Mezcal Spotlight: The Room Mezcalería’s New Location

By Jonathan Lockwood

If you’ve lived in San Miguel long enough, you learn that nothing stays where it is. Doors close, new ones appear and sometimes your favorite spots vanish before you know it. When The Room Mezcalería was forced out of its original location, it looked like another casualty of the city’s constant churn. Instead, it became the start of a reinvention. Ana Sofía Tidball and Luciano Abaca didn’t just rebuild The Room—they reimagined it.

The original Room on Hernández Macías was accessible, welcoming, right there on the street. A place you might stumble into on your way to dinner and end up staying for three pours longer than expected. The new Room is something else entirely. It’s a speakeasy. Not the gimmicky kind, but the kind that respects subtlety. You enter through Canal 16, find the blue door with the skinny little window, and step inside. It’s more hidden now. You don’t end up at The Room by accident anymore. You go because you want to be there.

What hasn’t changed is their discipline when it comes to mezcal. They continue to focus on small-batch producers: those who make less than 10,000 liters a year. No big commercial brands, no mass-market anything, no shortcuts. Their shelves remain filled with mezcals that come straight from the palenques that made them.

But their standards have tightened. Every bottle on the shelf now sits above 45% ABV. Every producer has at least three generations of mezcal-making behind them. And every expression is joven: unaged, unaltered. The spirit in its direct, honest state.

Upon entering, you’ll notice the very attractive bar with DJ station. So far, I’ve only seen it packed by 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. But the biggest addition to the new space is the tasting room. And this changes the meaning of The Room itself. It isn’t just a bar anymore. It’s a classroom, a meeting place, a way of introducing people not only to mezcal but to the people whose lives are bound to it. Ana Sofía and Luciano have carved out a space devoted to context, where they can walk visitors through the tools, the timing, the traditions and the issues shaping mezcal today. It’s an educational mission that feels overdue in San Miguel, a town now with plenty of mezcal menus but often thin on actual knowledge.

They’ve also launched a house mezcal, distilled by maestro mezcalero Fidel Reyes García of Sola de Vega, Oaxaca. Fidel’s mezcals are reason enough to feature him, but it was his approach to the land that sealed the partnership. Among many things, he plants agaves amidst the trees rather than clearing the terrain. He recycles the spent agave fiber. He pays attention not just to yield but to the health of the place that makes the spirit possible. His methods align with The Room’s values, and together they’ve created something that represents both sides of the equation: craft and conscience.

I asked Ana Sofía and Luciano what they’ve learned since they first opened in 2021.

Their answer came quickly: “Everything about mezcal.”

At first they fell in love with the aromas and flavors. But since then they’ve learned the work behind them: the harvesting, the cooking, the crushing, the fermentation, the distillation, the logistics, the families, the heartbreak, the pride, the labor. They didn’t inherit any of this. Neither Ana Sofía nor Luciano are from México. They stepped into this world by choice, and that choice has reshaped their lives.

Their cocktail menu has grown too. My wife Cecilia is still a devoted fan of their creations.

When I wrote about The Room the first time, I said it was where mezcal belongs—in a room that respects it, celebrates it, and invites you to drink it with care. That’s still true. If anything, it’s more true now. The new version isn’t just about survival. It’s about refinement. They took what worked, stripped away what didn’t and doubled down on what matters: the spirit, the people who make it and the education that honors both.

You’ll find them at Canal 16. I won’t tell you exactly where.

It’s on you to find the blue door. Slide the little window open for a peek. Step inside. And prepare to learn something—about mezcal, about its makers, maybe even about what it means to follow a passion all the way down to its roots.

Jonathan Lockwood is a Mezcal lover, explorer, and collector and writes the Mezcal Maniac Substack. mezcalmaniac.substack.com