Balanced between intrigue and familiarity, this serve from Bristol’s Same Again aims to represent 'beauty in simplicity', finds Tyler Zielinski. 

It’s a vision brought to life by co-owners and life partners Pippa Guy (ex-The Savoy’s American Bar) and Sebastiano Fileccia (former general manager at The Milk Thistle in Bristol), whose first venture favours approachability, seasonality and a sense of belonging over showmanship. The kind that turns first rounds into second, and second into a quiet, confident “same again”. 

That philosophy finds its most poignant expression in the Headshot. At a glance, the cocktail has hallmarks of the fan favourite Margarita –tequila, fresh lime juice – but lean in closer and dive beyond its blood-like float of hibiscus-washed mezcal and it begins to unravel.  

“It started as a taco-inspired Tequila Milk Punch that I developed with my old colleague Chris [at The Milk Thistle],” says Fileccia of the drink that also lists shallot and fermented tomato as ingredients. “At Same Again, it's become more Margarita adjacent with the general structure of it,” an evolution that he credits to his and Guy’s insightful travels through Asia in the months leading up to opening, where the duo tested versions of the cocktail during guest shifts. 

“I feel like older iterations of the drink I’ve served over the years were too experimental for their own good and strayed too far from a traditional Margarita for guests to understand – even though bartenders knew it was essentially a clarified Marg variant,” Fileccia says. “These days, we have grown to appreciate that it doesn't matter what bartenders understand about the drink, it's about what the average guest does. If we can’t explain the cocktail to them quickly and with context then we have probably taken it too far.” 

Comfort and curiosity 

For the bar’s first menu, the team sought to balance guest comfort with curiosity. “It was important that our creations translate well on the menu,” says Fileccia.

“Making drinks connected to known classics gives guests more to latch on to and an ability to then feel safer in their choices,” which is why a savoury Margarita ended up as one of Same Again’s signature serves. “[The Headshot] teeters on that fine edge between the familiar and the unexpected: anchored in a format guests understand [Margarita], but layered with just enough intrigue [fermented tomato, shallot, coriander] to keep them interested. We describe it as a Spicy Mezcal Margarita-meets-pico de gallo [salsa]; and the hibiscus-washed mezcal amplifies the florality of the agave spirit in a nice way too.” 

The Headshot’s direction was a matter of both means and desire: dictated by the riverside venue’s limited resources – no kitchen and minimal storage space – there’s little-to-no cooking that happens on site. A perceived challenge that Fileccia claims was a blessing in disguise as it allows the bar to capture a season’s bounty and work with fresh ingredients in creative ways.  

“Not having a dedicated prep kitchen has pushed us towards cold macerations, enfleurage, fermentation and an overall simpler way of approaching drinks prep, which means that, while the drinks may be simple in concept, the ingredients are exceedingly fresh,” says Fileccia.  

For the macerated shallot and coriander syrup, the fresh produce is simply chopped and covered with sugar overnight to extract the moisture from the shallots, yielding a potent sweetener with accents of herbaceousness.  

This savoury component is then seasoned with the brine of tomatoes that have been lacto-fermented for three days, using both ambient and commercial lactobacillus bacteria. The latter lingers on the finish and gives the Headshot its pico de galloesque characteristic.  

“We tell guests the first sip is a committing one, so they sip through the mezcal float and [into the heart of the savoury Margarita beneath]. 

“In a time when the more kit you have, the more complex drinks seem to be getting, staying grounded and practising ‘beauty in simplicity’ is an ethos that has rewarded us really well so far.”