The floor of Vancouver’s J.W. Marriott ballroom reverberates from the dance music and buzz of conversation at the 2025 50 Best Bars of North America awards ceremony. Lining the edges of the room are stands sponsored by the event’s patron — Cointreau, Perrier, Rémy Martin and others. Team members from Mexico City’s Rayo bar make spritzes and negronis, as they stand bathed in the hot pink light of the Campari stand, unaware that Rayo will became one of the night’s most high-profile casualities, disappearing from the list completely, despite ranking fifth in last year — the only Mexican bar to be removed this time around.
But there were few other wild surprises for anyone who’s been paying attention to Mexico’s bar scene in recent years, as a total of 18 bars made the top 100.
The long-established Limantour, Baltra and Hanky Panky all maintained positions on the list, with Baltra and Hanky Panky moving up and Limantour holding steady at #9. Other past winners — Aruba Day Drink in Tijuana, Café de Nadie in Mexico City, and Selva in Oaxaca also continued their streak as members of the winners’ club.
There are a handful of first-timers from Mexico City this year, but none of the additions will shock cocktail aficionados in the capital. Bar Mauro in Roma Norte has been lauded since it opened a few months ago and deservedly won a spot at #14. Bijou, a speakeasy hidden at the top of the Escuela de Gastronomia in Condesa entered the list at #34.
“I think 50 Best has been amazing for the Mexico City bar scene but I also think that the bars that have been opening up, that have been pushing the scene forward, they have really been the biggest change,” said Erik Van Beek, co-owner of Mexico’s Handshake Speakeasy, which after two years in the number one spot on the list once again took the coverted top spot.
“When I arrived in 2019, there were Fifty Mils, Limantour, Hanky Panky and Baltra, that was it. And now people are really pushing their cocktail program, their service, and their standards. Of course, 50 Best has helped tremendously with that because people receive the recognition, but at the end of the day, it’s the bars that do it.”
“There’s a good network of bartenders sending people to different bars across the city,” explains Claudia Cabrera, co-owner and bar director at Mexico City’s Kaito del Valle, another list winner coming in at #40 this year. “Even my friends who aren’t really into cocktails will suddenly tell me about a trendy new cocktail bar they went to and ask me if I know it.”
“We saw a big change,” Cabrera says. “We are in a family neighborhood and suddenly when the list came out people started coming to [Del Valle].” Kaito del Valle has been operating for the past eight and half years in Colonia del Valle, a neighborhood just south of Condesa and slightly off of the tourist path in Mexico City. “There’s nothing else really around us, so we know it has to do with that. Our vibe is has been a little divey, more like a neighborhood place, but we have seen now people specifically seeking us out and we didn’t have that before.”
“I think the list reflects the plurality of the scene,” says Eli Martínez, owner of Tlecān, which won the #3 spot this year after entering at #10 in 2024. “It’s nice to see bars inside of hotels that have endless resources at their fingertips and on the same list places who have made an enormous effort to raise their own money and promote themselves. The common denominator for me is hospitality.”
Martínez won this year’s Bartenders’ Bartender award. The award is voted on by the other bartenders from the 50 Best list and recognizes someone who has made a significant impact on the craft of bartending and on their peers in the industry and is one of the most prestigious awards handed out on the night.
Cocktail bars and mixology in Mexico have been on the rise for longer than the last three years of the 50 Best Bars in North America list, but there’s no doubt among participants that the list has encouraged the professionalization and expansion of the industry.
“The level of mixology has clearly improved,” says Martínez, “and it’s now common to find a drinks menu with a real story to tell.”
“You see fine dining restaurants with a good drinks program and hotels and chefs and other people are paying attention,” says Cabrera. “I think in the last six or seven years we have all become really proud of our products. We’re using more agave, more local products, more local brands, and there are more collaborations among everyone. Drinks are going minimalist, which you would have never seen in Mexico before. There are no complex garnishes, people are working with really good ice programs. We are all following trends but trying to make them local, ‘tropicalizing’ them, if you will. It’s really moving fast.”
Martinez agrees. “I think the tendency is more and more in the direction of showing off all the culinary and cultural richness of Mexico,” she finished.
The winners in full:
- Handshake Speakeasy (Mexico City)
3. Tlecān (Mexico City)
8. El Gallo Altanero (Guadalajara)
9. Licorería Limantour (Mexico City)
14. Bar Mauro (Mexico City)
20. Baltra (Mexico City)
22. Aruba Day Drink (Tijuana)
27. Arca (Tulum)
29. Selva (Oaxaca)
34. Bijou Drinkery Room (Mexico City)
35. Hanky Panky (Mexico City)
40. Kaito del Valle (Mexico City)
47. Café de Nadie (Mexico City)
49. Bekeb (San Miguel de Allende)
Longlisted
54. Sabina Sabe (Oaxaca)
65. Brujas (Mexico City)
82. Ticuchi (Mexico City)
94. Casa Prunes (Mexico City)
Lydia Carey is a freelance writer and translator based out of Mexico City. She has been published widely both online and in print, writing about Mexico for over a decade. She lives a double life as a local tour guide and is the author of Mexico City Streets: La Roma. Follow her urban adventures on Instagram and see more of her work at www.mexicocitystreets.com.
