Mayamezcal opened on East 6th Street in the East Village in 2009, at a moment when mezcal was still something most American bars carried as one bottle if they bothered. Sixty-plus mezcals and tequilas later, the bar has outlasted both the skeptics and a lot of the places that followed the trend it was ahead of.

The room is easy to miss, and deliberately so. The space is small and dark and decorated with objects from Mexico that feel chosen rather than sourced in bulk. The cocktail program uses the agave collection intelligently, building drinks around the spirit's smoke and complexity rather than simply adding it to classic templates. The food side covers Mexican cuisine with enough range to make a full evening of it if you want, though plenty of people come just to work through the mezcal list with a bartender who knows where each bottle came from.

Hours run from Tuesday through Sunday with late closing on weekends. The bar's longevity in the East Village is its own credential, given how many places have cycled through in the sixteen years since it opened.