Tahona Mezcal Room is an intimate, glass-encased room set inside JW Marriott Hotel Mexico City Polanco. A single wooden table sits at the center, surrounded by eight leather-backed chairs. Glass shelves line the back wall, holding neatly arranged bottles of mezcal.
Tahona Mezcal Room is open by reservation only for specific experiences, including mezcal tastings in the afternoons and two different tasting menus offered at dinner time, guaranteeing an intimate experience (thankfully, you don't have to book all eight seats to dine here, reservations are available for any number of party up to eight). One of the tasting menus is centered around classic Mexican films, which are projected onto one end of the room for your entertainment between dishes, popcorn included.
The Omakase Tradiciones is a crash course in the different cuisines and cultures that make up Mexico, taking the form of modern Mexican dishes. Each of the five courses is served alongside a story. The dinner opens with a croquette of huitlacoche (corn fungus) and tells the story of María Sabina, a renowned shaman from Oaxaca known for psilocybin mushrooms. A blue corn infladita, a deep fried tortilla puff that originated from Veracruz, is served on top of fish and avocado comes with a story of the rain dances of Mexico. The dessert is a French toast made with the iconic pan de muerto bread, stuffed with a vanilla and cardamom ice cream.
Similarly, the omakase centered around Mexican films is composed of five courses inspired by five films like "Amores Perros" and "Frida." The movie "Like Water for Chocolate" features a central scene involving quail in rose petal sauce, inspiring a quail enchilada in white mole sauce.
There's no separate drink menu to order from, but both tasting menus at Tahona Mezcal Room come with a cocktail pairing. All the cocktails, of course, incorporate mezcal as an ingredient. The croquette, a tribute to the shaman Sabina, is paired with a cocktail of mezcal and sherry with passionfruit liqueur and enoki mushrooms. The pan de muerto French toast is paired with a mezcal cocktail featuring stout beer syrup, pan de muerto syrup, and mandarin juice, made jet-black with some activated charcoal.
While the quail enchilada accompanying the film "Like Water for Chocolate" isn't served in rose petal sauce like the magically sensual dish in the movie, the rose petals make their appearance in the cocktail pairing: a fatwashed mezcal with rose syrup, Drambuie, and rose petals.