Milagro Modern Mexican (20 Allen Ave. Webster Groves; 314-962-4300)
The margarita, like the martini, is a cocktail of simple, ineffable beauty that a generation of overeager and/or clueless bartenders (or, God help us, "mixologists") have either needlessly complicated with unnecessary extra ingredients -- remember the prickly-pear margarita boom? No? We blocked it out, too -- or dumbed down by cutting corners with sour mix and other such abominations. Not so at Milagro Modern Mexican, where the $10 top-shelf margarita returns the drink to its perfect roots: a reposado tequila of your choice (Don Julio, Patron, Tres Generaciones or Rio Azul) shaken with agave nectar and freshly squeezed lime juice. Atop this, for the final touch, the bartender floats Cointreau. The result is a gorgeous drink: sweet, tart, smoky, salty. You need nothing more or less for a great margarita -- except, perhaps, a second round.
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