There's Something About Espita Mezcaleria

One of the highlights of each month for me is girls’ night with a great group of ladies. We started back in October of last year and haven’t missed a month since, which is pretty huge considering how hard it can be to align schedules with friends at this stage of life. We tend to hit up some of DC’s hottest restaurants during our monthly catch ups. Sometimes, a place makes such a big impression on me that I just have to take Tom back to try it, which is exactly what happened with Espita Mezcaleria in Shaw.
The space is edgy and cool with street murals on the walls and light streaming in from the windows.
While I typically bemoan fancy Mexican restaurants, Espita’s a distinct point of view won me over. The restaurant brings something new to the table with a focus on Mezcal, tequila’s smoky sibling, and Southern Mexican cuisine highlighting the flavors of Oaxaca.
You’ll find some of the usual suspects, of course, like chips and salsa and guacamole. Salsas are $3 each and range from mild to very spicy. Portions are small, but the flavor is concentrated. The guacamole is delicious, but I found the scoop to be meager for the $11 price tag.
The fresh heirloom corn tortilla chips are not to my usual chip preference (I like them thin, flaky and borderline greasy) but still have an addictive quality. All of the salsas I tried over the course of two visits were delicious, I don’t think you can go wrong regardless of which ones you choose.
But don’t waste all of your pre-meal energy on chips and salsa; the drink menu beckons.
Espita’s cocktails may taste different each time you visit, as they rotate between difference mezcals. On my first visit, the Guajillo was a standout. I’m not sure what type of mezcal was used, but it had no smoky notes to it at all, one of the things Espita is aiming to highlight with their incredibly diverse mezcal offerings. When I returned with Tom, we sampled three cocktails and all of them were much smokier. While I enjoyed both versions, I think the smokiness has a tendency to dwarf the rest of the ingredients in a drink.
On to the food, which I must admit was hit or miss for me. I liked the short rib sopes, with tender meat and fresh, lively flavors but wished the masa tartlets had been slightly less tough.
We tried the smoked eggplant sopes as well, and again I was turned off by the dry masa tartlets. The eggplant was very well cooked, but the flavors didn’t quite work for me.
My friend Unmani enjoyed the crab tlayudas sans tortillas, creating a protein-rich and healthy salad with perfectly ripe avocado and sweet crab.
On the taco front, I enjoyed the lamb barbacoa option thoroughly on my first visit and the pork jowl when I returned for round two.
The lamb was more of a standout to me than the pork (above), but both delivered with their hearty, chewy corn tortillas.
For mole, Tom and I tried the chichilo, beef short rib served with avocado leaf, tomatillo and guajillo.
The dish was beautifully presented, but I wanted more mole and in that mole, more flavor. While I am far from a mole expert, I felt that it could have been richer and more complex. It tasted more like a thick salsa roja than any mole I’ve ever had, but with six other mole options on the menu perhaps we just chose the wrong version. The meat on this dish, and every other that I tried, was cooked impeccably. Where Espita tended to fall short, for me, was in the spice level and nuance of ingredients.
I was also a little perturbed by the dainty portion for $26, especially because the moles were described as the only thing on the menu large enough to share. I may be a little too hard on DC restaurants for their price points (we’ve all got rent to pay), but when you enjoy dining out as often as we do it’s hard not to notice how far your dollars stretch.
If you’re looking to enjoy Espita on a budget, I highly recommend starting with an assortment of salsas (no guac) and sticking to the meaty taco selections. The sides are another good deal, the portions are big and shareable for around $5. We particularly enjoyed the plátanos and yuca frita.
Service as Espita is quick and efficient, maybe to a fault. Dishes arrive quickly and with little chatter from servers, but if you have a question they’re happy to help. On our girls’ night dinner, one of the shortest we’ve had by far, our check arrived before all our plates had been cleared and we were not asked if we wanted additional drinks or a peek at the dessert menu. It’s a buzzy restaurant, and tables are hard to come by, so I can give that a pass. The restaurant is still pretty new, so hopefully they’ll settle into things a little more as time goes on.
Despite a few small complaints, there’s still something about Espita Mezcaleria that captivates me. Maybe it’s the almost-too-cool vibe (this restaurant would not sit with me in the middle school lunch room) or the incredible slow-cooked meats and hearty tortillas but I have a feeling I’ll be back for more, especially now that they’re serving brunch – hello chilaquiles!
Espita Mezcaleria is open for lunch, brunch and dinner and accepts reservations. Try them out on Mondays for their Taco Takeover night. Tonight’s event will feature fried catfish tacos from Chef Jeremiah Langhorne of The Dabney.