Mama Rabbit Mezcal + Tequila Bar to Close at Park MGM
The forgettable Mama Rabbit Mezcal + Tequila Bar at the personality-free Park MGM will close on a nondescript day, Sep. 14, 2026.
Seriously, Sep. 14 is aggressively just a date. It’s not fall yet, but it doesn’t really feel like summer. It’s after Labor Day. There’s no federal holiday or widely observed cultural event attached to it.
September 14 is a metaphor for Mama Rabbit. Which is closing. At Park MGM. After a seven-year run of you not going there, you selfish bastard.
Mama Rabbit Mezcal + Tequila opened Aug. 28, 2019, in a 4,400-square-foot space next to Best Friend, another place we keep meaning to go, but Eataly is just a few feet away and we are an Italian food person, all due respect to Roy Choi.
Mama Rabbit was created in collaboration with Bricia Lopez, a restaurateur and “mezcal evangelist” whose family operates the acclaimed Guelaguetza restaurant in L.A., which features Oaxacan cuisine. If you don’t know where Oaxaca is, you are an unsophisticated rube.
Oaxaca is a state in southern Mexico. Today we learned Mexico has states. We also learned Oaxacan cuisine features moles. Why isn’t this more controversial?
Mama Rabbit boasted more than 500 tequila and mezcal labels and claimed the largest collection of the spirits in the country.
The name “Mama Rabbit” refers to the legend of Mayahuel, the Aztec goddess associated with agave and fertility. Mayahuel was the mother of 400 rabbits, each representing a different state of intoxication.
We personally have only experienced three states of intoxication: 1) tipsy, 2) oddly aroused by folded deli meat and 3) how did we end up in the Golden Nugget shark tank?
Anyway, when it opened, Mama Rabbit made a splash for its interior design. Which undermines our whole “forgettable” narrative, but it’s unlikely anyone has read this far, so we aren’t rewriting anything.
DesignAgency created the space after Lopez and designer Anwar Mekhayech traveled through Oaxaca for inspiration. Spanish pop-surrealist artist Okuda San Miguel created the colorful “Mother Natura” installation, including a Mayahuel-inspired mural and three oversized animal sculptures, two deer and a rabbit, incorporating slot machines.
There was a double-sided bar, fireplace, Oaxacan artifacts, hidden rabbits and a flower-cart DJ booth.
Mama Rabbit got increasingly desperate as time went by, leaning into live entertainment, particularly on weekends and Dolby Live concert nights.
No replacement has been announced for Mama Rabbit.
We can only hope its replacement does not serve moles.
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