ON THE MENU — Take a shot at excitement with Lacuna Tequila Bar
Published 12:36 am Saturday, August 14, 2021
(Chris Moore/The News)
Lacuna Tequila Bar offers approximately 80 brands of tequila. (Chris Moore/The News)
While Lacuna Tequila Bar offers a limited menu, owner Ashley Hernandez said she wants the emphasis to be on the bar. (Chris Moore/The News)
Lacuna Tequila Bar opened on Jan. 1. (Chris Moore/The News)
Lacuna Tequila Bar is located 4210 Calder Ave. (Chris Moore/The News)
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
BEAUMONT — Those looking to unwind and try something new should look no further than Lacuna Tequila Bar in Beaumont.
Ashley Hernandez, who owns the bar with her husband, always wanted to be in the spirits business.
“Originally, me and my husband looked into distilling liquor,” she said. “…Mexico has a patent on tequila, so it is not that easy to get into the industry. We looked at distilling vodka with whiskey as the long run. What people don’t realize is that alcohol and tobacco are the most taxed products in the United States. When it was all said and done, it was about a million dollars to get started and we didn’t have that.”
Hernandez started over and began brainstorming on what the next move would be for the entrepreneurs.
“We are constantly with friends and family around the dinner table and tequila is usually our drink of choice,” she said. “We pondered the idea of doing a tequila and whiskey bar, but whiskey has never been our thing, and we don’t really know much about it. We didn’t want to try to educate people on something we didn’t really know ourself.”
The Lacuna Tequila Bar, which is located 4210 Calder Ave., opened Jan. 1.
The bar offers approximately 80 brands of tequila, helps customers find a brand they like and provides tips on how to savor each drink.
“We are not experts, but we educate ourselves and continue to educate ourselves,” Hernandez said. “We like to bring tequilas that people are not familiar with as well as the mainstream ones. We teach them how to pair it with food and let them know there is more than just shooting back a cheap bottle of Jose Cuervo. There are actually excellent sipping tequilas. It was an idea that sparked a passion.”
Hernandez said approximately 90 percent of the time people come in and ask for recommendations.
“You have the people that come in and are used to the Tex-Mex style,” she said. “They say they want the top-shelf margarita with Jose Cuervo. We tell them we don’t do that. Our margarita is top-shelf in itself. We don’t have any low-end tequilas. Even our Jose Cuervo isn’t the one people are accustomed to. It is a traditional, which is a higher version.”
Lacuna offers food but the menu is limited, Hernandez said.
“We are a bar and not a restaurant,” she said. “We do have food to keep people here drinking. We have more traditional Mexican street food. We have Mexican street corn. All of it is an upscale version. We have nachos but it is with steak or carintas chorizo. We do street tacos and cold shrimp that have cucumbers. It is a fairly small menu, but it is good.”
Hernandez said she wants to keep the food menu small to keep the focus on the bar and the adult atmosphere.
She said most of her returning customers come from the Port Arthur and greater Mid County.
For more information, call 409-347-7440, visit lacunatequila.com or email lacunatequila@gmail.com.
