El Patio: A Welcome Addition to Sayulita’s Main Beach

Recently El Sayulero sat down with Luisa Viteri, owner of El Patio- a gorgeous, new Sayulita bar/restaurant serving fine cocktails and delicious, exotic tapas – to see what all the fuss was about.

How did the concept for El Patio first start brewing?

I think it started soon after I opened my popsicle store, La Reinita, which was in October 2015. At first I was just going to have a cocktail bar, but later I decided that we should have some delicious nibbles and tapas to complement our cocktail list. I guess I felt that Sayulita was becoming more international and diverse in its culinary appetites and I wanted to add to this by creating quality cocktails and food from around the world, served right on the beach.

What are your hours?

We are open from 11am to 8pm. Next season we plan to extend our opening hours. We will serve continental breakfast, so El Patio will open at 8am, and we will also be open later. We also plan to have events 2 times a week. It’s going to be busy.

Do you have an expanded vision? Is there more to come?

Being a bit of a foodie, I want to explore the world of tapas and cocktails a bit more and introduce new culinary flavors to keep things interesting. We have a very talented, award-winning mixologist from Mexico City who loves to play with botanicals for our cocktails and alcoholic popsicles. But generally we just want to do more sunset cocktail events, get a few more loungy beach chairs for people, and introduce more inspired flavors from around the world.

How is El Patio different from other beach bars?

Our focus is on premier, high quality cocktails, including the liquors, and the mixes, which we make fresh. We don’t use anything from a bottle.  Our prices are very competitive, even though I’m spending more than the average bar on ingredients.  As I already mentioned, our menu is also a little bit different, more international tapas and market food from Asia, Spain, Russia, France, and of course, our unique tropical twist on ceviches. We also put a lot of attention on the music we play and create a new playlist each fortnight that pairs with our food and drink specials and the energy of the season. We mix it up, but love to play old soul, Jazz, and R&B tunes.

How did you discover Sayulita?

I bought property here 18 years ago when it was just a jungle getaway.  My sister moved here a few years earlier, and with her business partner, built Haramara. I was living in Australia, but fell in love with Nayarit geographically, but didn’t decide to move here until 2007.

What do you love about Sayulita? What makes it special?

The nature…the surroundings and environment is quite spectacular. I think this is the most beautiful place…the jungles, the way the tropical and the mountains are so close, and the vegetation in between. I love Nayarit for that. It’s a beautiful state and so magnificent. I’ve also always liked the wildness of the west. It’s like a Wild West on the beach. You can see cowboys with surfboards. I’ve always thought that combination was quite special.  I remember one of the first images I had…my sister and I were walking toward the property we’d bought in the jungle and I saw an old character, “Chiripas,” sitting on his horse eating a mango, and I thought to myself, “that’s the epitome of good living”.

I also like that Sayulita is becoming more international and cultured- you’re seeing more Europeans, more Asians joining the mix of Mexicans, Canadians and Americans. In the last few years, I’ve also noticed a lot more young ex-pat families living here all year around - young entrepreneurial people doing their projects…I think that’s cool and appreciate the energy they bring.