Ortega120
When you’ve got something good, you want to experience it in all its dazzling variety — if not, how come you can’t enter your kitchen without climbing over the Costco Frosted/Honey Nut/Berry Burst Cheerios 3-pack? Do it with tequila, at Ortega120, opening Monday.
Tsotchke’d up with Dia de los Muertos figures and toy low-riders, O120’s a casual Mexican joint on PCH in Redondo Beach, with a tortillaria at the entrance, car-upholstered banquettes in the main room, and (most importantly) a central, black-topped bar stocked with 120 tequilas, one for every minute you once hung with Matt Pinfield. Selections range from “barrio tequilas” like Montezuma and Jalesco, to standbys like Sauza, to a $60 sipper of Partida Elegante; specialty cocktails are also anejo’d up, e.g., the Patron Silver Pomegranate Ginger Margarita and the grapefruity Sauza Hornitas “La Luz”, translated as “The Light” (to be drunk, not walked into). To soak it all up, O120 serves up tortas, tacos, etc, plus heartier dishes like chile rellenos w/shortrib, and carnitas w/chile verde, cotija cheese, and lime-scented rice — doggy bag some to use as potpourri after a long night of carnitas w/ chile verde.
Soon, O120’s adding tequila flights to its arsenal, with special attention paid to complimentary flavor profiles — because tequila’s become such an expansive category, the wrong trio could end up going down like Cheerios, Lucky Charms, and Fiber One.
Check out the drinks and the food menu