Anoche

Rebecca Bennett, a certified master of agave spirits, opened Anoche in November 2022. The sign by the door, at 176 Clingman Avenue, carries a bat in flight, a neon OPEN glows beside it, and string lights run the length of the eave. Inside, a mural by Edwin Salas covers one wall, and the shelves climb floor to ceiling around a narrow white counter strung with the same colored bulbs, a hand-lettered ORDER HERE sign marking its corner. The list runs twenty cocktails, ten to fifteen dollars, built mostly from mezcal and tequila, with two on sotol. The margarita is rimmed in activated charcoal instead of plain salt; the Guayaba and the Spicy Pomegranate use sal de gusano, dried agave-worm salt, and the Jengibre gets sal de chapulin, ground grasshopper. Sotol turns up twice more: the Zanahoria, carrot juice and basil, and the Vampira, beet juice and jalapeño. Laurita’s Kitchen, a food truck, shares the lot and keeps the same holiday closures. Monday and Tuesday nights are discounted for anyone coming off a shift somewhere else in town — six dollars a drink, service industry only. Out back, the patio chairs are wooden, with arms wide enough to hold a drink without hunting for a table. Hurricane Helene closed the city in September 2024. On the Friday after, the lot held a two-hour supply table — baby supplies, non-perishables, pet food — open to anyone who needed it. The bar reopened October 9 on a stripped-down list: frozen drinks, beer, wine, mezcal, no food.