Tower gets a margarita bar. This Fresno restaurant also has a new name, location and menu
A margarita bar?
Yep, the Tower District in Fresno has one now.
The bar specializing in margaritas, along with the restaurant accompanying it, might have a familiar ring to some Fresnans.
CDT Cocina is in the same building as the Tower Theatre, just west of the theater and facing Olive Avenue.
You may remember it in its previous life as Casa de Tamales, which most recently was located down the street where Banzai Japanese Bar & Kitchen is now. (Casa de Tamales also had other locations over the years on West Shaw Avenue and Fulton Street and sold its tamales at farmers markets.)
We’ll get to what inspired the change to CDT Cocina in a moment, but first, let’s check out the food and drink options. You can still get tamales here — and a lot more.
“It’s a resurrection and transformation,” said owner and founder Liz Sanchez, who has been serving margaritas with the new menu for about month.
The food and drinks
The menu still features traditional tamales and modern ones like creamy chicken poblano tamales or vegan spinach and artichoke tamales.
The entire restaurant is still gluten free.
But now, the menu (while still small) includes five kinds of tacos. They range from vegan fried cauliflower to a slow-roasted carnitas.
Habanero pesto french fries topped with ranch are on the menu, along with chips, salsa and guacamole.
Expect to see more items on the menu soon.
And of course, there’s the margarita bar.
Casa de Tamales had margaritas before, but they were wine-based as the restaurant’s liquor license only allowed it to serve beer and wine. Now with a new liquor license, the margaritas are made with tequila.
Tequila margaritas
Five kinds of margaritas are on the menu, most made with tequila infused in-house with fruit or herbs.
The signature CDT cocktail is made with fig-infused tequila with citrus flavors. There is also a paloma, a drink made with pink grapefruit and tequila.
And one drink is made with bright orange carrot juice (though it tastes much more like a cocktail than a vegetable).
Two kinds of Modelo are on tap, and bottled Mexican beers are also available.
One tidbit to note: Some tequila bottles have a tag with the silhouette of a woman digging up an agave plant (the base ingredient of tequila). That means that distillery is owned by a woman.
It’s also why you see a larger, mirrored version of the woman and the agave behind the bar and signs like “la jefa” (the boss) on the wall. It’s a nod by the boss lady who founded this business to other women-owned companies.
CDT Cocina does not have a full bar, however, and doesn’t have a loud bar scene.
“Adding the margaritas just complements the food we already have,” Sanchez said. “We’re about the food. We’re a family-oriented business.”
Why the change?
So why the new name, location and menu?
“Really, COVID just inspired everything,” Sanchez said. “There was a lot of change that had to happen and we changed with it.”
When her lease was up at the old spot in 2020, she didn’t renew it.
Technically, Casa de Tamales closed. Sanchez started interviewing for other jobs in restaurant management, where she spent much of her early career.
Then one day her husband said he found her the perfect job. It was a start-up looking for someone with experience building a business from the ground up, he said.
What’s it called, she asked him. CDT Cocina, he said. He had already filed the paperwork to incorporate and made a few other preliminary moves.
“I wanted to cry and laugh at the same time,” she said.
This was in late 2020, and the restaurant has been taking shape ever since. The name CDT Cocina (pronounced co-SEEN-a, Spanish for kitchen) was a way to move beyond focusing on tamales.
It moved into the new space in late 2020 with just access to the kitchen and patio. Since then, Sanchez has remodeled the dining room and has been slowly building the menu, bar and its hours (which will continue to expand).
“I could not be more grateful for the loyalty that I’ve had over the years and it just makes me work harder to make sure we deliver on that,” she said. “I’m so happy to be here in Tower.”
Details: CDT Cocina is at 805 E. Olive Ave. Hours: For now, hours are 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays, 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays.
This story was originally published May 25, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
