Luis Carlos finishes pouring a drink at Ayahuasca Cantina in Dallas, Texas on Thursday, November 4, 2021. (Emil Lippe for The Advocate)
An Oak Cliff bar landed on Esquire’s list of 42 of the ‘best bars in America.’
Ayahuasca Cantina, a bar and restaurant hidden behind coffee shop Xamán Cafe on Jefferson Boulevard, earned high praise from the publication. Writer Omar Mamoon writes that this Dallas bar reminds him of Bósforo, a “moody mezcal bar in Mexico City.”
“Both establishments feature a dark, tall-walled, candlelit space where the music is loud yet the ambiance remains effortlessly chill,” Mamoom wrote. “The back bar is lined with a bunch of bottles—mezcal and tequila, of course—but the move is to begin with a flight of the less popular sotol, the grassy-flavored distillate that comes from a plant in the Chihuahuan Desert in Mexico.”
Ayahuasca opened in 2020 and is a Latin American cocktail bar, influenced by southern (Oaxaca, Michoacan), central (Mexico City), and northern (Chihuahua) regions in Mexico. It can only be accessed through a large wooden door in the back of Xamán Café.
Reservations can be made at Ayahuasca, which sports table and bar seating. On Fridays and Saturdays a full dinner menu is offered, but on other days of the week an “elevated cantina” menu is served.
How did Esquire find this hidden gem?
“We always try to seek out bars that are hidden and less obvious, as well as get recommendations from a city’s bar community,” Mamoon said. “Ayahuasca was on my research list, so when a local bartender also recommended it, I knew I had to try it.”
Esquire’s list of 42 bars includes three more in Texas, all in Houston’s Montrose neighborhood. There’s the natural wine bar Light Years, Little’s Oyster Bar, and Refuge.
