SF’s hottest new cocktail bar applies high-octane creativity to low-proof drinks

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It doesn’t matter what ingredients go into Elmer Mejicanos’ cocktails. Whether it’s a stiff old-fashioned or a passion-fruit sour bedazzled with boba pearls, he’s going gonzo. The 20-year veteran of the Bay Area mixology scene is already known for his imaginative creations including an entire menu based on Girl Scout cookies and gravity-defying souffle drinks. Now, he’s devoting himself to a new frontier: low-alcohol cocktails.

His latest project is Lilah, a low-proof cocktail bar two doors down Chestnut Street from Causwells, the 10-year-old New American restaurant where he is a partner. Though small, the space is well-designed, with wallpaper displaying nattily attired foxes, tigers, and flamingos enjoying fancy cocktails. The drinks may be light on alcohol, but the creativity runs high. And the result is intoxicating — in a totally different way. 

Take the Strawberry Hill ($18), made from low-proof white rum, Thai basil, strawberries, bianco vermouth, pandan, and chia seeds served on a veritable mountain of shave ice produced on a hand-cracked Japanese machine. It’s practically a dessert in drink form. The fragrant pandan leaves lend a vanilla-cake flavor, while the basil draws out the berries’ intensity. The chia seeds are soaked in copra-strawberry juice instead of water, “so they’re all tasting like little mini strawberries,” says Mejicanos.

It’s meant to evoke the innocence of childhood — with a moderate bit of booze. The only drink that goes down smoother is the Easy Tiger ($17), which from afar could be confused for a pint of foamy ale. It’s a gentle tequila sour bedecked with passion-fruit boba that burst sweetly in your mouth, with a head as thick as a classic soda-fountain egg cream.

There’s also a food menu of Asian-influenced dishes, from Taiwanese pork belly buns to a decadent trio of Cantonese duck crispy tacos, plus lime leaf crispy peanuts that are thoroughly addictive in spite of not being salty. But the drinks are the main event.

Mejicanos has discovered the secret to making low-alcohol cocktails satisfying: texture. Shave ice, foamy toppings, salinity, even a theatrical use of smoke — they delight the palate but have a structural purpose, too. “They keep things from tasting watered-down,” Mejicanos said. “Water is the enemy of a low-proof cocktail.”

Using low-ABV brands like Fiero, which makes vermouth, and Mommenpop, for aperitifs, Mejicanos essentially worked backward to create Lilah’s menu. A low-proof cocktail is about craveability, creating satisfaction without making drinkers aware of what they’re missing. “I don’t care much about the proof,” he said. “How do we make it so it touches a lot of senses and you’re not missing that burn of a martini?” 

Again and again, Mejicanos came back to the idea of childhood. The mound of ice in the Strawberry Hill, for example, was inspired by his daughter’s first shave ice. “I asked her if she liked it, and she was like, ‘It’s the best day of my life!’ From there, everything just made so much sense.”