City of cocktails

Barcelona has the best cock­tail bars in the world. Ac­cord­ing to the World’s 50 Best Bars rank­ing, the first, third and sev­enth best cock­tail bars are in the Cata­lan cap­i­tal. Par­adiso run by Gi­a­como Gi­an­notti on Car­rer Rere Palau in the Born neigh­bour­hood, Sips, founded by Si­mone Ca­po­rale and Marc Álvarez, on Car­rer Muntaner, and Two Schmucks, on Car­rer Joaquim Costa, in the heart of Raval, the neigh­bour­hood with the most bars in the city.

Else­where in Spain, only Madrid has a cock­tail bar on the world’s best rank­ing, Salmon Guru (15th), which in­di­cates that the Cata­lan cap­i­tal is also the city in Spain with the best bars. This ex­plains why the last edi­tion of The World’s 50 Best Bars award cer­e­mony, in Oc­to­ber, was held in Barcelona, in Les Are­nas for­mer bull­ring.

Par­adiso came out top as num­ber one in the World’s Best rank­ing, which val­ues the Barcelona cock­tail bars not only for the end prod­uct, but also for the so­phis­ti­cated, in­ti­mate at­mos­phere of the premises, their in­te­gra­tion in their local neigh­bour­hoods, and even the glasses in which the drinks are served. Every small de­tail counts when it comes to rank­ing such elite es­tab­lish­ments.

Among Par­adiso’s star cock­tails is Roots (made with Seedlip Gar­den, peas, ver­bena, lemon, roses and earth), and also note­wor­thy is the Evo­lu­tion Ne­groni (with bour­bon, mango and vanilla, among other in­gre­di­ents), a cock­tail in­vented in Flo­rence in 1919 but strongly as­so­ci­ated with the city of Barcelona. In fact, it was with a Ne­groni cock­tail that the Cata­lan Manel Vehí, from Boia in Cadaqués and the now closed Doble in Barcelona, won the bar­tenders world cham­pi­onship in 2015.

As for third-place Sips, which is in the Eix­am­ple neigh­bour­hood, the World’s 50 Best de­scribes it as a bar where “spec­tac­u­lar cock­tails are served in elab­o­rate glass­ware that is caus­ing a sen­sa­tion around the world”. One of those spec­tac­u­lar cock­tails is Walk­ing through the neigh­bour­hood of Ha­vana (Diplo­matic Rum, fine sherry, saf­fron and pineap­ple, served with shaved ice in­fused with grape­fruit).

The other Barcelona bar in the top ten is Two Schmucks, a youth­ful cock­tail bar that is the sev­enth best in the world, ac­cord­ing to the rank­ing. Shmucks Ves­per (gin, vodka, Whiskey Neb­ula, and pieces of pecorino) is the star cock­tail at this bar lo­cated in heart of the Raval, the down-to-earth neigh­bour­hood in the city cen­tre that has the most, and the most di­verse, bars in all of Barcelona. And Raval not only boasts new fancy bars like Two Schmucks, but it is also home to Boadas, the old­est cock­tail bar in Barcelona, on the cor­ner of La Ram­bla and Car­rer Tallers. The bar was founded in 1933 by Miguel Boadas Par­era, a cousin of Narcís Sala Par­era, who founded the leg­endary El Floridita cock­tail bar in La Ha­bana which Hem­ing­way fre­quented. And very close to Boadas is the also his­toric Caribbean Club, on Car­rer Sit­ges, which has long been pop­u­lar for both its cock­tails and its at­mos­phere.

Also in Raval, on Car­rer Vall­donzella, the en­ter­pris­ing Lebanese bar­tender Jad Ball­out, whose Dead End Par­adise in Beirut made the list of the hun­dred best bars in the world, has re­cently opened a branch of the iconic bar in Lebanon that was de­stroyed in an ex­plo­sion in the port of Beirut in 2020. The Cata­lan cap­i­tal is now the city from which Ball­out of­fers his cock­tails with their dis­tinc­tive Mediter­ranean char­ac­ter.

Out­side the cen­tral Ciu­tat Vella dis­trict there are even more cock­tail bars to be found that are also part of the his­tory of the city, such as Javier de las Mue­las’ Dry Mar­tini on Car­rer Aribau, or The Al­chemix, on Car­rer València, which is also pop­u­lar for its food.

Fea­ture food & drink