While Mexico is best known for its tequila and mezcal, recent years have brought a deluge of beautifully crafted cocktails to its capital. Bars like Licorer\u00eda Limantour have made waves internationally and are leading the up-and-coming scene. Now, there’s a chance to bar hop some award-winning cocktail bars and see a new side to CDMX.<\/p>\n
Mexico City is a sprawling and intense metropolis. Grand Art Nouveau houses with crumbling facades line multi-lane highways crowded with vehicles. Street vendors steep the city in the smell of slow roasting\u00a0al pastor<\/em>\u00a0while world-class restaurants abound boasting minimalist aesthetics and gastronomic prowess. The cocktail scene, once confined to passable martinis found in the fancier hotels, grew from these culinary roots, and now the city\u2019s most fashionable neighborhoods are dotted with contemporary bars and a new generation of bartenders redefining cocktail culture as something distinctly Mexican.<\/p>\n La Roma, made famous by the Oscar-winning movie, is also one of Mexico City\u2019s most vibrant neighborhoods. Its main boulevard, Avenida \u00c1lvaro Obreg\u00f3n, is lined with bars, restaurants, and cafes, shaded by the towering Jacaranda trees. Off a side street, you\u2019ll find Franca, a casual bistro with excellent pizza, but head next door through the double doors and up a narrow staircase for its sister cocktail bar, Casa Franca. Made of a collection of small sumptuously decorated rooms, with heavy drapes, brocade wallpaper, gilded mirrors and golden lighting, it feels like a 1920\u2019s salon. Watch the jazz band, which takes centerstage in the main space, or take up one of the bar stools in the adjacent room and marvel as the bartenders create one pleasingly strong cocktail after another. \u00a0<\/p>\n Just over the road from Casa Franca is Licorer\u00eda Limantour. If there was one bar in the city considered the mother of Mexico\u2019s modern craft cocktail movement \u2013 even in Latin America \u2013 this is the one. Opened in 2011, it now ranks amongst the best bars in the world. They use a staggering array of fresh ingredients, herbs, syrups, and spices, with an emphasis on the homegrown, incorporating Latin American traditions and flavors into the menu. The drinks may be upmarket served in beautiful receptacles, but the two-story Art Deco space \u2013 like so many bars here\u00a0\u2013 is low key with windows opening onto the buzzing street outside. Their most popular cocktail is the Margarita Al Pastor \u2013 a twist on the classic through the lens of a traditional dish, which is entirely better than it sounds.<\/p>\n Also in La Roma, Maison Artemisia is an ostensibly chic French restaurant in a beautiful 19th-century restored house; but after eating your short rib ravioli, you\u2019ll want to head straight upstairs for the tiny cocktail bar. It specializes in absinthe (it\u2019s run by a group of French expats, naturally), but the menu is far wider for those who might not be fans of the Green Fairy. Cocktails come in crystalware, and they never allow in more people than is comfortable for an enjoyable experience.<\/p>\n In nearby Condessa, a dreamy upscale neighborhood dripping in greenery and known for its young professional \u2013\u00a0and dog-loving \u2013 residents, you\u2019ll find Baltra. Hailing from the same people behind Licorer\u00eda Limantour, Baltra is its more casual cousin. The atmosphere is closer to cocktail hour in a friend\u2019s front room \u2013 you even have to buzz to get in. There are no servers or hosts, which encourages you to walk up to the bar and chat with your friendly bartender. The menu changes regularly but is inspired \u2013 as is the decor \u2013\u00a0by Charles Darwin\u2019s travels through the Galapagos Islands. The shelves are decorated with natural kooky animal specimens in bell jars (a seahorse?), maps, and other curiosities.<\/p>\n Finally, head north to the edgier neighborhood of La Juarez for Hanky Panky. Half the pleasure of this reservation-only hotspot is figuring out how to get in. The speakeasy craze might have swept through New York and London and out the other side, but here in Mexico City, it\u2019s still going strong. Hanky Panky is hidden within a taqueria, and your journey will at some point involve a refrigerator door. Once you\u2019ve passed the test, however, you\u2019ll find yourself in a sophisticated cocktail bar with deep red leather bar stools, intended to keep you comfy as you work your way through the menu. Each cocktail was created by some of the world\u2019s leading bar talents, but you would be remiss not to order the Hanky Panky, the namesake cocktail, originally devised in London\u2019s Savoy Hotel in 1903.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While Mexico is best known for its tequila and mezcal, recent years have brought a deluge of beautifully crafted cocktails to its capital. Bars like Licorer\u00eda Limantour have made waves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10520,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[267],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mexico-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCasa Franca<\/h4>\n
La Licorer\u00eda Limantour<\/h4>\n
Maison Artemisia<\/h4>\n
Baltra<\/h4>\n
Hanky Panky<\/h4>\n