Los Angeles has quietly become one of the best cities in the world for mezcal. The combination of a massive Mexican-American community, an adventurous drinking culture, and bartenders who actually visit Oaxacan distilleries has produced a scene that puts most other cities to shame. These are the best mezcal bars in Los Angeles — the ones worth your time, your palate, and your Uber fare home.
The Best Mezcal Bars in Los Angeles Right Now
LA's mezcal culture has moved well beyond tourist-facing margarita menus. The bars on this list carry serious agave programmes — espadín alongside tobalá, tepextate, and madrecuixe — with bartenders who can actually tell you where the maguey was grown and who made it. This is LA drinking at its best.
01
Mezcalería Humo
Silver Lake$$$Low-lit / Intimate
The best mezcal list in Silver Lake, full stop. Humo operates like a serious agave library — over 80 expressions organised by producer and village, with tasting flights that are genuinely educational rather than perfunctory. The space is narrow and dark, lit mostly by candles and backlit bottles. Go on a weeknight if you want a seat at the bar and a proper conversation with the staff about what you're drinking. Their house-made tepache pairing is a stroke of genius.
Order: The Oaxacan flight (three 1oz pours of producer-specific espadín, tobalá, and seasonal expression)
02
Casa del Maguey
Highland Park$$Neighbourhood / Welcoming
Where Highland Park locals actually drink. Casa del Maguey doesn't take itself seriously in the pretentious sense — the music is loud, the crowds are mixed, and the prices are reasonable for what you're getting. But the programme behind the bar is thoughtful: the owners travel to Oaxaca twice a year and bring back small-batch bottles that never make the distributor lists. The mezcal mule here, made with house-fermented ginger beer, is one of the more quietly brilliant cocktails in Los Angeles.
Order: The Maguey Mule — house ginger beer, lime, espadín, and a pinch of sal de gusano
03
La Brasa
Downtown LA$$$Moody / Industrial
La Brasa occupies a former tile warehouse in the Arts District and leans into every inch of it — exposed concrete, low amber lighting, and a back bar that's essentially a floor-to-ceiling mezcal altar. The cocktail programme is technically ambitious without being showboating: smoke, acid, and fruit are used precisely, not just for theatre. Best visited after 9pm when the kitchen crowd has thinned and the bar fills up with people who are there specifically to drink.
Order: The Brasa Sour — mezcal, hibiscus, lime, aquafaba, finished with a spritz of mezcal from a small atomizer
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Beyond Espadín — Where to Find Rare Agave Expressions
The serious agave drinker knows that espadín is just the beginning. These next picks are where you go when you're ready to graduate to the more obscure varietals — the wild-harvested tobalá, the slow-growing tepextate, the smoky madrecuixe. These bars know exactly what they're stocking and why.
04
Agave Moderno
Los Feliz$$$Refined / Modern
The wine bar model applied to mezcal. Agave Moderno seats 28 people, operates on a reservations-preferred basis, and its menu reads more like a sommelier's notes than a cocktail list. Each mezcal entry lists the agave variety, village, producer, and distillation method. Order the tasting menu — five pours with pairing notes — if you want to understand why this bar has become a destination for visiting distillers and agave specialists. Not cheap, but nothing here is wasted.
Order: The five-expression tasting — ask for the non-espadín-only version if available
05
El Copal
Echo Park$$Neighbourhood / Late Night
El Copal does two things very well: it stocks mezcals that you won't find anywhere else in LA, and it stays open until 2am on weekends. The bar is unpretentious in the best way — a short concrete counter, a few booths, and a rotating list of about 40 mezcals that changes as bottles are finished and new ones arrive. The owners have good taste and genuine relationships with producers, which means the weird and wonderful stuff shows up here first. The paloma here uses fresh grapefruit pressed to order.
Order: A neat pour of whatever rare expression is chalked on the board — the staff will guide you
06
Sotol House
Koreatown$$Eclectic / Buzzy
The only bar in Los Angeles with a dual focus on mezcal and sotol — the less well-known but equally fascinating distillate from the Chihuahuan desert. Sotol House started as a mezcal bar and expanded its scope as the owners developed an obsession with sotol producers in Chihuahua and Durango. The result is a list that's unlike anything else in the city. The food programme — a short menu of Oaxacan snacks — is designed specifically to pair with agave spirits rather than overwhelm them.
Order: The mezcal-sotol split flight — three mezcals and two sotols, with the bar's own tasting notes
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Mezcal Cocktails Done Right — The Best Bars for Mixed Drinks
Not every mezcal drinker wants to sip neat. These bars have invested in cocktail programmes that treat mezcal as a genuine base spirit rather than a novelty — using it with the same care a great whisky bar might apply to bourbon.
07
Milpa Bar
Culver City$$$Polished / Seasonal
Milpa is the cocktail bar equivalent of a farmers market: hyper-seasonal, ingredient-led, and deeply serious about sourcing. The mezcal selection is curated to around 25 expressions — none of the mass-market stuff — and the cocktail menu changes monthly based on what produce is available. The Culver City crowd skews creative-industry, which keeps the vibe sophisticated without tipping into stuffy. The bar food — a changing selection of small plates — is excellent and designed to drink alongside agave, not fight it.
Order: The seasonal mezcal negroni variation — always on the menu, always different
08
La Milpa Taquería & Mezcalería
Boyle Heights$Casual / Authentic
The only entry on this list where you'll find truly cheap mezcal alongside some of the best tacos in the city. La Milpa is a taquería first and a mezcalería second, which means the atmosphere is bustling, the prices are low, and nobody's going to judge you for ordering a second round of chapulines tacos with your drinks. The mezcal selection is smaller than the other spots here, but every bottle was chosen with care and the margaritas — made with unaged espadín — are outstanding value.
Order: A mezcal margarita with fresh lime and a chapulines salt rim
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The best mezcal bars in Los Angeles have earned their reputation honestly. This is a city where the community is close to the source — Oaxaca is two hours by plane, and the cultural connection runs deep. If you're visiting and want to understand the range of what agave spirits can be, start with Agave Moderno for the education, then take yourself to El Copal or Mezcalería Humo for the experience of just drinking something brilliant in a room full of people who feel the same way.
Book the flights and the tasting menus in advance. The neat pours, happily, are walk-in only.
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