Down a cobblestoned street in San Miguel de Allende’s Centro neighborhood is a narrow house with a bright blue double door. Use one of the horse-shaped door knockers, and you’ll be ushered inside La Casa Dragones, which just might have the coolest cocktail bar in Mexico. Last year, small-batch tequila producer Casa Dragones — whose bottles appear on the shelves of the world’s top bars and restaurants, including Enrique Olvera’s Pujol, in Mexico City — did a substantial renovation that transformed it into a luxury tasting venue.
Long before it was a place to sample high-end spirits, the property served as a stable for Mexico’s legendary Dragones cavalry, who ignited Mexico’s independence movement in 1810 (and served as inspiration for the name of Casa Dragones). The space still honors that legacy — the redesign, led by Mexican architect Marco Martinez Valle and New York–based studio Meyer Davis, made use of the house’s original stone walls and wooden doors.
Casa Dragones also tapped Mexican artists like Héctor Esrawe, who created a towering light fixture for the building’s three-story staircase, to enliven the interiors. The centerpiece, though, is the bar, which gleams with tiles made of black volcanic-glass stone, taken from the brand’s agave fields in Jalisco.
Douglas Friedman/Courtesy of La Casa Dragones
This homage to Mexican materials and terroir was important to Casa Dragones’s CEO, Bertha González Nieves, who created the label with MTV founder Bob Pittman in 2009. That same year, she became the world’s first female Maestra Tequilera. (This, the highest title in the industry, is awarded to the person who defines a brand’s tequila formula and production.) “I am committed to bringing the best of Mexico to the world,” she says. “I hope that’s what my legacy will be.”
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González Nieves was inspired to find a career distilling and promoting tequila when she participated in an international youth exchange program sponsored by the Japanese government. She was tasked with traveling throughout Mexico to learn about the country’s culture, including agave cultivation.
Casa Dragones produces no more than 500 cases at a time, and each batch is made from blue agave plants that were selected and picked by hand. “Our appellation of origin is the oldest in the Americas and one of the most respected around the world,” González Nieves says. Employing a technique called pepita, or “little seed,” artisans use a grinding stone or wheel to etch the image of an agave plant into each handcrafted bottle.
Douglas Friedman/Courtesy of La Casa Dragones
Tastings of the brand’s four sipping tequilas are offered at the 12-seat bar. They’re paired with small plates, such as mushroom tostadas topped with avocado mousse and serrano. Private dinners and cocktail receptions can also be arranged. (Currently, the Casa is available for overnight stays by invitation only.)
One offering that has special resonance for González Nieves is the brand’s newest label, Casa Dragones Reposado Mizunara. It’s the world’s first tequila to be aged in Mizunara oak casks, the same kind used for Japanese whiskies. “I like to drink it with a small ice cube,” she says, “to allow the subtle apricot and cacao notes to open and expand.”
A version of this story first appeared in the November 2024 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headline “Cheers to San Miguel.”
