative backbar
- — Alambrique Serrano x Mírate cask #6 Oaxacan rum - the single-cask house rum that anchors Mi Sancho and the three-way watermelon daiquiri rum
- — El Tesoro x Mírate reposado - the rested tequila at the heart of the house Old Fashioned, offered alongside an El Tesoro Paradiso extra añejo float on the Cadillac
- — Nami Junmai (Culiacán, Sinaloa) - the Mexican-grown junmai sake that stretches the Mexico-only thesis into an unexpected, genuinely distinctive pour
Pricing: Spirit pours are not itemized with standalone prices on the current online menu; the venue's own published record places the overall cocktail/pour range around $17-26, with the Sinaloa sake line priced $16-25 and the ancestral low-proof pours (tepache, nitro pulque, pasita) listed at $6-12.
How it sits with the food
Let the drinks do the pairing work and use the menu's citrus-and-chili core to hold them. The kitchen runs salt-and-smoke-forward Mexican plates — shrimp aguachile, kampachi crudo, grilled octopus, cochinita sopes and a duck-carnitas mole that arrives with a grape mezcal sauce — so bright, chili-spiced cocktails like El Güero and the Fruit Cart Gimlet stand up to the crunch and acid. The mezcal-forward pours (El Taquero #2, El Tocayo) are the natural match for the grilled and smoked mains, and the slushies and margaritas sit easily alongside fried and gooey plates like the crab buñuelitos and tlayuda. The pan de pulque is the bridge: order it with a Nitro Pulque or a pulque cocktail to trace the fermented-corn-and-agave thread straight from oven to glass, and finish sweeter drinks against the chile-palanqueta tamarind cheesecake.
Inebrious does not score kitchens, food or the restaurant overall. We review the beverage program only.
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