An Award-Winning Bartender Opens Sherman Oaks’ Coolest New Spot to Get Margaritas

Daisy Margarita Bar. Daisy Margarita Bar goes for Mexican Norteño vibes and celebrated barman Max Reis’s obsession with margaritas Over the last four months, the Mírate crew has been revamping the shuttered Sherman bar on the corner of Ventura and Van Nuys Boulevards into two neighboring projects. The Daisy Margarita Bar opens on April 17 as a restaurant and stylish cocktail spot that focuses on margaritas from award-winning bartender Max Reis and partner Matt Egan.

It’s the first of two places to open in Sherman Oaks, where award-winning barman Reis, Egan, and chef Alan Sanz put together something unique for Los Angeles: a Norteño cantina-inspired restaurant and bar. The team will debut the intimate Gilbert Perez Bar on the top floor in late May.“Daisy [which translates to “margarita” in Spanish] is inspired by a Norteño cantina,” says Sanz, who previously worked with Reis at Gracias Madre.



“These dive bars are all over Mexico, but each region has its own Norteño personality as a regional bar that serves food. Back in the day, as long as you kept ordering drinks, they brought more food to the table. I played around with ingredients for Daisy.

”Sanz’s menu at Daisy includes a crudo with oysters, aguachile, ceviche, and a tuna tostada. Sanz serves queso fundido, a Caesar salad topped with hemp seed crumbs, tacos, and duck carnitas tamal using heirloom corn masa. Larger plates consist of chile relleno, branzino with an adobo verde, a dry-aged strip loin carne asada platter, and half chicken with cauliflower puree and coconut rice.

Sanz’s Oaxacan chocolate tart, flan, and tres leches desserts round out the menu.Reis, whose cocktail obsessions ushered Mírate into a coveted North America’s 50 Best Bars slot, is taking a less precious approach at Daisy. “I’ve been doing these science cocktails since Gracias Madre,” says Reis.

“I would spend hours making super complex flavor profiles, and people would ask for a watermelon margarita. With Daisy, let’s just use all of this science background to make flavored margaritas.”At Daisy, Reis continues to curate sustainable Mexican spirits without chemical additives.

This is a menu for margarita aficionados, with a very good classic version as well as renditions using sour apple and mangoneada. The creamsicle margarita mixes tangerine, mole, coconut, Don Fulano Reposado, and Derrumbes Salmiana mezcal. Reis composed a salsa (margarita) bar with a frozen guacamole variety, and a Baja Slaw margarita mixing private batch Mal Bien x Mírate Espadin with purple cabbage, Oaxacan fruit liqueur, Mezcal Guey, pulque (fermented agave sap) vinegar, lime, and fish sauce.

They’ll also serve the classics with slight twists, like a gimlet, an Oaxacan Old Fashioned, a Paloma, and a whiskey sour. Daisy Margarita Bar occupies the former home of the Sherman, a building that’s been around since the mid-1900s. It’s blocks away from popular restaurant Anajak Thai and casual watering hole Mr.

Furley’s Bar. Egan worked with Adean Studios and upcycled the infrastructure and wood paneling, while adding custom light fixtures, a custom jukebox, and new color to create a vaquero-style interior for Daisy. It seats 100 total guests with a 20-seat bar.

Similar to Mírate, Egan personally selected the photography, paintings, and signs, which were mostly sourced from Mexico.The Daisy Margarita Bar is open daily from 5 p.m.

to 1 a.m. at 14633 Ventura Boulevard, Sherman Oaks, CA, 91403.

Baja Slaw Margarita. Green Apple Margarita. Mangoneada Margarita.

Dirty Shirley Margarita. Chile relleno. Branzino with adobo verde.

Pulpo/octopus taco. Oaxacan chocolate tart. View towards Ventura Boulevard.

Bar and custom jukebox. Front seating..