Sunday, May 03, 2009 | Food, Wine, Beer & Spirits, Q&A
Genius in a bottle

A closer look at Agave’s smartly chosen tequila bar

By Hope S. Philbrick

Craving a margarita? Head to Agave, where the margaritas have won multiple awards—including “Best Margarita” by Sunday Paper readers and “Best Cocktail in Atlanta” by Access Atlanta readers—and the bar menu offers a tantalizing array of interpretations. Agave, which opened October 2000 in the historic Cotton Mill general store, is an eclectic southwestern restaurant with an impressive tequila collection. To learn more about its tequila bar, we recently talked to Managing Partner Tim Pinkham.

What distinguishes Agave’s tequila bar?

A We have the largest collection of tequilas in the city. All are 100 percent blue agave. We started with 30 to 40 different tequilas and built up over the years. We have just about every fine tequila on the market. It’s been good luck for us that we were growing our selection just at the time that tequila became the hottest liquor on the market.

    Of course, any good tequila bar will have a good margarita, and we pride ourselves on having the best in the city.

How do you decide which tequilas you’ll offer?

Quality. There are probably 1,000 tequilas on the market. We want only 100 percent blue agave tequilas. We’ll taste them, try them in our margaritas and decide from there [by] looking at packaging, price point and value. We want great tequilas that our guests will enjoy and that our staff will enjoy selling.

    Our staff is very knowledgeable about tequila. They know all the different aspects that go into making tequila. We have an extensive training process that includes tasting.

What’s the most popular tequila?

There’s not just one, more like five to 10. We encourage our staff members to sell what they like. There are some the staff agrees on, including Don Diego Santa, Fina Estampa, Corazon and Herradura, to name just a few.

    Folks may order a well-known tequila, and our staff will encourage them to try something they may never have heard of—a more artisan-style boutique tequila—to help educate guests about all the different tequilas on the market.

What’s the biggest misconception about tequila?

That tequila is something that should be drank ice cold with salt and a lime as a shooter. Or else used to make a very strong cocktail. There’s an association with tequila of going out and getting drunk at a wild scene, but there are tequilas that are served in a snifter and sipped like a fine scotch or bourbon or cognac. It’s really becoming more elegant.

Tequilas can be aged in charred oak barrels, whiskey barrels, bourbon barrels, port barrels and so on, which gives a wide variety of different flavors besides what you get from the agave plant.

Is a margarita still the most popular way to drink tequila?

Yes. But different drinks made with tequila—like pink lemonade, mojitos or cosmopolitans—are starting to take off. Tequila is finding its way into drinks that were previously made with either gin or vodka.

    We’re best known for our margaritas, and 90 percent of the tequila we sell is in the form of a margarita. In addition to the 10 margaritas on the menu, we’ve got specials that servers can suggest. What makes our margaritas so great is the phenomenal quality of ingredients, not fancy techniques.
   
Every month or so, we put on a multi-course tequila dinner. We’ll get a sponsor, such as Don Julio or Don Eduardo, to feature their tequila and that we’ll pair with each course. SP

Agave is located at 242 Boulevard SE. For more information, call 404-588-0006 or visit www.agaverestaurant.com.