Bar-centric Carlita’s is a relative newcomer to the Pearl District. With promos like Monday Margarita Madness where pre-batched bottled margaritas are available, and a monthly margarita special — most recently, guava was featured — Carlita’s undeniably has a drinks focus. That’s not to say that food is an afterthought though. Of course, they serve tacos, many with a local Pacific Northwest bent. Standouts include blackened Pacific salmon with arugula and chipotle crema and the Carlton Farm’s pork belly that’s smoked and cider-and-chile-cured and served with an apple fennel cabbage slaw and cilantro crème fraîche.

The Tequila Cazadores-exclusive cocktail to order: The El Dorado

Fragrant with just a touch of sweetness, the El Dorado cocktail is a blend of Tequila Cazadores Blanco, simple syrup, orchard pear syrup, and rosemary syrup. This cocktail adds just the right amount of class to your weeknight drinks date.

The Matador, a Northwest chainlet with eastside and westside locations, has a full and varied menu. There are classic small street tacos and the Tex-Mex fave, fajitas. The restaurant also specializes in tequila and offers more than 150 varieties. For purists, they serve tequila flights to sample the differences among blanco, reposado, and añejo styles. If you want to go deep, get a familia flight: You’ll taste different styles side by side of your brand of choice, like Tequila Cazadores.

If an outsider were to imagine Mexican food in Portland, Verde Cocina might be what comes to mind: local, seasonal, Mexican-ish, covering all dietary bases with gluten-free, paleo, and vegan choices. That translates to organic brown rice bowls topped with local Ota family tofu, salsa, and grilled vegetables, and the Nor’wester: sustainable salmon served atop locally grown quinoa, black beans, and topped with pico de gallo, cucumber, and a nondairy poblano-coconut dressing. The food may be proud-and-loud healthy, but that doesn’t preclude cocktails from being well-crafted. There’s an añejo Old Fashioned and a brunchy Bloody Maria with a chile salted rim that’s garnished with Oaxaca cheese and pickled vegetables.

The Tequila Cazadores-exclusive cocktail to order: La Generala

Warning: You may want to immediately book your next beach vacation after a sip of this cocktail. Made with Tequila Cazadores Reposado, elderflower liqueur, and fresh guava and mango juices, this cocktail is a tropical vacation in and of itself — perfect for summer nights.

With tamale cart origins, Salvador Molly’s evolved into a full-fledged restaurant in Southwest Portland. The bright color scheme, decorative umbrellas, surfboard, and mounted flying fish hint at the tropics, but the menu is globe-trotting and borrows loosely from Latin America, the Caribbean, Hawaii, and even India. Fittingly, it serves fish tacos with the requisite cabbage and crema toppings, as well as Korean bulgogi beef tacos. Drink choices also lean cross-cultural with concoctions like the Mojarita, a mojito-margarita hybrid available by the pint, pitcher, or fishbowl. But you can’t go wrong with the Big Daddy Caddy, Molly’s top-shelf margarita made with 100% agave tequila — ask for Tequila Cazadores Reposado — and house-made sweet & sour mix, topped with Grand Marnier and a splash of fresh orange juice.

The Tequila Cazadores-exclusive cocktail to order: The Diablita
It’s spicy, it’s sweet, fruity — what more could you want in a cocktail? With muddled orange, cilantro, and passionfruit puree, the Diablita is topped with Tequila Cazadores Reposado and garnished with a jalepeno wheel and a Salvador Molly’s Aji Amarillo Lime Salt rim.

Nayar is a no-frills, counter-service taqueria with sidewalk picnic tables in the up-and-coming Foster-Powell neighborhood. The menu sticks to crowd-pleasers like fruity margaritas, quesadillas, and chicken and carne asada tacos — no wild seasonal or local flourishes here — but no one’s going to call the authenticity police if you order a hard-shell taco filled with ground beef, grated cheddar, and shredded lettuce. Order the Cadillac Margarita with Tequila Cazadores Blanco tequila to wash it all down.

This inner Southeast mainstay with the avocado green facade manages to straddle the line between creative and authentic. Despite taqueria being in the name, the full-service restaurant also offers larger entrees like grilled skirt steak, Oaxacan-style mole, and an array of seafood like octopus cocktail and ceviche. Don’t skip the tacos with fillings ranging from boar carnitas to seasonal Alaskan cod. Lest you forget this is Portland, the pork in the cochinita pibil and the beef used for carne asada, lengua, and suadero all have their producer name-checked, plus it goes without saying that vegan-friendly fillings are available too. Show up on Tuesday or any other day between 4 and 6 p.m. and select tacos are $3. Try pairing them with a refreshing Pepino Margarita (chile-infused tequila, fresh lime, and house-made cucumber syrup) or a shot of Tequila Cazadores Reposado, available in 1- or 2-ounce pours.