Bars, what places! And what would be of them without that figure behind their bar who, in addition to making us happy, often listens to us. Today, Saturday, we celebrate International Bartender’s Day and to honor all mixologists we propose a short route away from those large cocktail bars like Sips or Paradiso where it is increasingly difficult to find a place.
In Born, for example, we recommend visiting Marlowe Bar (Rec, 24), a hidden place where bartenders secretly make pilgrimages. Or Mariposa Negra?(Plaça de les Olles, 4), which pays homage to the novelist Carlos Ruiz Zafón and which on the upper floor has a crafts workshop to create your own tableware.
In the Raval, you have to stop by Bareto Olimpic (Joaquín Costa, 25), an “old man’s bar” transformed into a cocktail bar, to have traditional drinks such as Sol y Sombra; or by Lucky Smucks (Joaquín Costa, 36), Two Smucks’ little brother, who is increasingly fashionable.
Gràcia is also slowly becoming cocktail territory. You can start the night in a great landmark such as 14 de la Rosa (Martínez de la Rosa, 14), and end it in Foco (Encarnació, 5), whose cocktail bet is causing people to talk; or at Oblique Hi-Fi Bar (Riera de Sant Miquel, 59), which in addition to interesting mixed drinks and natural wines livens up the nights with electronic music or jazz.
In Eixample, we propose two cocktail bars that are quite opposite to each other: Galileo by Campari (Aribau, 152), a cocktail-bistro with an Italian-Spanish soul, or Kaktos Botanical Society (Comte Borrell, 147), a new club that combines cocktails with a endless artistic activities.
Fan of hotel bars? You have to go to the Punch Room at the Barcelona Edition hotel, the Libertine at Casa Bonay, or the Banker’s Bar at the Mandarin Oriental. They are the best in Barcelona.