Margarita is Spanish for daisy, which makes Daisy the rare bar named after its own signature drink and then rather pleased about it. It opened in late May 2025 at 14633 Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, in a hacienda-style building that was The Sherman before it turned green and gold. The Valley has had worse ideas.
Mírate goes north
The people behind it are the Mírate team from Los Feliz, led by proprietor Matt Egan. Mírate runs on mezcal. Daisy runs on tequila, and on the argument that a margarita can be a serious drink. Beverage director Max Reis came over from Mírate and has pointed to two northern Mexican bars as his compass: Dandy del Sur in Tijuana and Hussong's in Ensenada. Part of the motive was irritation: diners at Mexican restaurants kept ordering a standard margarita and walking past the clever ones. Alan Sanz, who cooked at Maisano in Costa Mesa, runs the kitchen.
Margarita means daisy, and Ventura Boulevard finally has one worth the name.
The historian David Wondrich, as the bar tells it, traces the tequila daisy to a Tijuana bar around 1925, where somebody swapped the gin. Daisy calls itself an homage to the cantinas that got there first.
Fringe, taxidermy and glass jugs
Alexa Nafisi-Movaghar of Adean Studios kept the wood panelling, the floor and the old light fixtures, then added fringe to the lamps and stools, a chequered epoxy floor and terracotta tile around the foot of the bar. Oil portraits, black-and-white photographs, neon and a little taxidermy hang on the walls, much of it vintage that Egan found in Mexico. Behind the bar, large glass jugs hold limited tequila batches, each with its own tap. A custom jukebox trimmed in fringe and leather does the rest. The mood is lively and friendly, and the crowd is Valley locals who no longer need to drive over the hill. A room that puts fringe on the bar stools has made peace with being looked at.
What to drink
The list has three parts. Cantina is customisable classics. Mercado follows fruit and season. Salsa Bar is where the centrifuges and clarification live. Start with the Guacamole Frozen Margarita: avocado, blanco tequila, damiana, lime and clarified Clamato, served as a green slushie that reads as a riff on guacamole. Next, the Baja Slaw, a purple margarita built on cabbage, pulque vinegar and fish sauce and modelled on a fish taco. The Mangoneada arrives topped with popping boba. Anyone asking for a skinny margarita is steered to the Tommy, sweetened with Reis's own agave alternative, nogave.
Under Not Daisies sits a chelada of aguachile negro, tepache vinegar, Mexican lager, Maggi and mezcal, plus a daiquiri on Mírate's private-barrel rum blend. Every margarita arrives pre-salted, so nobody has to ask for a rim. The tequila is limited to producers who avoid additives and diffusers, and the house private batches have included an El Tesoro reposado and an eight-year extra añejo from Tequila Ocho.
The food
Much of the produce comes from Mexico, and the menu follows it. The chicharrón del parque stands out: a puffed wheat cracker carrying macha verde and cured yellowfin, along with an aguachile of chayote and a grilled branzino, and the cooking is a cut above its Mexican neighbours. Tacos are built on flour tortillas that the kitchen makes with wagyu beef tallow, filled with marinated pork, octopus or mushroom. The queso fundido uses melting cheese from Chihuahua. Weekend brunch adds pan dulce.
One honest warning: the private tequila batches are finite, and when one empties it is not replaced by the same bottle. If a particular barrel catches the eye, order it before the table next door does. The upstairs Mexican rum bar, Gilbert Perez, was still listed as coming soon.
Daisy was soon on North America's 50 Best Bars list and among the nominees for best new US cocktail bar at the 2026 Spirited Awards. Not bad for a place whose headline drink looks like a smoothie.
Order the weird one first. The salt is already on the glass.
- The vibe
- Fringed hacienda cantina, taxidermy, vintage Mexican photographs, a lively Valley crowd.
- The food
- Chicharrón del parque, chayote aguachile, branzino, flour-tortilla tacos, Chihuahua queso fundido.
- The drink
- Guacamole Frozen Margarita first, then the Baja Slaw or a Not Daisies chelada.
- A tip
- Margaritas arrive pre-salted, so skip the rim request; ask for the Tommy for a skinny version.
