1 of 1 Photo: AFP
Cantina Los Mayas in San Francisco is the first restaurant in the nation to serve Mexican win exclusively. Juventino Carrillo is the owner of Cantina Los Mayas and the idea of the restaurant stemmed from him wanting to bring awareness that there are Mexican wineries
"I had no idea there were Mexican wines. We drink a lot of wines from Napa but being able to experience Mexican wines has been great," said one customer.
Carrillo owns many taquerias in the bay such as Taqueria Los Mayas and first started introducing people to Mexican wines there by asking customers if they would like to try some Mexican wines. Selling an expensive bottle of wine at a fast food joint would not mesh well so Carrillo teamed up with his brother and other associates to open the restaurant. He looks at his childhood for inspiration, where he grew up in the mountains of Yucatan, on what the menu would look like at Cantina Los Mayas. Some of the dishes at the restaurant include: braised ducks in pipian, lamb shank seasoned with smoked pepper sauce and a whole fish in a mango and habanero pepper cream sauce.
"The key to Mexican food is the sauce, so pairing it with wine is amazing. You can compare it with French reduced sauces or Italian tomato-based sauces. But here we use sauces made from spices," said Carrillo.
The restaurant also has a list of over 60 wines where some of them come from Valle de Guadalupe, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi, Casa Madero and Queretaro. Click here for more.