Scorpion King
A Raucous Mexican Saloon in South Beach

Every city deserves an authentic Mexican joint.

A place where you can feast on freshly pounded guacamole and meat-stuffed tacos, and obliterate your cares courtesy of a few shots of rare, oak barrel-aged tequila.

South Beach, your day is almost here.

Behold your first look inside El Scorpion, a new Mexican cantina in South Beach, pouring you over a hundred tequilas when they open tomorrow.

Brought to you by the son of restaurant czar Jeffrey Chodorow, this is the kind of riotous taqueria you'd find in the heart of Baja. There's a pool table in the back room should you need to work off that last round of enchiladas, and chalkboard-covered pillars perfect for jotting down your latest deep thoughts/animal drawings.

Start off at the backlit bar, where more than 130 bottles of Mexico's national spirit—from Gran Patron Burdeos (aged in Bordeaux barrels) to Don Julio 1942—beckon. After a few house margaritas, you'll want to dig in to the offerings at the guacamole bar (Miami's first ever, as far as we can tell), where buttery avocados are pounded and mixed with crispy bacon, garlic and lime and served with paper bags of warm corn chips.

The dishes are straight out of Mexico, with a few rarities not to be found anywhere else in the city. Think Jaiba (crab salsa with pickled jalapeño) and Bacon Tacos made with pasilla chili-rubbed bacon from Benton's, a pork outfit out of Tennessee's Smoky Mountains.

Consider it the Davy Crockett of bacon.