Tequila Salvation
Now that the weather is finally get warmer, it's time to plan some summertime drinking. Enter The Saint, the new tequila bar/Mexican cantina from Havana owner Quentin Ertel. What was once the ugly (and scary) Wing Dome behemoth is now the soothingly sky blue building at the corner of Olive and Bellevue. Ertel describes his latest social club as:
a tequila bar that would appeal to afficionados of the good life; a place where the grapefruit juice is always squeezed fresh and the pace is a little slower; where the cocktails are built from a library of fine tequilas; where the cocina bustles with cooks making food from scratch. A place where a little bit of extra love goes into everything, an homage to the time-honored process of making one of the finest spirits on earth.
Tequila "library" is right--there's more than eighty bottles on the shelves (ranging from the $5.50/glass Sauza Silver to the $125/glass Don Julio Real), plus a dozen cocktails on the menu. We tried a few: The Angelflower (Patron Silver, fresh mint, cucumber and housemade blue agave syrup) is light and well-balanced, not too sweet or too minty. The Honeysuckle (Sauza Hornitos Reposado with lemon and honey) is similarly smooth, and the Sayulita (Herradura Silver, Campari, and elderflower) made our Campari-loving self very happy. Meanwhile, the To Go (Jarritos Grapefruit soda, lime, and Sauza Hornitos Plata) deserves a Genius Award for coming in the soda bottle itself rather than a glass, thereby ensuring the drink lives up to its name. The cocktails, along with the tequilas, are also available as a flight, a great way to sample three at a time.
Comparatively, the food gets short shrift; the menu has one page of food items to the drinks' four. Our companions weren't too impressed with their carne asada or mole con pollo (both of which were deemed to be "meh"), but we were satisfied by our tiny chicken tacos, accompanied by ample sides, while the pozole verde, a hearty soup of all-natural pork, chicken, and hominy, also got the thumbs up. The guacamole, however, received unanimous praise. Our table devoured the dip, which was tangy and fresh, with just the right amount of bite. As one member of our party stated, "I don't even like guacamole, but I can't stop eating this." Eat, drink, and pray to The Saint for summer to arrive soon.
