Oaxaca · Nightlife

Tasting room at Reforma 506 in the Centro, open daily 16:00–20:00 and effectively reservation-only. You sit down and are walked through traditional mezcals rather than ordering rounds.

Vicente Guerrero 413, Monday to Saturday 14:00–23:00. A working reference collection of wild and cultivated agave distillates, with staff who will happily talk you through the differences.

Cocktail bar on Calle 5 de Mayo in the Centro, mixing mezcal with Oaxacan ingredients and serving food alongside. It fills after 21:00 and there is usually a wait for a table.

The free option: municipal bands, marimba players and food carts around the main square, with the pedestrian Alcalá busy with buskers all the way up to Santo Domingo. Most evenings, no cover, no plan needed.

A couple of blocks north-west of Santo Domingo, Porfirio Díaz has the densest run of small live-music bars and student-priced cantinas in the centre. It is where the night carries on once the mezcalerías shut.