Handshake Speakeasy in Mexico City just topped The World’s 50 Best Bars list, while also taking home North America’s Best Bar. These accolades came just months after the craft cocktail joint took home three major awards at the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards.
So what makes Handshake so special? “Handshake is the shining star of Mexico’s thriving constellation of cocktail bars,” says Emma Sleight, The World’s 50 Best Bars head of content. “It offers guests the bona fide hidden bar experience: an unmarked entrance and the feeling of being protected from the outside world within its Prohibition-style surrounds. But it also offers so much more. Maestro Erik Van Beek and his team have achieved messianic status among mixologists. It’s all the more fitting then that this is the first bar in Mexico to be ranked No.1.”
Mexico City Is Home to Four of the World’s 50 Best Bars, So We Visited Them
Just a short flight away, and hosting an incredible cocktail scene, there’s never been a better time to visitOur writer Kevin Gray visited Handshake back in 2022. Here’s what he had to say:
“I walked right past this bar twice before finding the entrance, as it’s hidden behind another unmarked door,” he wrote. “You can’t let yourself in, but once the staff spots you on camera, they’ll open the door. That’s where any pretension ends — Handshake is a fun experience from the time you’re seated with a cold towel, glass of water and snacks until you exit, probably a little stumbly after some drinks.
The menu begins with miniature classics, so you can sip a tiny (and priced accordingly) Martini, Negroni, Vesper or Boulevardier while perusing the signature serves. You’ll find a few Asian-inspired drinks on the menu, like the Big in Japan, a highball made with Japanese whisky, toasted barley and shiso, or the Jasmin, made with Japanese gin and jasmine tea. If you want to step outside the box, the bar also makes a burned-butter-and-mushroom-spiked Old Fashioned and a drink modeled on the Caprese salad with gin, basil and tomato. Rather than gimmicky, both are well-balanced and thoughtful, featuring savory notes alongside more expected flavors.”
The two-floor bar is tucked away in Mexico City’s Colonia Juárez neighborhood (as we’ve mentioned before, Mexico City is having a moment in the cocktail world, landing three spots in the top 50). The World’s 50 team notes that the drinks list is deceptively minimalist; advanced culinary techniques inspire the menu, and certain drinks can take up to 48 hours to craft from start to finish (there’s an onsite, hidden laboratory for testing drinks).
The rest of the World’s 50 Best Bars include Barcelona’s Sips at No. 3 (it was last year’s winner), NYC’s Double Chicken Please at No. 14 (the highest ranking for a bar in the United States) and New Orleans’s Jewel of the South at No. 34, the only American bar in the list that wasn’t in New York.
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