The entrance to Mírate is not easy to find. A few steps away from a rowdy sports bar is an unassuming open doorway with candles lighting the way up a steep, tiled staircase.
As you emerge upstairs, the space is unassuming. Until you’re led down another set of stairs into a large atrium where a tree whose string light-wrapped branches form a cozy canopy over the dining banquettes. The effect, prosaic as it might sound, is quite magical. Matt Egan describes what he and Co-Owner Randy Evans were going for, “A transformative experience that is aspirational, atmospheric, and tactile, while still being accessible, comfortable, and inviting.”
Egan and Evans opened Mírate in 2023 with a desire to celebrate Mexican culture. The timing was a challenge to say the least. “LA has been particularly difficult,” says Evans, “because coming out of the pandemic, we then had an entertainment industry strike, which continued to put stress on our market. The environment has just began to normalize in the last three months.”
Mírate's kitchen and bar programs work in concert with each other, presenting authentic Mexican ingredients with a modern and often unexpected flair. Fried chicken is served with black garlic salsa macha, pipián verde, and escabeche; a baby gem salad is accented with hoja santa green goddess dressing, Mexican furikake, and queso fresco.
Echoing the combination of tradition and inventiveness, Max Reis’s agave-centric bar program uses a variety of modern bartending techniques to elevate his cocktails. The Infante margarita includes orgeat made with almonds and the sugar-based Mexican candy called mazapán. La Sonadora is Reis’s take on a clarified milk punch featuring Nativo gin from Mexico. There is even a nitro pulque, giving this fermented agave beverage a fresh, fizzy presentation.
What sets Mírate apart from many other agave-centric bars is the lack of the typical, big-name spirits on the back bar or in the drinks. In fact, the bar program’s original focus wasn’t on rare or exclusive agave spirits, but it was a natural evolution. As Egan says, “It just so happens that the agave spirits that fit within our buying practices are not as well known. As for the exclusive batches, many of those relationships came directly from the producers we work with as well as previous history they’ve had with Max. Because of the volume we do at Mírate, as well as our buying practices, many of them love doing private batches for us.”
Beyond the agave spirits, Reis has brought in Mexican rum, gin, and multiple liqueurs, including the anise-forward Xtabentún and Fernet-Vallet amaro. Sharing these lesser-known spirits with guests is one of Reis’s passions. He approaches his work with an “edu-taining” philosophy. “’Edu-taining’ to us,” he explains, “is in the name—entertaining our guests while nuancing the experience with education. This is a little bit more than simply reading facts about our program; this is using hospitality to create an environment where our guests can come in and feel excited to be introduced to new things, not to made to feel alienated by their lack of knowledge.”
Despite being an agave-centric program, Reis has made a conscious decision not to use agave syrup because most of it is “almost exclusively [made] with mass produced and heavily processed syrup—essentially hummingbird food that takes 5-7 years to produce and tastes like a shadow of the original nectar.”
In order to respect the environment and his guests’ health, the restaurant has created “nogave” using natural and sustainable sweeteners. Both the cocktail community and guests have responded favorably. When you taste Reis’s drinks, you’ll find no noticeable downside.
Reis also makes regular trips to Mexico and has built strong relationships with artisan producers, whose stories he eagerly shares with customers. “It makes our guests feel like this is not just bottles on the back bar, but a hand-curated selection just for them,” he explains, “and it makes the stories of the people behind the bottles feel real and authentic—like a momentary trip to Mexico without leaving the bar.”
When it comes to the bottom line, Egan and Evans recognize that their agave-centric bar concept isn’t typical and that there are inherent risks. “We’ve made the choice to sacrifice a little bit on the margins,” notes Egan, “but to make up for it with the creativity behind our program, which we’re very proud of, and our guests notice.” It's not only the guests who notice—Mírate was recently named to North America’s 50 Best Bars, a mention that took the entire team by surprise.
“We thought it was a joke,” recalls Evans, when they received the notification. “The first message we received we thought it was spam!”
"When the team learned about the accolade,” adds Egan, “we were all blindsided to have made this list. We did not make an effort, and all figured it wouldn’t ever happen for us based on the program we’re running and its relative obscurity when it comes to larger brand recognition.”
Reis sees the award partly as a reflection of “the amount of thought we put into our program, coupled with the effort we put in to actually land ambitious concepts with ambitious execution.”
Of course, every decision a business makes, as well as outside factors, affects its bottom line. Mírate's bar concept is one of many considerations since single-concept programs frequently lead to a higher cost of sales than broader spirits programs. Further, many businesses, Mírate included, have been faced with soaring insurance costs, which directly affect the bottom-line.
Given the sheer size of the space—about 7,500 square feet—and the ambitious nature of the food and drink program, these pressures are felt even more strongly than they might have been for a smaller, less complex business model. Labor costs and staffing are also considerations. “Inflation has obviously been a challenge,” notes Egan. “As COGS go up, our prices follow, however, consumer expectations haven’t shifted along with inflation.”
Despite continuing challenges, the overarching goal is to continue to make an impact in the Los Angeles bar and restaurant community, spreading awareness about sustainable agave practices, as well as a general respect for environmental and ethical awareness in terms of production.
Evans and Egan strive for what all restaurants do. “Healthy growth, having the opportunity to share our new concepts in Southern California," says Evans. "[We want to] develop new relationships and regulars in our spaces, exposing them to fun and engaging dining experiences.”
Seeing every corner of the restaurant full of smiling and clearly satisfied customers, this goal is clearly attainable.
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