The Finest And Freshest Agave Tequilas Outside Mexico

You’ve got to love people as well as 100 percent agave tequila to appreciate the finer points of Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant & World’s Best Tequila Bar in San Francisco. With just 85 seats in the whole of the hospitality hacienda that dates back to its founding by Tommy Bermejo and wife Elmy in 1965 — and a bar with a grand total of nine stools, that has nevertheless been known to  accommodate four times that number it’s wall-to-wall people and Patrón and Palomas everywhere you look. It’s unpretentious with its five red booths, its linen and its marble tabletops, paintings of Yucatan scenes and its remote location in the Richmond district — a.k.a., the sticks of San Francisco. Yet there is no denying that Tommy’s is something of an insider’s secret to the worldly individuals who have experienced it. By way of reputation, it’s a tequila bar unto itself in the wide world of great tequila and blue agave venues. The tequileria and Yucatan-specialty restaurant that is still managed by Tommy and son, Julio, now the beverage manager, with the help of two sisters, counts customers from every continent except Antarctica. Once, Tommy’s Mexican could boast that its little bar offered the largest selection of the freshest blue agave tequilas outside of Mexico. The distinction no longer applies, but the landmark venue is still a place where patrons can have a one-of-a-kind tequila experience with vintage and legendary tequilas, many of which are so rare that they no longer are being distilled.

The Great Tequila Divide
Beginning with the wall of tequila in the dining room that contains what Beverage Manager Julio Bermejo calls the largest selection of large-format bottles of tequila in the world, and continuing with the backbar itself, customers only see 100 percent agave tequilas when they sit down at the bar. Tommy’s less than 100 percent agaves are hidden away out of sight in a cupboard, along with super-premium bottles of gin, vodka, rum and scotch. “We don’t tell you that we have a premium bar, but we want you to order 100 percent agave here,” Julio Bermejo says. And he adds that patrons who jam the bar at Happy Hour on weeknights and on weekends, when there is a long wait for a table, are only too happy to oblige. “We have 30 to 50 tequilas that are no longer available, meaning that the particular brand is dead or the distillery no longer exists,” Bermejo says. The distinction that sets Tommy’s Mexican apart from other well-known tequila bars is perhaps most apparent in its offering of Patrón. While a tequila
aficionado can get this ultra-popular, super-premium, 100-percent agave tequila almost anywhere in the country, few, if any, venues can boast a supply of Patrón made by the original distillers. “We still have a supply made by them,” Bermejo says. “It’s not that we are saying this is better or worse. It’s just different. We have customers that love (the original) Patrón, and whatever taste profile they had, they got used it. When the product changed, many of them tried it and said, ‘Wow, what is this?’” In other cases, Bermejo says that a marked change in a given tequila also may be reflective of the life cycle of agave itself. “Hornitos is a phenomenal brand,” Bermejo allows. Yet when customers come to Tommy’s, they can try Hornitos just like they made it 12 years ago a tequila that Bermejo describes as a nice, pungent, lowlands reposado that takes patrons back to the early days of tequila distillation in Mexico. “Tommy’s is different,” Bermejo says. “We have developed a true culture of appreciation.” In the aged (anejo) tequila category, Tommy’s features such brands as Don Julio, Herradura, Seleccion Suprema, El Tesoro, Herradura Triada D, Patrón, Cuervo Reserva de la Familia, Chinaco, ’96 Pueblo Viejo, Sauza Tres Generaciones, Gran Centenario and Oro Azul. Among the reposados to be enjoyed at Tommy’s are Cuervo, Tradicional Espolon, El Tesoro Rep, Chinaco Rep, Herradura/Galardon, Cazzadores, Hornitos, El Charro, Gran Centenario, Oro Azul and Don Julio. Tommy’s blanco tequila is limited to a magnificent seven selection of Don Julio, Herradura, El Tesoro, Patron, Gran Centenario, Chinaco and Oro Azul. Consistently, Bermejo says El Tesoro Anejo, Herradura Reposado and Pueblo Veijo Reposado are among his top sellers at the bar. “We also do well with Reserva de la Familia and El Charro Reposado,” Bermejo says. Whether it’s a Margarita, a Paloma or an aged or blanco tequila served neat, the standard 2-ounce pours of tequila at Tommy’s fetch anywhere from $8 for a reposado to $10-12 for an anejo. And Tommy’s more exotic anejos go as high as $350. Patrons in search of authentic Mexican cuisine also are not disappointed by a visit to Tommy’s Mexican, where the menu combines specialties of the family’s native Yucatan with other more universal Mexican cuisines such as tacos.

The Great Spirit of Mexico
Although the bar and restaurant may take a guest back to the days before premium and super-premium tequila were discovered in the United States, the tequila-tasting club that Bermejo started back in the 1980s makes it clear just how much the great spirit of Mexico has come up in the world since then. “We now have more than 7,000 members in the club,” Bermejo says. To reach the first level in their tequila education, members must taste a total of 35 tequilas. And they must try hundreds of tequilas before they graduate to the third and final level. It’s an educational process that can take months or even years, depending on a given member’s enthusiasm. One West Coast professional who joined Tommy’s tequila-tasting club a while back decided to expedite his own graduation by coming in and dedicating entire days to tequila tasting. “He is a professional here in San Francisco who comes in for marathon tasting sessions,” Bermejo says, adding that the patron makes arrangements beforehand to have a designated driver. With 7,000 members and counting as well as a Margarita recipe that Bermejo says is now on the menu of at least 50 top cocktail bars around the world one might conclude that Tommy’s and Bermejo have more than done their part to educate Americans about tequila. Yet to hear Bermejo tell it, his enlightenment of guests in the United States and indeed the world about agave is only just beginning. Scarcely a month goes by that he does not lead a group from his tequila-tasting club on a tour of Jalisco and its lowlands and highlands tequila-distilling regions. Even back home in San Francisco, Bermejo says he has his work cut out for him. “This is the least understood of all the great spirits. People are dying for information. Sixty percent of all ultra-premium sales are still made on-premise. And 94 percent of all tequila-drinking consumers still drink mixtos.” When it comes to tequila, Bermejo is in the know. “Twenty years ago even, when we would visit Jalisco to learn how to sell tequila to customers, no one wanted to let me in the door,” Bermejo remembers. “Now, all of the distillers are offering tours and trips to Mexico. “Now, we are privy to great information. When a distillery decides to create a new product, we are among the first in the United States to hear about it.”