My husband Matt B. and I went to Fifty Mils at the Four Seasons for a Sunday nightcap a few weeks back. It was the last night of our trip to Mexico City, and we were feeling kind of weird and bummed after a strange dinner in a dead restaurant, not quite ready to retire to our dreary hotel room, but not especially excited to go sit in a weird empty bar. Most bars were closed, and we picked Fifty Mils in the hopes that it would be open for tourists and hotel guests who needed a place to drink. We called ahead--both the bar and the hotel--and when no one picked up, we decided to just head over. We were relieved to find that we'd guessed right. Not only was it open, it was actually kind of lively.
It was a beautiful place--we kept thinking we should've stayed at the Four Seasons instead of the Hyatt Regency; the price difference wasn't even that severe. The bar, like the rest of the hotel's lobby level, was richly decorated, with the kind of bold, tasteful furnishings that only a very expensive interior designer would think to put together. It was pretty brightly lit, but I didn't especially mind, what with the space being so lovely. We got a little table for two and never once had to go up to the bar. Service wasn't super hands on, but it was good enough. We were supplied with two bowls of fancy nuts and a thick bound book of a menu, complete with color photographs.
The cocktails were outstanding, fun and creative and absolutely delicious. We only stayed for two rounds, which means we only tried four of the twenty or so that caught my eye. We started with the Billy the Kid and the Bugs Bunny. The Billy the Kid was a brilliant cocktail, boozy, sweet, and aromatic, made with butter-washed Bulleit bourbon, Zubrowka vodka, caramel tea, saffron and cinnamon syrup, lemon, Angostura bitters, and salt. It came in an tin mug on a piece of charred wood, which got a blast from a blowtorch to release its woodsy scent. The Bugs Bunny was light and whimsical, topped with a nest of sweet dehydrated carrot floss and a couple of lemongrass stalks that stuck out like bunny ears--the "What's up, Doc?" of it all. It was wonderfully tasty, with Tanqueray Ten gin, carrot juice, lemongrass syrup, three chili bitters, fresh cactus, Fernet perfume, and salt.
For round two, we tried another leporine cocktail--the Mr. White Rabbit, made with Tanqueray Ten, creme de cassis, St. Germain, lemon juice, English breakfast, lemongrass syrup, and lavender bitters. This was superb, refreshing and balanced, and it came with a whole test tube set-up that added intrigue to both the presentation and the flavor. The test tubes held strands of golden root, which we were meant to chew to fuck with our taste buds, like the mushrooms in Alice in Wonderland. It worked--this stuff was like Sichuan peppercorn or something, changing the way the drink hit our tongues. The Hot Primavera was also fantastic, a hot drink with Don Julio reposado tequila, caramelized guava, vanilla syrup, nutmeg syrup, rooibos, chamomile, and hoja santa bitters. It was warming and fragrant, served in a satisfyingly earthy heavy cup.
These were world class cocktails, probably the best we had in Mexico City, which is by no means short on craft cocktail joints. At $200 pesos a pop, or between $10 and $11 in U.S. dollars, they were downright reasonable too--a bar of this level, in a Four Seasons in the States, would charge somewhere around double that amount. You might miss the point of Mexico City if you spend all of your time at Fifty Mils, but it's certainly worth a leisurely visit or two, especially if you're in town on a Sunday night. read more