Jennifer Contraveos, one member of a fierce mixology team that'll be shaking at Mercadito.

New York Mexican restaurant Mercadito is slated to open its Chicago location in the middle of September, and so far the buzz has been all about its tacos: pastor tacos, garlic-shrimp tacos and, mostly, the beer-battered-fish tacos.

But after hearing who’ll be working the bar at Mercadito, I’m more excited about the cocktails. The list has been created by the Tippling Bros., the cocktail consulting company helmed by renowned bartenders Tad Carducci and Paul Tanguay. (You may be more familiar with one of the Tippling Bros.’ competitors, Alchemy Consulting, made up of the Violet Hour’s Toby Malony and Jason Cott.) Executing those cocktails is an impressive team of Chicago mixologists: Dan de Olivera, who comes from the BOKA Restaurant Group; Jennifer Contraveos, a cocktail-competition veteran who comes from La Madia; Kyle McHugh, another cocktail-competition vet who also owns Drinks Over Dearborn; and Daniel Love, who represented Chicago in a national cocktail competition recently (and whom you’ll read more about in next week’s TOC).

So are you still thinking about those tacos? Didn’t think so. But at least we’ll have something to snack on while we drink.