At Oyamel, Tequila Is a Key Ingredient

AT OYAMEL, the management won't stop you from doing a shot of tequila.

But what a waste, considering the Penn Quarter restaurant is the first place in the D.C. area with special Agave de Oro certification from the Tequila Regulatory Council of Mexico.

It's an honor only a handful of restaurants in the U.S. can claim. And for Oyamel, which specializes in contemporary Mexican cuisine, it wasn't easy to get.

As Steve Fowler, the restaurant's general manager, explained, to get the certification, restaurants can't just have a broad tequila selection, although that's an important first step. Eighty percent of a restaurant's staff has to take tequila education courses and be tested on their knowledge.

Additionally, a restaurant has to use tequila in inventive ways in its cooking. In preparation for its upcoming two-week Tequila and Mezcal Festival, Oyamel, led by chef Joe Raffa, experimented for months to pair the right tequila with the right ingredients. After some wrong turns and many bottles of tequila, the special menu, which Raffa described as a group effort, is ready for the festival, which starts Tuesday.

"I don't think we'd ever thought that nine dishes would come out," Fowler said of all the experimentation with tequila and mezcal, a related spirit. (Technically, all tequila, which is made from the blue agave plant, is mezcal, but not all mezcal is tequila.)

One dish that Raffa and Fowler said was a pleasant surprise: a ceviche of mezcal-cured salmon. Other standouts on the special menu are the lime and corn soup with tequila and a beef tenderloin with a flavorful Borracha sauce. While the menu offerings are certainly something to check out, if you're into sampling tequila itself, you should be quite happy. "This was a spirit that was looked down upon," Fowler said. "Now it's at a point where it should be considered one of the great spirits of the world."

On Thursday, Oyamel will host a free tasting of Del Maguey's rare unblended mezcals with company founder Ron Cooper. One of the rare spirits available will be Mezcal Pechuga, which is triple distilled with wild mountain apples, plantains, almonds, plums and chicken breast. That tasting will happen at the restaurant's Butterfly Bar from 5-7 p.m.

On March 25 and 26, Otto Hoerning, president of Casa Noble, will host a free premium tequila tasting. And to wrap things up, on March 27, Philadelphia-based tequila connoisseur and restaurateur David Suro, who helped Oyamel secure its Agave del Oro certification, will be on hand for a seven-course dinner featuring the tequila-crafted dishes. The dinner, open to the public, is priced at $75 per person, excluding tax and gratuity. Reservations are required.

» Oyamel, 407 7th St. NW; 202-628-1005. (Archives-Navy Memorial)

Photos by Pablo de Loy