Cien Agaves Tacos & Tequila opened a new location in Chandler on August 5, with a ribbon cutting scheduled for 4 p.m., according to KTAR.com and Arizona Foothills Magazine. The restaurant sits at 900 N. 54th Street, near 54th and Ray Road, and marks the concept's first expansion since its original Old Town Scottsdale location opened in 2007.
The new site is operated by Backbar Hospitality Management, which also runs Nello's Pizzeria and Italian Kitchen and Ghost Ranch Modern Southwest Cuisine in the Phoenix area, according to AZ Big Media and KTAR.com. Co-founders Roque Jimenez and Bob Schulken, who started the brand in Scottsdale, remain attached to the concept, and executive chef Memo Bracamonte will oversee both kitchens.
The room, by the numbers
The Chandler restaurant spans 5,000 square feet and can hold up to 300 guests, split between 250 indoor seats and 50 across two patios, per multiple outlets including KTAR.com and Arizona Foothills Magazine. That capacity puts it roughly in line with a large suburban casual dining buildout, and the two-patio layout mirrors a format Cien Agaves already uses at its Old Town Scottsdale flagship.
A restaurant business, not a producer, but the spirits list is the pitch
Cien Agaves markets itself less as a taco restaurant with a bar than as an agave spirits destination that happens to serve food. Multiple outlets describe the program as featuring more than 100 premium tequilas and mezcals sourced from what AZ Big Media described as heritage distilleries and small-batch producers from across Mexico. Arizona Foothills Magazine framed the intent as introducing guests to the craftsmanship and regional diversity behind agave spirits.
None of the current coverage names the specific labels on the Chandler list, so it is not possible to say how much of that 100-plus count overlaps with the small, low-intervention houses Tequila Watch scores highest, such as Fortaleza or Siete Leguas, versus higher-volume brands that dominate most restaurant back bars. Tequila Watch has not scored a restaurant's pour list as a category. Our blind scoring applies to individual bottles, and a venue's claim to carry more than 100 expressions says nothing on its own about purity status or production practice at the distillery level. Readers who care about that distinction should treat the marketing language as a starting point, not a verification.
What the ownership history actually shows
The framing of Chandler as the brand's second Arizona location needs a footnote. Cien Agaves previously opened a North Scottsdale restaurant in December 2017, its second location at the time, according to a RestaurantNews.com release from that opening. Yelp's current listing for that North Scottsdale address shows the location as closed. That closure, not confirmed with a date by the outlets covering the Chandler opening, is what makes Chandler the brand's second active Arizona site rather than its third, and it is worth noting that current press coverage does not mention the earlier location's closure at all.
What we are watching
The date and circumstances under which the North Scottsdale location closed, since no outlet covering the Chandler opening addressed it directly.
Whether Cien Agaves or Backbar Hospitality Management releases a specific brand list for the Chandler spirits program, which would let us check how many bottles on it fall into Verified Pure territory versus additive-permitted diffusion brands.
Early performance signals out of the Chandler site, including whether Backbar pursues a third Arizona location given the pace of its restaurant portfolio growth.
Any independent trade press coverage beyond the initial wave of local lifestyle outlets, since the story so far rests on a shared press release distributed around the same August 5 opening date.