Barcelona will once again host the best bar in the world, although it is not the Paradiso cocktail bar, which until a few hours ago topped the ranking of The World's 50 Best Bars. El Sips, the avant-garde bar of bartenders Marc Álvarez and Simone Caporale in the Eixample (Mutaner, 108), will be in charge of replacing it after it was proclaimed number one (previously it was third) in the new list of 50 best bars in the world announced yesterday in Singapore, a victory that the two bartenders have celebrated from there.
Even so, Paradiso, Giacomo Gianotti's cocktail bar hidden behind a pastrami bar in Born (Rera Palau, 4), continues to occupy a high position in the ranking: fourth. New York's Double Chicken Please (number 2) and Mexican Handshake Speakeasy (number 3) have been placed in front.
On the other hand, Salmón Guru, Diego Cabrera's bar in Madrid, has dropped one place on the list, going from number 15 to 16, and Barcelona's Two Smucks has disappeared, which in 2022 occupied seventh place before his bartender, Moe Aljaff, announced his departure due to disagreements with the other owners of the business.
For those who don't know Sips, the bar on Carrer Muntaner opened its doors in the middle of the pandemic under the guidance of two very reputable bartenders: Marc Álvarez, who was responsible for the elBarri group's cocktail bar, and the Italian Simone Caporale, which for four years was number one on The World's 50 Best Bars list while he was at the helm of Artesian at The Langham Hotel in London, along with Alex Kratena.
Together they created what they like to call a drinkery, that is, a drinks house with a very London concept and spirit in which cocktails coexist with other drinks and where they plan to open Esencia very soon in their speakeasy, the first bar with cocktail tasting menu in Barcelona and, possibly, in the world. An opening that they already announced last year and that seems to be finally about to arrive.
Their cocktails, although creative and innovative, remain faithful to the classics, since according to the two cocktail makers, there can be no avant-garde without tradition.
A year ago, Álvarez and Caporale also took over the reins of the historic Boadas cocktail bar ( Workshops, 1). Although both are creative bartenders, they assured a few days ago on their 90th birthday that there will be no changes in the offer. "We intend to fix some details and improve the quality of some ingredients, but we will not change either the decoration or the style of the cocktails. Boadas remains as is".
