Mezcal is huge right now. Mezcal and tequila, the two agave-based cousins, are now the most purchased spirit in the U.S. by value — more than our homegrown whiskey — with mezcal sales expected to grow from $1.47 billion last year to $2.39 billion by 2030.
A quick explainer: To be called tequila, the spirit must be distilled only from the blue agave plant, which grows in Jalisco and a few other places. Manufacturers can add other sugars — cane, fruit, grain — up to 49%. Mezcal can be made from any species of agave, but it must be 100% agave. Oaxaca is mezcal’s home base, though it may come from elsewhere.
The flavor of artisanal mezcal, made by small producers in small batches, is very dependent on “terroir.” Flavors will vary based on which other crops are growing amongst the agave, the molds and insects that invade the fermenting mash, the types of firewood or vessels used in the production process, different waters added from springs or rivers, different yeasts in the air. Contrary to what you read, the flavor is not necessarily smoky, though some are.
Guanajuato natives José Granados and Sandra Haro are making the most of this moment that mezcal’s having with their eponymous spots in Ferndale, which launched in 2022, and Midtown, which opened in the former Savant space over the summer. Sandra said she and Granados chose their mezcals to give guests a good selection of the different types of agave, such as cuishe and tobalá, and one of the distillation variations, pechuga, which involves a raw chicken breast. Most are from Oaxaca.
At the Detroit location, I didn’t try the mezcal flights because (a) it would have broken the MT’s budget and (b) confession: despite a dozen trips to Oaxaca and many, many attempts, I’ve never learned to like the stuff. Call me a philistine, I don’t mind. Instead I tried a Dead Sea Mule, but even the lime, grenadine, and ginger beer didn’t completely disguise the gasoliney taste of the mezcal. I admire the aficionados who can wax poetic about reposado, añejo, pechuga, jabalí, and the rest. Try it, you might like it. Almost all the restaurant’s cocktails are made with mezcal or tequila.
The food menu includes familiar items and some that are less so. Since you’re paying top dollar at a non-Southwest Detroit Mexican place, you should go for the latter.
The Mezcal Soup (which does not include mezcal) went immediately on my list of “best things I ate this year.” The creamy (because of sour cream) golden broth is full of shredded chicken and avocado slices that almost melt. Like every dish I tried, it has just the right amount of zip, not enough to burn you. A second soup, Sopa de Lima, is also good, with shredded chicken, lots of flavors going on, and the astringent lime is the kicker.
If you’ve been to Mexico you’ve seen people lined up at stands in the town square in the evenings, buying elotes: corn on the cob slathered with mayo, crema, cotija cheese, and chili powder. Mezcal Mexican does esquites, which is the same with the corn scraped off the cob into a pretty bowl; it’s a bit sweet with a kick, recommended.
An empanada was much more highly stuffed than the usual, well-fried, with a good salsa. All three of the house salsas are complex, especially the grassy salsa verde and the just-right “mild.”
I was less enthusiastic about a taco al pastor for $4.50, the price you’d pay for three elsewhere — and it included only one little tortilla. I’ve had better. There are 11 tacos to choose from and some sound interesting, like a fish taco with beer butter, but no way am I eating a taco on a flour tortilla.
You can get nachos if you must. Or potstickers, described as “Oriental tortilla.”
There’s also a Torta Ahogada (drowned), where the sandwich is actually soaked in a thin tomato sauce — a Guadalajara specialty. I’ve never seen the attraction, but it’s authentic.
We tried Aguachile de Ribeye, six ounces of fatty (in a good sense) beef atop cucumber slices with red onion, which uses an unusual spice combination. Aguachile is usually a soupy shrimp and chiles dish, so here the chef is riffing.
I was happy with a generous “Mole Dish,” which includes three gorditas (thick fried tortillas), but instead of being stuffed, they are topped with a giant mound of shredded chicken and dressed with a delectable sweet-spicy mole from a Mexico City recipe.
A memela, or toasted cake, was interesting for its size — 12 inches across. I think of memelas as little snacks — often they’re called memelitas — and not likely to be so upscale as to include meat. The thickish masa is pinched up on the sides like a pie crust, and filled with beans and cheese. These came with chewy steak and plenty of cotija.
For dessert I was tickled by a sweet corn ice cream that had been frozen in a mold to look exactly like corn on the cob, served on a corn leaf. Tres leches cake, big enough for two, was not the best I’ve had; I like my tres leches to be pure rich dairy, no cinnamon. Arroz con leche and flan are other possibilities.
The Mariachi Mexico 2020 quartet plays every other Sunday and they are a treat — really good voices, and they take requests.
The other Mezcal Mexican is at 201 E. Nine Mile, Ferndale. Its menu as of this writing was quite different from Midtown’s.
Location Details
Location Details
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