The latest cocktail spot from chef/restaurateur/barman-about-town Dennis Leary (House of Shields, Natoma Cabana) is now ready to accept South of Market’s happy hour hordes. Taking over the former home of DaDa at 86 Second Street, Tequila Mockingbird officially opened Thursday with a straightforward menu of “legit cocktails” (Leary’s words) and 14 beers on draft.
Topping that menu of spirit-driven, agave-based drinks is the eponymous Tequila Mockingbird — a riff on the classic Tequila Sunrise. According to Leary, it’s “the kind of drink you would make for yourself when you skipped school and raided your parents’ liquor cabinet.”
Leary and business partner Eric Passetti built out the interior themselves, along with help from Passetti’s dad Mauro, and the vibe lands somewhere between a straightforward dive and a back alley peep show. Since every bar has to have some reclaimed wood, Leary saved a giant door from an old mansion and built a door to nowhere in the middle of the bar. And Leary says he salvaged much of the decor, like the seedy “private” back room loft, from a now-defunct porn store in Los Angeles.
The full cocktail menu is embedded below.
