Cocktails are like bitter taste or savory breakfasts: a pleasure to be discovered in adulthood(regardless of the age at which it comes to us). For its complexity, its nuances and also, unfortunately, for its price. Of course, once you’ve made your way from the cubata to the cocktail, there’s no turning back. As a necessity created, from blow there will be nights or moments that before we do not know what they were for, but today require a cocktail, and drinks whose simplicity will make us release small sighs of longing.
But not to worry, because for those moments there is this list. And as Barcelona is one of the capitals of cocktails, here are some of the best ones that, as our parents used to say, we will understand when we grow up.
Dr. Stravinsky, the alchemist’s paradise
In Dr. Stravinsky everything, from the location of the place, to its appearance and its name, seem to indicate that in that place a foreign and crazy alchemist elaborates secret potions to achieve eternal youth. In its windows, which look out onto a dark alley in the Borne, glow copper stills that decanted drop by drop some potions that although they will not give us back our youth, they will make us believe it for a while.
Seventy percent of this cocktail bar’s booze is made right here, and the steam-punk lab look of the place makes it easy for us to believe it. Its varied menu, with inventions far from the classic cocktail where herbs and fruity infusions abound in fancy glasses. The place, owned by the same owners as Paradiso or Confiteria, proves that there are people here who know how to shake a cocktail shaker to make some of the best cocktails in Barcelona
📍 Carrer dels Mirallers, 5, el Borne.
Dry Martini, lord and master
We don’t say so ourselves, but all your awards:the Dry Martini bar directed with an iron hand by Javier de las Muelas, is one of the best in the world. The classic aroma is breathed from the name, to its star cocktail (guess which one), through the decor, wood, leather and carpet, as it could not be otherwise in the highest area of Barcelona.
From the alleys of the Borne to the right angles of the Eixample, two ways to be a scoundrel with a cocktail in hand. Here the waiters wear white and the customers wear long dresses and handkerchiefs peeking out of their jackets. But here the dress-code does not exist (although it is breathed), so if you want to have a map of the city’s cocktails in your head, you have to have passed, at least once, by one of the world temples of the proximity cocktail that is in your city.
📍 Carrer d’Aribau, 162, Eixample Esquerra.
Paradiso, the hidden paradise behind a deli
The fact that there are queues in Barcelona is no longer something striking. Even so, one is surprised when in the middle of Borne one finds a line around the corner for a pastrami sandwich store. As you approach, you’ll see the lucky ones who enter walk right past the deli, and into a door that leads, as the name says, to paradise, the place where the Greek gods, instead of ambrosia, would drink signature cocktails.
In the world of cocktails in Barcelona, paradise is the summit. Here officiate the best cocktail makers of 2014 and 2019 and the list of cocktail awards goes on and on. Surprise when looking at his letter either. Forget the Moscow Mule or the Margaritas and order The Great Gatsby, with whiskey and white truffle honey, with vodka, mezcal, amaro and coffee cloud, among others… the offer is crazy and the space is beautiful, so we’d better take a place in line.
📍 Carrer Rera Palau, 4, El Borne.
Monk, the little brother of Paradiso
About Monk we talked to you when it opened because there are few places more privileged to enjoy a drink than a luxury cocktail bar hidden behind a grocery store run by a Pakistani. The secret of this speak-easy cocktail bar lasted only a few days, and now you have to wait in line or sign up on a list to get in, but it’s worth the wait.
Created by the owners of Paradiso (in fact it is defined as “its little sister”) and led by the same bartender, Monk wants to be one of the best cocktail bars in Barcelona, but also an artistic space and a small dance club divided into two environments, all with the seal of quality of the Confectionery Group. It is flawless, once you get in, the experience is perfect.
📍 Secret location
Negroni, modern classics
From the Dry Martini to the Negroni, there is nothing like a classic name to imply that bread is served in a bar. The Negroni, however, is different from the Dry. Far from the classic wood, its metallic decoration and red lighting can almost remind you of the delirium rather than the seat. And far from the upper area , the Negroni, in Joaquim Costa, near the MACBA, Plaza Universidad and everything, in the heart of the Raval, invites more to dive into the night trying to balance a drink than to surf it quietly sitting on a leather sofa.
Here the Negroni dominates, obviously, but also the Moscow Mule, the Bloody Mary, the Mimosa or any other classic cocktail that you have to bring learned from home because the Negroni does not have a menu. Here it is a matter of overcoming the first obstacle of the ticket to the world of cocktails, the embarrassment, and ask without fear to be advised, because in an authentic cocktail bar like this one, the experts will know with two words (and looking at our faces), how to initiate us in the night of the worlds (of the cocktail).
📍 Carrer de Joaquín Costa, 46, Raval.
Two Schmucks, from the best to the best
And a couple of doors away, attention, one of the best cocktail bars in the world and, therefore, one of the best cocktail bars in Barcelona. Two Schmucks (Joaquim Costa, 52) has earned its position in eleventh place on the list of the best cocktail bars in the world combining quality and a job well done with an honest and hooligan tone. One of those places where it’s not really clear who is enjoying it more, the customer or whoever is serving behind the bar. And a little further down the street, on the same street, is Fat Schmucks, their sandwich place where you can’t make reservations but it’s well worth it.
📍 Carrer de Joaquín Costa, 52, Raval.
Marlowe, oasis of the Borne
The fact that the Borne concentrates so many cocktail bars is an easy coincidence to explain: as much partying as the Raval, a little more purchasing power. There are still no sociological studies to explain the proliferation of cocktail bars in Barcelona and its distribution by neighborhoods, but until it comes out we can make time to visit them all to arm ourselves with information starting with Marlowe, which has everything you ask a cocktail bar without delusions of any kind.
Sober but elegant and comfortable premises, classic cocktail menu with concessions from the bartender, cocktail waiters in uniform but without suits and bow ties, and, in short, an atmosphere that allows you to flee from the whirlwind of the Passeig del Borne party scene very close to Passeig del Borne.
The bartender helps with a left hand and is right, you just have to ask, the Old Fashioned and the Pisco Sour are great, it has a small terrace for those who enjoy the outdoors and if you pay attention to its clientele you will see an indicative sign of its level: many of those who sit at the bar are waiters from other bars in the area, who come here to take the good drinks they do not serve in their workplaces.
📍 Carrer del Rec, 24, El Borne.
Boadas, where classics are born
Stepping on La Rambla seems today an entelechy for a Barcelonian perhaps that is why the Boadas is often far from the usual route of the city’s younger drinkers, who forget that what was once the liveliest artery of the city is also home to what was (and is) one of its best cocktail bars.
El Boadas is the dean of mixology and mixology in the city, one of the best cocktail bars in Barcelona (and undoubtedly the most historic), a classic place on the corner of Tallers where everyone (literally everyone, look at the pictures on the walls), has gone for a drink (or two).
We are not the ones to take that credit away from them, so let’s honor our elders, and go back to drinking the classics. Close to Plaza Ctalunya, two steps away from everything, you can order any Margarita, Manhattan or Tom Collins you can think of or you can order a Boadas and pay homage to the place.
📍 Carrer de Tallers, 1, Raval.
Especiarium, the spice mixture
When a cocktail bar is born from the hand of the best cocktail maker in Spain in 2019, it is born with guarantees. Antonio Naranjo comes from Dr. Stravinsky, and from the ticket we have a place that evokes the name of the same, a spice store in which, as if it were a herbalist, looking for mixtures of herbs and aromas that cure us of any ailment.
Here you will find surprises. From the shooters on the wall, who (in an increasingly widespread technique), bring out cocktails that they themselves pre-prepare, to the liqueurs with herbs that they have macerated or infused or worked with some other technique that allows them, for example, to create bourbon cocktails with croissant or Moroccan tagine.
📍 Carrer de la Princesa, 29,
SIPS, the third best cocktail bar in the world
We have already told you about it. Don’t let Paradiso’s first place in the World’s 50 Best distract you, because Sips was on the same podium , in third place, forming a dream team of award-winning cocktail bars in Barcelona that is really scary.
Sips was opened by Simone Caporale and Marc Alvarez. The first was responsible for Artesian Bar outside, in London, four times in a row best bar in the world and the second, head of bars of Albert Adrià’s El Barri group. With this resume, nothing fails in a place dedicated to drinks that go beyond the cocktail.
📍 C/ de Muntaner, 108,
The Alchemix, the gastro-cocktail bar
So that a cocktail bar listed among the best restaurants in the country s has to be doing things right. The Alchemix goes beyond the cocktail bar to create a gastro-cocktail bar where fancy cocktails are accompanied by snacks such as capipota mochi or bacon oysters.
Their drinks are overflowing with creativity, from the White Truffle Pisco Sour to Mrs. Potts and Little Chip, served in a “Beauty and the Beast” mug. Two cocktails that point the way for the restaurant and create a menu that works both by separating the liquid and solid sections and by joining both in a tasting menu.
📍 C/ Valencia, 212
Ideal cocktail bar, back to the classic
Fabric and leather sofas, carpet on the floor and pictures of mustachioed men on the walls. Welcome to the Ideal, the cocktail bar that returns to the past and reminds us what a cocktail baris. Very close to the modern Sips, the Ideal seems to go in the opposite direction, maintaining the essence of the most classic cocktail bars.
Run by Josep Maria Gotarda, here the waiters wear morning coats, and the menu features traditional drinks that are elevated by the bartenders’ masterful cocktail shaker strokes. A privilege of a place where the cocktail is not drunk, it is enjoyed.
📍 C/ d’Aribau, 89
Florería atlántico
The best cocktail bar in Buenos Aires, the 18th best in the world, the work of Tato Giovannoni (world’s best cocktail maker in 2020), has landed in Barcelona. Florería Atlántico has crossed the ocean to open a double concept: Brasero Atlántico, a modern Argentinean steakhouse (with bar) on the surface, and Florería, a speak-easy cocktail bar (with restaurant) in the basement.
Upstairs,Argentinean grilled meats with some concessions to French cuisine. Downstairs, a party cocktail bar where you can try the classic cocktails of the Florería bonaerense along with a fish menu that seeks to travel around the Mediterráneo.
📍 C/ d’Aribau, 89