Gracias Madre

Gracias Madre opened on Melrose Avenue in January 2014, the West Hollywood expression of a concept that began in San Francisco in 2009 from the founders of Café Gratitude. The room is a converted antique emporium, whitewashed brick and high ceilings with exposed beams and a great deal of natural light, and the open plan runs straight out onto a patio with an outdoor bar, heaters for cool evenings and the shade of mature olive trees. The cooking is entirely vegan Mexican, and the bar has always been the draw as much as the kitchen.

Our previous entry needs two corrections. The spirit-free section is no longer called "On the Wagon" — the current menu heads it zero/low proof — and the Michelada Sin Cerveza we listed does not appear on it; the only michelada now printed is the standard one with Mexican lager. What is there is four drinks at $16.50, and the distinction between them matters. Rosemary Love, a ginger and rosemary elixir shaken and poured tableside, and Como No, built on Ritual apéritif with lemon, pineapple, jalapeño, guajillo chilli, agave and foam, are both printed 0 ABV and are the genuinely alcohol-free choices. The Raspberry Orchard Shrub and No Sabo are built on something called Green Apple NOOT, and the menu is admirably clear about what that is: a functional blend of natural botanicals, herbs and nootropics containing less than 1% alcohol, which by the restaurant's own rule cannot be served to anyone under 21. They are low-proof and age-restricted rather than alcohol-free, and the section's honest name — zero slash low proof — is doing quiet work that a skim-reader would miss. The better news is what sits outside that section: eight of the standard cocktails, including the Purista Margarita and the Turmeric Mule, can be made non-alcoholic with Cut Above's NA tequila or mezcal at no additional charge, which effectively doubles the list. House drinks are cheap and good — aguas frescas and horchata at $6.50, a seasonal kefir soda at $8.50 — and a rotating non-alcoholic lager is $10.50. Note also that a CBD cocktail programme covered in the press a decade ago is long retired; nothing on the current menu is infused.