It’s 6:30 p.m. and there are already more than 50 people crowded at the door of Sips (Muntaner, 108) waiting for their turn to try the drinks at the new best bar in the world. Not even a week has passed since Marc Álvarez and Simone Caporale’s cocktail bar won this title – it did so last Tuesday at the gala that The World’s 50 Best Bars held in Singapore – and it doesn’t fit a pin either. Loyal patrons, curious citizens and informed tourists mingle at the tables while the bartenders efficiently attend to all their demands.
The rhythm and joy can be felt in this cocktail bar that opened its doors in the middle of the pandemic thanks to two number ones: let’s remember that Álvarez worked side by side with Albert Adrià in the group El Barri for years; and that Caporale topped The World’s 50 Best Bars list four times while at the helm alongside Alex Kratena of the Artesian at The Langham hotel in London. Perhaps this is the reason why Sips works like clockwork, everyone knows what they have to do at all times and it is impossible to cut the chain.
Whatever drink you order, it will probably begin to be made at the bar at the back of the cocktail bar. There one of the bartenders will prepare the decoration for your glass, the ice and all the decorative and aromatic elements that you may need. Afterwards he will move to the central bar, where they deal with the ‘liquid’ part.
On the menu, twenty-six cocktails, half creation, half classic, “slightly tweaked, but faithful to the classic,” explains Álvarez. These will be accompanied in a few months by the second part of the project, Esencia, the first bar with a cocktail tasting menu in Barcelona and, possibly, in the world, which will be located in the Sips speakeasy.
We want them to surprise us with their most creative cocktails, so we choose to start the night with the Kripta, “a new way to breathe a cocktail,” says the menu. He arrives at the table in an imposing crystal glass with aromatic herbs hanging from the casing to enhance the olfactory experience. In the liquid? Gin, armagnac and clarified plum.
We move on to the next cocktail: the Bubbles, perhaps their friendliest drink because while they are preparing it they already suggest you start playing with the soap bubbles that they bring to the table. Afterwards, the bubbles become the stars of the cocktail, which is served accompanied with a glass of cava. This is a version of the classic Pornstar Martini, with a different format and edible bubbles.
To finish we ordered one of the new drinks of this season – another of the strengths of this house is working with the ingredients that the season gives us. Hume Whiskey comes to the table with a much more classic appearance than anything that came before: a large ice in a classic whiskey glass, the latter distilled, palo Cortado and clarified plum. Of the three we have tried, it is the one that impresses us the most in terms of flavor.
It’s 7:30 p.m. and it’s time to leave the table, not because they ask us to, but because seeing the line at the bar it almost seems like an act of honor. “We are working on improving the reservation system,” says Álvarez, adding that it is the only thing they are considering changing, for the moment, in the new best bar in the world.
