Cantina Rosa

Cantina Rosa opened on 29 November 2024 at 5230 S Harper Avenue, a few doors from chef Erick Williams's other Hyde Park rooms, and it is the agave-focused counterpart to his Southern restaurant Virtue. Williams named it after his grandmother Rosetta and has been direct about the intent: the concept has deep personal significance, he said at opening, and just as Virtue pays homage to Black culture, Cantina Rosa honours the rich traditions of Mexican culture. The bar is built around tequila and mezcal with a diverse bartending team behind it, and the kitchen sends out roasted poblano oysters with serranos, Oaxaca cheese and crostini at $12, tamales Oaxaqueños with chicken and tomatillo salsa at $9, and barbacoa de borrego — lamb with Mexican rice, adobo and tortillas — at $19. Bon Appétit has named it among the eight best bars in Chicago. Service runs Wednesday to Sunday from 5pm, to midnight on Friday and Saturday, and reservations are held for ninety minutes with a fifteen-minute grace period for late arrivals.

The non-alcoholic drinks have their own printed heading, "Spirit Free", and they are treated as part of the agave programme rather than as an exception to it. The Verdita ($12) is the one to order first: verdita is the traditional green chaser served alongside tequila in Jalisco, made from pineapple, lime, mint and jalapeño, and serving it as a drink in its own right is a genuinely idiomatic way to give a non-drinker something that belongs on this bar rather than something borrowed from a soft-drink list. The Horchata Fizz ($12) works coconut and almond with cinnamon, ginger and soda — WTTW liked it enough to publish a version of the recipe in January 2025. A spirit-free Margarita is $15, built rather than poured from a mix, and a non-alcoholic Corona is $7 for anyone who wants a beer in hand. It is a short list, but every item on it is drawn from the same tradition as the rest of the bar, which is rarer than a long one.