Exotic nibbles appear on a candlelit table beneath a forecast scripted in neon: “Cloudy with a chance of mezcal.”
On one plate, a spinach tortilla holds octopus bites topped with sweet potato puree, a seed brittle cracker and marigold flowers. Call it the octopus taco.
On another plate, a scallop on a half shell rests on a bed of rock salt, warm butter, capers and chives. Call it French-inspired.
Welcome to The Bar at Mixtli, a small space with colorful hanging clouds and a menu of small plates that hints of the texture and taste – but not the price – of the avant garde cuisine in the Michelin-starred dining room.
The adjacent bar once served the first course of Mixtli’s celebrated seasonal menu. Today it offers creative cocktails and small plates ranging from $4 to $12. No reservations required.
The bar serves as a fitting complement to Mixtli, a Southtown destination with a waiting list that stretches to the second week of April. Unlike the dining room, the bar welcomes walk-ins Tuesday through Saturday, starting at 5 p.m.
The menu of bar bites, which includes salmon mousse and smoked olives, borrows from the dining room kitchen.
“With fine dining comes a lot of scraps,” said chef de cuisine Alex Cabrera. “So we wanted to be able to use the product fully. And by doing so, we can use some of the parts we’re not using for the restaurant at the bar.”
Unused kitchen parts are plated with color and attention to detail. The octopus taco is nearly as vivid and vibrant as the Mexican-themed table runner on which it sits. Then there’s the tostada de suadero, a rich blend of black beans, caramelized onions, suadero, guajillo salsa and cilantro piled on a blue corn tostada.
“All the ingredients that we use at the bar are the ingredients we use in the dining room,” Cabrera said. “The food is a lot more casual here but it still has the same flavors.”
The much-anticipated bar food menu launched two weeks ago.
“It’s alway been something we’ve wanted to add,” said Mixtli co-owner Rico Torres. “It’s part of the next evolution of our program. It’s rolling.”
Mixtli is rolling in accolades. The restaurant recently earned a five-diamond rating from the American Automobile Association and a Michelin star in November. In January, Mixtli was named a James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Hospitality.
Finalists will be named on April 2.
“I try not to think about it too much,” Torres said. “Every year, it’s the same thing. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high but I’m on edge a little bit. At the end of day what matters is the guest and the guest experience for that night. I always worry about that more.”
Worry is perhaps one element that drives Mixtli’s reputation in customer service. MICHELIN Guide Texas named sommelier Hailey Pruitt and bar director Lauren Beckman Outstanding Service Award winners last year.
Under Beckman’s oversight, the cocktail menu changes seasonally with the dining room menu. Magdalena’s Kitchen, a smokey blend of mezcal, poblano, caramelized onion and lime, is a customer favorite. The House Mixtli Margarita, a mix of blanco tequila, triple sec blend, clarified lime juice and salted orange foam, never leaves the menu.
Non-alcoholic options include El Desafío, pickled cherry, lavender, sage and soda water, and Borderlands, nopal, tomatillo, poblano, lime and soda water.
“My zero-proof menu is extremely important to me,” Beckman told the San Antonio Report last November. “I put art into a glass – and that could have alcohol in it or it could not.”
It’s hard not to like the bar, which opened in 2021. The first thing visitors notice is a cluster of clouds, green, purple, blue and orange, suspended above the bar and changing color throughout the evening. The design fits. The name Mixtli means cloud from the Nahuatl language spoken by Aztecs.
“We wanted the bar to have a different ambience than the dining room,” Cabrera said. “It almost feels like you’re floating in the clouds.”
The Bar at Mixtli projects an other-wordly vibe. Dreamy color and elevated ambience. A map of New Spain adorns one wall. Plates of Mexican-themed appetizers rest on a table. The mission of Mixtli is to make guests fall in love with Mexico.
It’s working in the small space next to the dining room.
One bar bite at a time.
