By Joe Bonadio

In 1965, Tomas Bermejo opened his eponymous Mexican restaurant on a sleepy stretch of Geary Boulevard in San Francisco’s Outer Richmond neighborhood. One of the first restaurants in the city to serve a Yucatán-inspired menu, Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant also had a full bar, and that’s where the place was destined to make its mark.

When Julio Bermuja started working at his family’s already-bustling restaurant twenty years later in the 80’s, he brought with him a healthy appreciation for tequila––good tequila, not the corrosive Jose Cuervo that Americans had grown accustomed to drinking. Julio was quick to change up the house margarita, swapping out the curaçao for fresh lime juice and moving to a more expensive 100% agave tequila, Herradura.

The Tommy’s Margarita had been born––and the little Mexican restaurant had positioned itself at the center of what would soon become a tequila revolution. Over the next two decades, tequila would evolve from the stuff of cheap shooters into a world-class spirit, respected on the same level as any.

And Tommy’s had everything to do with it. Their focus on quality 100% agave product, along with their soon-to-be world-famous margarita recipe, would help transform the way tequila was viewed by bartenders and the drinking public alike. Simply put, the drink caught fire here, propelling a cocktail phenomenon that eventually went global. Today, the worldwide tequila market is estimated at $36 billion.

Eusebio Pozos in action at Bourbon & Branch; Pozos recently took over the bars at Cantina Los Mayas and Violet’s. | Photo: Joe Bonadio

In July of 2022, Juve Carrillo opened Cantina Los Mayas on a similarly sleepy block of Balboa Street, barely a dozen blocks away from Tommy’s. Carrillo was on a crusade of his own: he had been working to educate San Francisco on modern Yucatán cuisine, and his Taqueria Los Mayas on Clement Street had already become arguably the best taqueria in a city chock full of them.

And like the Bermujas, at Cantina Los Mayas Carrillo had a secret weapon: Mexican wine.

As the first 100% Mexican wine bar in the United States, the Cantina brought the American dining public something it had never seen before. The Mexican wine industry had languished for years, and like tequila, Mexican wine started out with a terrible reputation here in the states. But in the previous couple of decades, Mexican producers had refined their skills, and Mexico (specifically Valle de Guadalupe, in Baja California) had become one of the hottest emerging wine appellations in the world.

With over 70 Mexican wines girding the most well-rated Yucatán menu anywhere in the Bay Area, Carrillo (along with his partners Vince Lam and Morgan Anderson) had flipped the chessboard––and people were taking notice.

Buoyed by their success, last year Cantina Los Mayas dug in and purchased a full liquor license, adding cocktails, tequilas, mezcals and rare Mexican whiskeys to the mix. Not interested in half-stepping their cocktail program, they recruited a sharpshooter: veteran mixologist Eusebio Pozos, Bar Manager at Bourbon & Branch.

An expertly prepared ‘Cecilio’ courtesy of bartender Eusebio Pozos: equal parts Cynar, Campari and Mezcal. | Photo: Joe Bonadio

Bourbon & Branch are trailblazers in their own right: when they opened in 2006, they introduced a new standard of excellence into the cocktail community in San Francisco. Their rarefied speakeasy ambience was almost eerily dialed in, and it was backed up by some of the cleverest drinkshakers this city had seen in decades. As with Tommy’s and Cantina Los Mayas, the people behind Bourbon & Branch were, and are, pioneers.

In keeping with their overall prohibition aesthetic, Bourbon & Branch occupies an authentically squalid patch of their Tenderloin neighborhood, at the very dodgy corner of Jones and O’Farrell Streets. On a recent rainy evening, I headed down to the TL badlands to talk with Eusebio about his career, and his new role at Cantina Los Mayas. Lightly edited for length and clarity, our conversation is below.

Joe Bonadio (JB): Thanks for taking the time, Eusebio. This place is amazing.

Eusebio Pozos (EP): Thanks, I appreciate you coming.

JB: How did you get into this business, Eusebio?

EP: Well my background is in hospitality; I actually started out in the kitchen as a dishwasher.

JB: Where are you from originally?

EP: Mexico, a very small state called Tlaxcala.

JB: How long have you been here?

EP: About 25 years, I came here at fifteen. I started in this industry by the time I was seventeen, working at Red Lobster in San Bruno. I was there for about a year, then I started bouncing around once I had the chance to move up. I worked in the kitchen as a sous chef, then I moved to front of house when I had the opportunity.

JB: That’s a big jump, from Red Lobster to Bar Manager at a place like Bourbon & Branch.

EP: Well, it took me about 10 years. It was a lot of hard work, and a lot of learning.

JB: What was it that prompted you to get behind the bar?

EP: Well, I was very into chemistry when I was in high school. So when I had the chance to get behind the bar I took it. I was at a great restaurant, a Michelin-starred place: The Village Pub in Woodside. I just started playing with things, and one thing led to another.

JB: And you were good at it. When did you realize that you had this talent?

EP: I guess when I started getting a lot of feedback from my customers. People were really enjoying what I was doing.

JB: So now you’re heading up the cocktail programs at Cantina Los Mayas, as well as the newly purchased Violet’s. How did you meet Juve?

EP: I met Juve through a friend of mine. I have real passion for Mexican wine, and there just aren’t a lot of places that offer it. I had a chance to work with Mexican wines back in 2016, at a place called LV Mar in Redwood City. That’s also where I began to get into the agaves, and started to explore.

I was talking to a friend there, and she mentioned Cantina Los Mayas, and that they had a 100% Mexican wine list. And I thought, I have to see this––because it’s kind of rare to see Mexican wine in the Bay Area, really anywhere in the states.

JB: You know after two and a half years, Cantina Los Mayas still has the only entirely Mexican wine list in the US. Pretty crazy. So it was the wine that first got your attention?

The pork chop at Cantina Los Mayas is a standout item on a menu full of them. | Photo: Joe Bonadio

EP: Yes, and that’s when I met Juve.

JB: At that point, they were already working on their liquor license. I’m guessing when you heard that, you decided this might be your spot.

EP: Yes. We met once, we talked. He mentioned the hard liquor license, and I told him to hit me up when it was happening. And the day after they got the license, Juve called me.

He told me they wanted to stay with their Yucatán heritage, and to keep the bar in keeping with the food and the culture. So we created the menu based on that, and for the bar we brought in everything that we could from that particular state. That includes agave liqueurs, rum and other liqueurs.

JB: As bar manager here at Bourbon & Branch, you’re definitely someone who understands a well-stocked bar. How well do you think the Cantina is doing when it comes to representing Yucatán?

EP: Being from Mexico, and having worked with small brands for the past ten years or so, I’d say they’re doing very well. We’re trying to get our hands on everything we can from Yucatán, so we can show people how many good products actually come from there.

A picture-perfect panucho, always my go-to at Cantina Los Mayas. | Photo: Joe Bonadio

JB: So much of the job is education.

EP: Yes. And trying to support small brands and family companies.

JB: You know, Cantina Los Mayas is right around the corner from Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant, and I think it makes an interesting comparison. Tommy’s was so important for Mexican food in this city, in this country really––and especially important when it came to Mexican liquor; their collection of tequilas alone made them legendary.

They were all about introducing San Francisco to something new, and it seems to me that Cantina Los Mayas is taking that to the next generation, and the next level. Introducing the American audience to Mexican wine, and really elevating the level of regional Mexican cuisine.

EP: Yes, Tommy’s is definitely one of the iconic places, and one of the pioneers who introduced tequila and other agaves to San Francisco. They’ve attracted so much attention, and it has become one of these places that people come to see from all over the country. Just that culture and atmosphere that they’ve created there is amazing.

We’re trying to do something different, but like them we’re trying to get our hands on every product we can. I’ve been working with Mexican wines for about nineteen years, and you can see the difference between 2014 and 2024.

JB: Oh, it’s a big difference. The wines are so much better, just in the past five years alone.

EP: The production is higher now, and the prices are up a little bit. And you’d be surprised to see how much whiskey is coming in; some of it’s good, some just okay. We’re seeing gin, bitter, vermouth. A lot of people travel, and they get to taste those brands. And when they come home, they want to have them again. So we’re trying to bring that to people.

It feels good, to be able to represent someone’s family from Mexico, to talk about them. A lot of them can’t be here, but I feel like they’re well represented, and I’m proud of that.

JB: I understand you’ve also published a book.

EP: I did. It’s for the amateur mixologist, and it’s called Cocktails for Home. I published it during the pandemic when everyone was stuck at home, to benefit people in the industry who were out of work.

JB: Impressive, I’ll have to look for that. Thank you again, Eusebio.

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Cantina Los Mayas
431 Balboa Street
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 571-8027
cantinalosmayas.com