Meet Daisy, a Modern Cantina for Margaritas and More in the Valley
Consider Daisy, the new margarita bar in Sherman Oaks, an ode to the cantinas of northern Mexico. Brought to you by the team behind Mírate in Los Feliz, it’s the perfect sophomore effort, catering this time to San Fernando Valley locals. An eclectic menu of ceviches, tacos, and large plates are complemented by an extensive cocktail selection featuring — you guessed it — margaritas in many forms, made with techniques unlike anything you’ve seen before.
Step inside the wood-paneled space that formerly housed The Sherman, now warm with green and gold tones. Proprietor Matt Egan worked with California-based interior designer Alexa Nafisi-Movaghar of Adean Studios to upcycle many materials to create Daisy’s upscale vaquero feel. Its walls are adorned with black and white photos, Mexican art, and a touch of taxidermy, all softly lit by fringe lamps overhead. The custom jukebox will soon accept the tokens that arrive with your drink, so you can add your song to the playlist.
At Daisy, the atmosphere is lively, the guests are friendly, and everyone is clamoring over executive chef Alan Sanz’s Mexican menu and beverage director Max Reis’s inventive drinks. Here’s everything you need to know before you go:
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The cantina inspiration is intentional.
Describing a restaurant as merely Mexican doesn’t cut it anymore in majority-Latinx L.A., with its abundance of regional Mexican cooking, and Daisy is no exception. It’s a place that puts the focus on the most popular cocktail in the country (yes, the margarita, according to market research firm NielsenQ), through the lens of a Mexican saloon.
Reis drew inspiration from his many trips to some of the most renowned bars in northern Mexico, such as Dandy Del Sur in Tijuana and Hussong’s in Ensenada. “Sometimes you’ll go to a famous cantina, and they’re by the border and want Americans to come in and drink too, so they’d decorate it for Americans, with taxidermy and jukeboxes,” says Reis. “So the cantina became this perception of [what an American bar is].”
The food menu draws from regional ingredients.
It’s a win-win when the food is delicious and the portions are generous, and the dishes on chef Alan Sanz’s menu, with 70% of its ingredients sourced from Mexico, are both. Tuna tostadas, kampachi ceviche, and scallop aguachile nod to the fresh seafood culture in Ensenada and Sinaloa; while the lamb shank with porky beans honors meat-loving Monterrey.
Of course, there are also tacos, with marinated pork, octopus, or mushrooms cradled in flour tortillas made in-house with wagyu beef tallow. As for the cheese in the queso fundido and quesadillas? Sanz references the European Menonitas (Mennonites), who brought cheese with them when they arrived in Chihuahua, which is also where he sources the highly meltable namesake dairy.
The tequilas are thoughtfully procured.
Like at Mírate before it, only spirits made with sustainable and naturally occuring practices are on offer here, with no chemical additives and no diffusers (a machine used in mass-produced tequilas to extract sugars from agave piña). Unlike Mírate, which focuses on mezcal, you’ll find way more tequilas here, whether for sipping or mixed in your margarita.
What’s more, Reis sources private batches of tequila from distillers with whom he has personal relationships, such as a reposado with El Tesoro called “Danny Shelfman” or an eight-year extra anejo with Tequila Ocho named “Rancho de Carrizal.” You likely won’t find better tequila in the well anywhere else in town, and you’ll find a couple mezcals here that can also be found at Mírate, like the Mal Bien & Mírate Espadin by Victor and Emanuel Ramos in their well.
And while the entire backlit bar is visually pleasing, it’s hard to miss the grid of huge glass jugs filled with each of these tequila batches in the center, complete with taps for easy dispensing. Once a batch is gone, it doesn’t come back, and Reis brings in yet another limited edition from a maestro tequilero.
You’ve probably never seen this many margaritas before.
Daisy was born out of a running frustration Reis experienced while building cocktail menus for other bars and restaurants. Customers were accustomed to ordering margaritas, sometimes flavored, at Mexican restaurants, often overlooking Reis’s thoughtful signature cocktails.
The name here (“margarita” is Spanish for “daisy”) is a reference to the margarita’s history and evolution. “Daisy” cocktails, popularized in the early 1900s, were made with a spirit, liqueur, and citrus. Cocktail historian David Wondrich says that around 1925, a Tijuana bar mistakenly swapped tequila for gin in a daisy; thus giving birth to the tequila daisy, which eventually evolved into the margarita as we know it.
Reis took the opportunity to dig into many variations and techniques to put together a selection of classics and signatures that you won’t find anywhere else. They’re categorized into Cantina, which features customizable classics but also a highball; Mercado, which puts fruits and other seasonal ingredients front and center; and Salsa Bar, where you’ll find the most technical margaritas made with centrifuges and clarifications. (For instance, clamato, or clam juice, is clarified and infused into the Guacamole Frozen Margarita, made with blanco tequila, damiana, and lime for a savory, silky smooth, and refreshingly chilled patio sipper.)
Not interested in a margarita? No problem; look in the section called Not Daisies for drinks that fall outside that format, such as the Chelada, made with aguachile negro, tepache vinegar, Mexican lager, maggi salsa, and mezcal; and their daiquiri, which balances their Mírate private barrel rum blend with lime and sugar.
There are no salt rims.
What comes with a wide selection of perfectly tooled margaritas is the suggestion that customers trust the menu and try them with no salt rims, as each drink is pre-salted for balance. If you ask for a “skinny margarita,” you’ll be privy to a rundown on why perhaps a Tommy Margarita, made with “nogave,” Reis’s proprietary substitute to unsustainably produced agave syrup, will have fewer sugars and chemicals than the so-called “skinny” version you’re used to ordering, anyway.
Pro tip: There’s still more to come.
You’ll want to come back when Gilbert Perez Bar, opening soon upstairs, is ready for action. The space will feature tropical drinks and Mexican rum, pushing what we think we know about Mexican spirits forward even further.
