Botonica’s menu explores Latin tradition’s function in cocktail historical past.
In Houston, we brag about our variety. We’re proud to be made up of all totally different cultures, and we’re fortunate it bleeds into our meals scene. Irrespective of the place you might be within the metropolis, you’re certain to discover a restaurant or bar that represents your roots. And now, with new River Oaks spot Botonica, Houstonians can discover Latin American tradition like by no means earlier than.
Proprietor Alexis Mijares beforehand made a reputation for herself honing a number of bars’ cocktail packages, in addition to along with her personal pop-ups, the Cursed Cauldron and Jingle Bell Bar. Now she has a everlasting area to showcase her unapologetically genuine expertise as a Mexican American by means of the artwork of cocktails.
“Botonica is impressed by my heritage, being Mexican American,” she says. “It’s additionally impressed by the fruits of my total profession. I needed to make an area that was one of the best of each worlds.”
At Botonica, Mijares’s mission is to place Latin excellence on the forefront of conversations, by means of drinks that educate company on the very important function her tradition performed within the historical past of cocktails. To assist her do that, she’s created three totally different menus: the home menu, la huella liquida (the liquid footprint), and el camino de la margarita.
“At the start, I’m a storyteller,” she says. “By means of a bar, we are able to inform a really lovely liquid story.”
The home menu is crafted with what Mijares says are considerate choices for all clients. You’ll discover boozy stirred drinks, citrusy and refreshing takes, and even some alcohol-free choices. The opening menu threads familiarity with distinctive Latin spirits that Houstonians could not know existed.
The Desert Dove is available in a cup that resembles a Moscow Mule.
Take the Desert Dove, for instance, which is as if a Moscow mule and a Paloma had a child. It combines Singani 63—a Bolivian brandy—with Ketel One, St. Germain, guava, grapefruit, lemon, and ginger beer. The Desert Dove introduces Houstonians to the South American brandy, whereas additionally utilizing a mixture of recognizable elements. One other is the Chamuyera, which mixes Zacapa rum with extra acquainted elements like espresso, banana, amaro, dulce de leche, and coconut.
However Mijares warns that company shouldn’t stroll into Botonica at all times anticipating the identical home menu. The plan is to modify it about twice a 12 months—one for spring and summer time, one other for fall and winter.
And who doesn’t love a great margarita? Botonica has created primarily a menu-within-a-menu with el camino de la margarita, exploring the drink’s evolution with 9 totally different cocktails. It begins with a brandy daisy, then strikes into some traditional recipes, and ends with the Millionaire’s Margarita. The ultimate drink is made with Patrón Gran Burdeos, Grand Marnier 100 Cuvee, lime, and gold leaf.
La huella liquida is the biggest menu of the three. It takes company on a journey of Latin drinks, all the best way again to the 1600s. It’s a group of over 50 traditional cocktails that Mijares and her workers have pinpointed as very important to telling the story of Latin America’s affect on the drinks. Whereas it incorporates acquainted cocktails like a Paloma and mojito, it additionally consists of the Pisco bitter, which is made with Pisco, a Peruvian spirit distilled from grape juice, in addition to lemon, lime, sugar, and an egg white.
“We’re actually excited to have [the customer] discover, as a result of I do know we’re going to present folks a few of their new favorites,” Mijares says.
To precisely piece collectively every menu, Mijares says she spent about six months researching. You would discover her deep in a e book, on the web researching away, or reaching out to the hospitality trade for assist. She jokes that due to all of the work she did with menu creation, the coaching materials for her workforce resembles a dissertation. However it’s finally her love letter to the tradition.
The mini Sonoran canine come wrapped in bacon and are topped with black beans, salsa verde, crema, and pico de gallo.
Botonica’s meals menu equally blends consolation with pan-Latin inspiration. Take the caviar and chicharrones—Mijares says the previous is a cocktail bar staple, however to present it a Latin contact, they serve it with chicharrones and masa blinis. Different dishes to stay up for embody the rajas con crema—roasted poblano and onion with Oaxacan cream sauce—and mini Sonoran canine, which come wrapped in bacon and topped with black beans, salsa verde, crema, and pico de gallo.
“One thing that I believe lacks in bars is once you consider going someplace, you both assume I will go someplace for actually good meals after which I can get a drink, or I can go get a very good drink, and I would be capable of get some meals.” Mijares says. “I would like this to be an area the place folks assume, OK, we’re gonna get actually good drinks and actually good meals.”
And the storytelling doesn’t cease with the drinks and meals. Mijares, alongside her pop-up accomplice Angelique Prepare dinner-Cavazos, created an area that blends gothic, moody, and classic parts with greenery and crops; they name the design “tropic-goth.” And Mijares says the bar’s design emulates all the pieces that the title Botonica represents. She jokes that when naming the bar, folks had been asking if she knew spell, however she guarantees that it’s all intentional as a result of it’s really a play on the phrase “botanica.” The second half of the phrase is modified to incorporate “tonic,” as a pun on its goal as a cocktail bar.
“You get the darkish mysticism vibe of a botanica, however we’re promoting drinks, so there’s like that double entendre in there,” she says. “That’s form of the place the title [came from] and that additionally then actually helped us pinpoint the design imaginative and prescient [of] the area.”
Botonica’s inside design is supposed to present off a topical goth vibe.
As Botonica will get settled into its River Oaks neighborhood, the plan is so as to add extra programming like dwell jazz, bossa nova, and burlesque, in addition to Tini Tuesday. And though the idea is new to Houston, Mijares says this mission has been on her thoughts for practically seven years.
Mijares first acquired into the bartending area when she moved to Austin in 2013. She jokes that she comes from very humble beginnings—her first job was in a shot bar on Sixth Avenue. She then went on to work at a number of bars there just like the Roosevelt Room, Midnight Cowboy, and the Mexican restaurant Suerte.
With a decade below her belt in Austin, and a while right here and there spent in Tulum, Mijares moved to Houston in 2021 to assist reopen Alba Huerta’s bar Julep. Her work helped the bar win the James Beard Award for Excellent Bar in 2022. That very same 12 months, she additionally earned it a spot on the inaugural 50 Finest Bars in North America record.
Finally, Mijares determined it was time for her to do her personal factor and branched out into the pop-up area with some festive-themed bars. In 2023, she debuted the Cursed Cauldron, which combined witchcraft with cocktails. Its success allowed her to not solely carry it again final 12 months but additionally open up a Christmas-themed pop-up dubbed Jingle Bell Bar. Each had been held within the former Aero Cocktail Co., which is now Botonica’s dwelling.
After seeing the success of Mijares’s ideas, coupled with an ending lease, Aero’s homeowners approached her to see if she’d wish to take over the lease and transfer right into a everlasting area. In fact, it was a no brainer—the chance meant she was lastly seeing her dream come to fruition.
And if you happen to’re upset about not having the pop-ups, Mijares says she isn’t able to say goodbye to these, both—Botonica will now act as a everlasting dwelling to each.
“We wish to give folks the complete expertise,” she says.
