Mission Cantina opens tonight in Hollywood

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With the opening of Mission Cantina tonight, George Abou-Daoud, owner of Bowery and Delancey, is on his way to becoming the trendy food-and-drink czar of Hollywood Boulevard east of Vine.

The inside of the small space looks a bit like a reclaimed church with stained-glass windows, six cozy booths and a long 20-seat bar made of oak and Douglas fir that Abou-Daoud designed himself. There are also six large cocktail tables on the front courtyard patio.

‘We’re definitely a bar,’ says Abou-Daoud, who describes the food as ‘Mexican street food’ and says that the house specialty is the tacos. There are the typical offerings such as carne asada and fish, but there are also more unusual offerings such as slow-cooked beef barbacoa and hickory smoked pork that’s ‘great with salsa verde.’

There are more than 150 varieties of tequila, too.

--Jessica Gelt