As you might remember, I mentioned that I spent my 4th of July celebrating in a few Mexican eateries, one of which was Pacifico Cantina. A relatively new location on Barrack’s Row, Pacifico Cantina is a little taste of Tex-Mex north of the border. Boasting only fresh, never frozen mexican cuisine from executive chef Saul Canesa and visiting Texas-native chef, Ben Berryhill, Pacifico serves up traditional fare including tacos, quesadillas, burritos and made-to-order guacamole.

The interior bar at Pacifico (image courtesy of Pacifico Cantina)

We arrived late in the afternoon last Wednesday and were greeted with a bustling bar and an interior with so much color that it might have been held hostage by a Lisa Frank designer. Strangely enough, it works with the otherwise bare teak wood bar. Securing some seats, we immediately ordered a round of mango beergaritas, aka a corona bottle turned upside down in a glass full of mango margarita. In theory, this is amazing, in practice, the mango and corona were not the best pairing of flavors, but still enjoyable enough for me to finish the whole thing. We then moved on to some guacamole, chips and salsa and quesadillas, as they are half price on Wednesdays. The guacamole was tasty, but the quesadillas were the scene-stealers. Within our group, we had one each of the chicken, wild mushroom and shrimp quesadillas and everyone was raving about them! My husband was less than satisfied with his burrito, but tried one bite of my chicken quesadilla and his faith was restored. We of course went for some more margaritas, but the good old-fashioned traditional kind, on the rocks. We did notice the margaritas ordered from the downstairs, inside bar which much tastier than the ones ordered from the rooftop bar.

Oh, that’s right, I failed to mention the rooftop BAR, Pacifico’s most appealing feature!

A view of Pacifico’s rooftop (image courtesy of Pacifico Cantina)

Outfitted almost exclusively in teak wood, the rooftop transports you to some tropical locale so effectively you almost forget you are sandwiched in between two buildings. There are plenty of high-top tables scattered between a large communal table which is the focal point of the rooftop, featuring a bubbling fountain at its center. The 103 degree temperatures were almost bearable as we watched the sunset over Barracks Row.

All in all, I’d highly recommend checking out Pacifico Cantina. The food is good, but the drinks, novelty and quite frankly, darn well-done rooftop are even better reasons to make the trip to Cap Hill. I’d recommend heading over on a Wednesday to enjoy the half price quesadillas, which are delicious!

Other specials include:

  • Sunday – half price sangria and nachos
  • Monday – half price tacos
  • Tuesday – half price margaritas
  • Wednesday – half price quesadillas

It is a great place to go before or after a Nats game, too!