Behind the Backbar at Houston’s The Pastry War

The Pastry War is a bar. Bobby Heugel and his team pour spirits, open beers and even shake the occasional cocktail. But look closely and you’ll notice that the The Pastry War is also a story—or, rather, a series of them—that chronicles not only the deep Mexican culture that undergirds traditional agave spirits, but also Heugel and his team’s journey with those products and the people who make them.

“The Pastry War exists because of our visits to distilleries in Mexico,” says Heugel. “I was inspired by the trips I took and the lessons I learned about agave spirits, and I felt like the voices and concerns of the people I met who work first-hand with these spirits [were] not being communicated in the United States at the time.”

This goal is best reflected in the “Captain’s List,” a tightly curated collection of mezcal, tequila, raicilla and other agave spirits from some two dozen producers broken down into botanical, historical and technical categories.

Under Real Minero Barril, for example, the list explains that the dry, tannic qualities of the spirit are a manifestation of Agave karwinskii’s elongated body and narrow piña, which produce fewer fruity notes than many other varietals; that production of mezcals from Agave karwinskii often includes not only the piña, but also the stalk on which it sits, further enhancing its dry, astringent qualities; and that it was distilled by a man named Lorenzo Angeles Mendoza, in a clay still, in Santa Catarina Minas, Oaxaca.

In selecting products for the bar, Heugel focuses on what producers do, but also on what they don’t do. Somewhat famously, the bar features a large chalkboard specifying a handful of brands they choose not to carry and their reasons for rejecting those products. In particular, The Pastry War eschews agave spirits made via a diffusor.

“Diffusors, which alter the roasting process of agave spirits, are dramatically changing the way these spirits are made, in a negative manner,” says Heugel. “We are literally observing the massive alteration of a cultural product under the pressure of global conglomerates who have purchased these Mexican distilleries from abroad.”

By focusing on those producers who choose to hold tight to the legacy and tradition of mezcal, Heugel aims to educate the drinking public on what these spirits can and should be. That means pursuing producers who obtain their agave in a responsible manner, eschewing mass-production practices like monoculture and early harvest, roast piñas in a traditional stone oven and “allow adequate times for fermentation without the assistance of chemicals, distill in slower methods and in smaller stills and do not manipulate the product after distillation, outside of cutting to proof,” says Heugel.

Naturally, this limits the number of bottles that make the cut, which is part of the point. Beyond a commitment to quality, it’s important to Heugel that each producer’s story is being heard. “I try to think of their spirits the same way they do and put myself in their shoes,” says Heugel, noting that, for many of these producers, their product is less a product, as such, and more a connection to mezcal’s shared history.

“Their entire narrative is important,” he adds. “The purer that narrative, the purer the mezcal.”