Just up an eerily lit stairwell off of Clinton Street, bass music pounding louder with each step, are the sleek wooden bars and brick studio walls of Coa Cantina, Iowa City’s beloved tequila bar.
Despite its fairly recent opening in February 2023, Coa Cantina has been embraced by college students and city locals. It has been featured on several of Iowa City’s bar crawls hosted by LineLeap, and locals love grabbing dinner and margaritas before the nightlife takes over the streets.
When it comes to margaritas, Coa Cantina pulls out all the stops. With fresh ingredients, impeccable presentation, and good-natured bartenders, every drink is a delicious work of art and represents the bar’s mission to ensure everyone simply enjoys themselves.
“It’s very friendly, welcoming, and just a great environment to work in,” Javi Rivera, the general manager of Coa Cantina, said.
After bartending at Pints, a since-closed bar previously located on Clinton Street, for three years, Rivera said he needed a change. When the position for general manager at Coa Cantina started hiring, he tossed his hat in the ring — and has been there ever since.
On Friday, Rivera concocted two cocktails for The Daily Iowan — a spicy mango margarita and a frozen piña colada made with tequila instead of rum.
Rivera’s hands moved deftly between ingredients as he explained his process. For the spicy mango margarita, a cocktail carried over from Coa Cantina’s Des Moines location, Rivera began with pours of freshly squeezed lime juice and house-made mango purée sweetened with special syrup over ice in his shaker.
He finished the mixture off with house-infused jalapeño tequila — the jalapeño seeds still in the glass bottle — which takes the bar about five days to make per batch. After giving the beverage several generous shakes, Rivera gave a cactus glass a chamoy rim and poured the margarita over ice, completing the look with a tamarind candy straw.
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Anyone who likes a little extra kick in their sweet drinks will love the spicy mango margarita, with the jalapeño just strong enough — but not overpowering.
On the opposite end of the flavor spectrum is the all-sweet piña colada, for which Rivera coated the rim of a cactus glass in coconut cream and sprinkled it with shaved coconut. He then filled the glass with the bar’s pre-made frozen tequila piña colada mixture, which consists of a pineapple purée filtered several times to remove all the pulp and eliminate any consistency issues for customers.
He completed the presentation of the glass with a pineapple skewer — which would typically also include a maraschino cherry — and two pineapple leaves.
This refreshing beverage was introduced in July and has since been one of Coa Cantina’s most popular drinks, Rivera said. It serves as a saccharine, dessert-like contrast to the spicy mango margarita.
“Everyone loves it,” Rivera said. “We go through it a lot.”
Both cocktails — like every other beverage on Coa Cantina’s menu — do not have to be enjoyed exclusively by customers over 21. For those underage, any alcohol can be substituted with non-alcoholic counterparts so that the flavors of the drinks won’t change.
Rivera hopes these cocktails, along with the bar’s updated food menu and daily specials, will continue to attract locals and college students.
“I love the fact that we’re in the nightlife,” Rivera said. “People come and have a great time, you see people dance to the DJ, and it’s just, in my eyes, very welcoming.”