Food & Drink
Don Gato Tequila: Come for the Tequila, Stay for the Fever Dream
Luchadores! Cats! Gold medals! What more do you want?
If you’re going to fall down a rabbit hole, make it the one stocked with unhinged, wildly entertaining videos from Danny McBride’s tequila-soaked fever dream: Don Gato Tequila. You’ll lose an hour (probably more), but you’ll resurface dazzled, perplexed, and thirsty. For tequila? Obviously. You’ve just toured a world of luchadores, orange cats, and dance moves worthy of the best dive bars in town.
Mixing a bespoke mythology with a booming new tequila brand is entirely intentional, according to Jamie Soriano, head of marketing at Don Gato. The world didn’t need another tequila, but Don Gato appeared anyway: bold, smooth, and carrying a touch of well-earned swagger. McBride, his wife, and crew didn’t just launch a brand; they uncorked a legend and poured it straight into the bottle.
Their mission? “We want to deliver unapologetically delicious, additive-free tequila wrapped in a world of humor, heart, and old-school luchador bravado,” Soriano says. “We launched in late 2024, but Don Gato the legend has been around for decades, undefeated in the ring and undefeated in the pursuit of a damn good time.”
Has it, though? Is the legend true?
“Don Gato once beat 100 gorillas in a charity wrestling match… and then signed autographs for every single one,” Soriano adds. Because of course he did.
Mythology aside, the tequila slaps. Their Blanco took Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, and their Reposado matched it in New York City. Bottle Raiders even named it “one of the 5 best new tequilas under $60.”
“Not bad for a tequila brought into this world by a wrestler who refuses to remove his mask at TSA,” says Soriano.
But peel back the luchador mask and the velvet cat portraits, and you’ll find a tiny, relentless Charleston-born crew doing everything the stubborn, old-school way simply because it makes better tequila. No corporate puppet masters. No shortcuts. Just a handful of humans choosing the harder road on purpose, and pouring the results into every bottle.
“This might be the best tequila I’ve ever had.” – Danny McBride
“This might be the best tequila I’ve ever had,” adds Danny McBride. “And I’m not just saying that to pay off my huge tab from drinking way too much of it at Don Gato’s private fortress. For real.”
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