El Cortez

This colorful bi-level restaurant sports a bar on each floor, a patio for drinking Zombies in the moonlight, and the capacity for just under a couple hundred revelers. The owners aren’t trying to mine Mexican restaurants of any era but just mesh together a bunch of things they like. The menu focuses on what the owners call “all three Mexicans”: hot plate, gringo, and Mexican-Mexican. There’s no fried-chicken queso or chili con carne, but Mission-style burritos, loaded “All-American” tacos, and a chimichanga. There’s also a cheeseburger, because who cares? Cocktails lean heavily in the direction of Tiki and the kind of lowbrow drinks that caused the mixology revolution: classic drinks your grandparents definitely drank, like the piña colada and rum punch, made with quality ingredients and a whole lot of trial and error.