La Punta Expendio de Agave holds one of the largest agave spirit collections in Italy behind a tiled bar on Via di Santa Cecilia 8, a three-minute walk from Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere. The team behind the Jerry Thomas Project opened it to do for mezcal what their speakeasy did for pre-Prohibition cocktails in Rome.
Who would love it: agave obsessives, taco-driven drinkers, and anyone tired of Trastevere's interchangeable aperitivo terraces. Who would hate it: drinkers who want a Negroni in a quiet room, since the soundtrack and the salsa picante both run warm.
Via di Santa Cecilia sits on the quieter, eastern side of Trastevere, away from the bar-crawl chaos around Piazza Trilussa. The basilica of Santa Cecilia anchors the block, tram 8 stops five minutes away on Viale di Trastevere, and the street stays calm enough that the bar's warm windows read as the only invitation you need.
The room
Colorful Mexican tiles face the bar, the lighting stays low, and the back room seats diners working through the kitchen's tacos and tostadas. Food writer Katie Parla covered it as a rare serious Mexican program in Rome, and the World's 50 Best Discovery index lists it as a destination bar for the city.
What to order
Start with a mezcal flight to understand the depth of the back bar, then move to the house margarita or a Paloma built on grapefruit soda. The kitchen's tacos and tostadas are not an afterthought, and ordering food early keeps a long agave evening upright. Salt and citrus arrive properly, never as garnish theater.
Cocktails sit in the 10 to 14 euro band, fair for a specialist room of this stock. Romeing's reviewers point to the bar staff's tableside guidance as the best way through the espadín and tobalá bottlings.
Who it is for
A night that starts with tacos and ends three mezcals deep. A drinker mapping the Jerry Thomas family tree across Rome. A date in Trastevere that avoids the piazza crush without leaving the neighborhood.
Best time to go
Doors open at 6pm nightly and the kitchen draws the early crowd, so the 6pm to 8pm window works for a calm flight at the bar. From 8pm onward the room fills and holds until late, with last call around 2am. Reserve for weekend nights through the bar's booking page.
The crowd
Dinner hour brings diners who came for the kitchen and stay for a first mezcal. From 10pm the room belongs to Rome's bar industry and agave converts, many of them sent across the river by the staff at Jerry Thomas. Trastevere's usual aperitivo circuit barely overlaps with this crowd, which keeps the room more local than its postcode suggests.
Couples fit naturally at the tiled bar. Groups should aim for the back tables and commit to sharing plates.
What regulars say
Katie Parla's coverage frames it as the rare Rome bar treating Mexican food and agave spirits seriously rather than as decoration. Romeing's reviewers repeat the same advice as the regulars: skip the cocktail list on a first visit and let the bartenders build a flight from the back bar instead.
The practical notes recur across Tripadvisor: the room is small, weekend walk-ins wait, and the kitchen's tacos sell out before the bar slows down.
See its position in our best cocktail bars in Rome ranking and its row in Rome date night bars. Pair it with Jerry Thomas Speakeasy across the river or Freni e Frizioni ten minutes north, or browse cocktail bars near me.
