Tommy's Mexican Restaurant
Tomas and Elmy Bermejo opened this Outer Richmond room in 1965. Their son Julio took over the bar in the late 1980s. He swapped the mixto tequila for Herradura, put agave syrup in place of simple syrup and squeezed fresh limes. He also told people to skip the salt. That drink is now on menus in Turkey, India, Indonesia, Colombia, Scotland, Germany and Ireland. It is called a Tommy's margarita. Paolo Bicchieri's line for the one poured here is that it
remains the original worth savoring.6
Why go
Bermejo did not remove the Curacao. It had gone from the house recipe before he got behind the bar. The reason was most likely cost. Simple syrup had taken its place.1 What he changed was the tequila and the sweetener. He says the pour cost jumped while the drink's price moved fifty cents.
The bar grew around the drink. He built the agave list to 110 bottles by 1999, all of them hundred-percent agave. Tequila clubs let regulars earn credit for each new one they tried. Orders went from almost entirely blended to almost entirely on the rocks over the same decade. Dre Masso worked six months here in 2003. He took the recipe home to London with Henry Besant. The two of them named it.
The room has not been redecorated around any of that. The booths are red pleather. A plate of shredded lettuce arrives free. Elmy Bermejo greets people at the door.2 The menu runs Mexican-American, burritos and chile rellenos and enchiladas, with Yucatan dishes from the family's own side.7
The room won World's Best Spirits Selection at the 2016 Spirited Awards and the Timeless U.S. Award in 2021.8
Order this / avoid
- Order: the margarita once, made as the house makes it, tequila with lime and agave, on the rocks, no salt.9 It comes with Lunazul reposado unless you name another.5
- Order: then something straight off the agave shelf. That is what the collection is for.4
- Order: the poc-chuc if you eat, which is the Yucatan end of the menu.
- Avoid: the ceviche, served on iceberg.4
What locals & experts say
- Ricky Rodriguez, The Infatuation, April 2023, and this is the dissent:
The food is overall fine, but the unsalted chips and guacamole, lackluster salsa, and ceviche served in a bowl of iceberg lettuce make it feel like Tommy's is catering to a palette from 1965.
He goes further on the drink:More disappointing is their world-famous margarita, which is nothing special.
4 - Esther Mobley, San Francisco Chronicle, February 2019, on the shelf behind the bar:
Tommy's maintains one of the most interesting and thoughtfully curated Tequila collections outside of Mexico.
She credits Bermejo, U.S. tequila ambassador since 2001, with paving the way for single-spirit bars like Whitechapel.3 - Cesar Hernandez and MacKenzie Chung Fegan, San Francisco Chronicle, April 2024:
Sit at the bar, order the chimichangas and a margarita, and leave knowing more about agave than when you entered.
2
Good to know
- Getting in: no reservation needed.
- Where: 5929 Geary Boulevard, in the Outer Richmond.
- The family: five Bermejo children and the generation after them work in the business.10
Verdict
should-visit — Lunch is Saturday and Sunday only, and the kitchen is dark at the start of the week.