Whereas a restaurant hearth can typically spell devastation for its house owners and workers, at Tequilas in Philadelphia, Dan Suro noticed such a catastrophe as a possibility to deliver his dream bar to fruition. The famend Mexican restaurant based by his father, David Suro, helped shift notion of Mexican delicacies from informal fare to a fine-dining expertise, and the youthful Suro needed to do the identical for Mexican espresso, agave spirits, and ferments. After a fireplace destroyed Tequilas’ again eating room in 2023, Dan reimagined the house as La Jefa Cafe and Milpa cocktail bar.
The brand new spot, an ode to each Guadalajara and Philadelphia, opened final Could and has rapidly garnered accolades. Not solely is it one in all this 12 months’s Imbibe 75 Locations to Watch, but it surely received two Tasties awards (Craft Cocktail Excellence and Greatest New Restaurant), and the Suros are 2026 James Beard semifinalists for Excellent Skilled in Beverage Service.
We chatted with Dan about how La Jefa got here to be, how award-winning Gradual Drinks creator Danny Childs acquired concerned, and why you received’t discover Margaritas on the agave spirits-focused bar.
What impressed La Jefa?
We’ve been working with a restaurant group in Mexico referred to as Risoma and Cafe Estelar. It’s shaped by a extremely cool group of buddies, artists, baristas, roasters, and a extremely nice chef named Fabian Delgado Padilla. We’ve all the time been impressed by them and the scene that’s occurring in Guadalajara, which all the time reminded us plenty of Philly. In order that was the inspiration behind plenty of the merchandise.
However what actually occurred was the fireplace just a few years in the past. A month earlier than was the anniversary of my mom’s passing. Now we have this barrel of blanco tequila that we had resting within the basement without end. So we simply all took a shot, and all people stated “La Jefa” on the similar time. It’s a double that means as a result of it’s a phrase to your mother, but it surely’s additionally your boss. And he or she was that position for lots of people at Tequilas. It’s very a lot a household dynamic. So at that second I made a decision that in the future I’d open up a bar and name it La Jefa.
Tequilas modified individuals’s notion of Mexican meals; how is La Jefa an extension of that?
Tequilas is such an establishment. Our agave program may be very intricate. The guts of this system has all the time been celebrating producers and utilizing the bottles to speak about all the pieces that’s occurring within the agave business. We’ve all the time performed that by means of the car of a superb eating restaurant, which may be very efficient. I see us doing the identical precise factor, being a window into agave, spirits, tradition, but in addition Mexican tradition. That is only a totally different sort of auto to do it. You’re getting the identical message, however we’re utilizing cocktails to inform the story as an alternative of superb eating.
You’re additionally doing that by means of the espresso program?
We simply needed to enhance the notion of Mexican espresso in Philly. Now we have all Mexican beans and an identical philosophy with Mexican espresso and work instantly with Cafe Estelar. So for our specialty bean pourovers, they’re pure or processed espresso roasted in Guadalajara. And for our home blends, we work with Mortal Minds who’ve popped up at Terra Madre.
Mexican tradition wasn’t all the time largely represented in Philly, and there’s an enormous quantity of wonderful Mexicans. You have got Cristina Martinez of South Philly Barbacoa and Casa Mexico. And Amá, all the good locations. However we’ve all the time been tremendous nerdy right here at Tequilas. Each little element actually issues. Philly has some actually nice cafés, however beans sourced from Mexico are missed.
However in Guadalajara, I’ve had a number of the finest roasted espresso ever in my life. We actually needed to zero in and deal with that. There’s some unimaginable stuff from Chiapas, Veracruz, and even Oaxaca and Southern Jalisco. And with all the pieces that’s occurring on this present political local weather, it’s tremendous necessary to assist producers who’re doing that. In the event that they export to the USA, they must be properly represented. That’s the biggest half for me, for positive. What Cafe Estelar is doing is unimaginable. Espresso tradition in Mexico is developing, and it’s superior, so we simply needed to deliver slightly little bit of that right here.
Would there have been a La Jefa in the event you weren’t compelled to reevaluate the house after the fireplace?
We’ve all the time been impressed by the folks that we have been working with in Mexico. So, we’ve all the time needed to do one thing like this, however we by no means actually lastly pushed it. However, my dad, my brother, and I’ve been speaking about doing a little type of espresso program or a solution to deliver a few of that right here. And when the fireplace occurred, it was like, okay, we now have this further eating room that we use on the weekends. However throughout the week, we are able to separate it and make it an all-day factor, however like correct.
What’s Danny Childs’ position at La Jefa?
Danny and I are actually unimaginable buddies, and he helped flush out this entire concept. Danny and I linked as a result of I actually needed to do some stuff with conventional Mexican ferments, that are additionally underrepresented. There’s tepache, however that’s it in Philly. So when the fireplace occurred, I referred to as him, and was, like, is there a manner we are able to collaborate on these things? As a result of our worlds are the identical, simply from totally different cultures. The stuff that he’s doing with fermentation has been occurring without end in Mexico, too.
Danny gave me unimaginable assets in native farmers for elements. However he additionally actually helped join the world of conventional Mexican ferments and what’s occurring now together with his e book, Gradual Drinks. He impressed this system. His mind-set about cocktails simply made all the pieces doable. He was an energetic advisor as we have been constructing as much as it and it grew into an even bigger relationship.
We went to Mexico earlier than the opening to spend a while with mezcal producers and in addition to search out an old style Mexican ferment referred to as tuba, which has been round for a whole lot of years in slightly state referred to as Colima. We acquired to satisfy a producer of tuba, this 90-year-old man named Don Ramon, and discuss how he’s making this palm tree sap ferment.
Espresso and fermentation very a lot share the identical seat. We’ve married a number of the stuff like ginger beer, and sodas. At La Jefa Cafe, throughout brunch, you will get tepache and tejuino, which is one in all my favourite ferments from Guadalajara, the masa ferment. However we now have a draft system, so we ferment all of our personal sodas, that are actually superior non-alcoholic choices and are additionally used for highballs at evening. These are all fermented, clarified, after which we keg and power carbonate them.
What’s been the most well-liked cocktail up to now?
The Agave and the Paloma. We import tequila. So once we have been closed, we discovered a solution to get a number of the cooked agave from the ovens. It’s vacuum sealed on the distillery and temperature managed, and we ship it right here. We ferment a grapefruit soda with them, which makes the perfect non-alcoholic Paloma, however we additionally make a cocktail referred to as Agave. The cooked agave is infused again into the tequila, then we make an agave nectar, throw slightly little bit of salt in it, and it’s only a very nice. … I suppose you may name it a Margarita? Or one thing like that.
Talking of, why don’t you supply Margaritas on the bar?
Let me begin by saying that I like the Margarita. It’s one in all my favourite cocktails to order at a bar. However at Tequilas, the Margarita cannibalized the remainder of our cocktail program through the years. Everyone simply needs a Margarita or strawberry Margarita or spicy Margarita. However in Guadalajara you’re not going to a bar to get a Margarita. And we now have a lot well-thought-out stuff on the Milpas’ cocktail menu. If we put Margaritas on the menu, we might not promote anything.
And I get that it is a harsh solution to put it. However we now have the substitutes. We educated the entire employees to say, “I’m so sorry, we don’t have triple sec or orange liqueur,” however we’ll simply put one thing in entrance of them. And it really works each time. We don’t need to come off pretentious. We will nonetheless have enjoyable, and also you’re gonna have an expertise.
There are some actually cool small producers of various liqueurs and stuff that we’re supporting from Mexico. Someone can have a tequila and guava bitter with a Guadalajara-made guava ponche and be simply as completely satisfied.
How do you curate your spirits record?
At Tequilas, we now have a ton. It’s all very well curated, however there must be greater than 100 agave spirits on the again bar. However at La Jefa, we solely have 5 at a time, and it rotates. We need to get to know every bottle and provides a greater guided selection as an alternative of simply providing 100 to select from.
They’re all actually stunning, they usually’re lower than 100 liters a batch. And we don’t actually have any mezcal cocktails, just one or two at a time. It’s been encouraging individuals to only have mezcal, which is simply actually cool. I’m an enormous believer that, in case you have actually high-quality stuff, the bottle will do the speaking. Now we have individuals of their early 20s sipping on mezcal. That’s a win.