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An establishment right here in the great Garden State recently set a world record.

On National Tequila Day, during a July 24 ceremony in downtown Metuchen, Guinness World Records designated Meximodo the location with the most varieties of agave spirits commercially available in a bar-restaurant anywhere. The total exceeds 1,000 hand-selected bottles.

“I’ve got the final count – 748 tequilas, 246 mezcals and 39 agaves for a total of 1,033 varieties,” said Andy Glass, Guinness World Records adjudicator, who was on hand at the ceremony. “It is my honor to present this Guinness World Records title. Congratulations – you are officially amazing.”

“Our research found several global contenders for this title, but Meximodo proved with absolute certainty that they have the most tequilas and mezcals at a bar-restaurant in the world,” Mackenzie Berry of Guinness World Records said in a statement.

Stocking up

As NJBIZ reported, Meximodo opened last November in a central hub in the Brainy Borough’s downtown area.

“As we built our tequila and mezcal list for Meximodo and saw the number of bottles increasing exponentially, we realized that we had the potential for a world record, and we made our submission for an Official Attempt,” said Saurabh Abrol, owner of parent company Le Malt Hospitality Group, in advance of the ceremony. “We are thrilled to have Guinness World Records confirm this achievement!”

During the event, Abrol acknowledged it was a stressful few days as Meximodo waited to learn if it had, in fact, broken the record.

“We literally did not know if we were going to break this record until yesterday,” said Abrol after being presented with the title. “It was a very stressful last few days. And thank you to the team at Guinness for coming down and awarding us this prestigious award – that is extremely, extremely tough to get. We’ve been working on this for the last few months. But the vision really started of Meximodo about four years ago when I first saw this location.”

As he recounted that process, Abrol said he fell in love with the prime spot in the heart of Downtown Metuchen, which won a prestigious award of its own last year – and knew Meximodo would break some kind of record.

Another draw

After acknowledging family, friends and other stakeholders, Abrol emphasized the efforts of his team. He described them as the best in the world, while giving special thanks to the patrons.

“Our most important thanks goes out to our customers for making this place successful,” said Abrol. “Thank you so much for continuing to come back and entrusting your experience with Meximodo and our team – who make sure that you have the best food, best quality, best drinks, best experience, best everything. We are so grateful to have our customers here every single day.”

“We’re beyond excited to share this World Record with our New Jersey community, along with the entire world,” said TJ Pingitore, Le Malt’s senior vice president of strategic development. “As Guinness World Records says – it’s OFFICIALLY AMAZING!”

“A Guinness World Record being awarded to Meximodo is another exciting, unexpected surprise in Downtown Metuchen’s trajectory,” Dawn Mackey, Metuchen Downtown Alliance executive director, told NJBIZ. “Another reason for people to come visit us for the first time. I fully believe if we can get you here once – you’ll come back again and again!”