Espiritu Is the Most Exciting Thing in Downtown Mesa
Espiritu
If you’re dying to go to Bacanora but can’t get a reservation (or don’t want to drive), just head over to Espiritu in downtown Mesa. The food isn’t exactly the same, but the DNA is all there. Bold flavors, lots of meat (and seafood), cool vibes. And as an added bonus, the cocktails are pretty incredible… which I guess shouldn’t be a surprise given that Espritu is probably more of a cocktail bar serving great food rather than a restaurant serving great cocktails.
Website: espiritumesa.com
Reservations: Toast
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What to Get • Reviews • Awards + Accolades • Found On
What to Get
Ceviche mixto — a mixture of raw shrimp, cooked shrimp, red snapper, octopus, red onion, serrano pepper and cilantro — arrives in a round stack, a layer cake of seafood and veggies, surrounded by a spicy, amber puddle of chiltepin-sparked shrimp broth in which cucumber slices float. It’s sensational, another dish so textural and vibrant that I’m hard-pressed to recall a better version.
- Nikki Buchanan, Phoenix Magazine
At his new East Valley gastropub, Bacanora mastermind Rene Andrade puts a chef-y spin on whole fried red snapper that’s a mind-blowing meld of moist, sweet flesh and ultra-crispy skin. Glazed in an oily finishing sauce of salsa macha (chiles, fried garlic, fried onion, toasted sesame seeds), this blissfully crunchy dish is kinda like the chicharrones of fish.
- Phoenix Magazine
Reviews
May 5, 2022 / NIKKI BUCHANAN AND CRAIG OUTHIER
Phoenix Magazine: Four Corners: May and June Dining Reviews
In February, just a few weeks before Rene Andrade was nominated for a James Beard Award for his work at Bacanora in Phoenix, he and his cousin, Roberto Centeno (with whom he shares chef duties at Espiritu), quietly opened this cocktail-centric companion piece in Mesa. I slipped in a few days after opening and immediately disappeared, mentally and physically, into a bowl of mussels and clams ($28), their haunting take on a traditional broth-and-mussels bowl, here done as a simmering birria consommé spiced with chiltepin pepper and jeweled with bits of chorizo.
April 18, 2022 / Nikki Buchanan
Phoenix Magazine: First Dish: Espiritu
But I’m telling you, if you come here just to drink, you’re missing out. The food is phenomenal. Much like Andrade’s at Bacanora, it’s elevated and chef-y yet rooted in tradition.
