Great Food & Beverages

Barcelona hardly needs another reason to impress. This is a city where extraordinary

architecture, art, food and culture seem to compete for your attention on every street.

But then we discovered another side of Barcelona’s creative personality—its remarkable

cocktail culture—and Paradiso may be one of its most imaginative expressions.

Hidden away in Barcelona’s historic El Born district, Paradiso feels appropriately

secretive from the beginning. Enter through what appears to be an old refrigerator door

inside a pastrami shop and suddenly you’re transported into a spectacular, almost

dreamlike room of sweeping, sculptural woodwork inspired by the organic forms for

which Barcelona is famous.

And then the cocktails arrive.

Calling these simply “drinks” almost misses the point. At Paradiso, mixology becomes

theater—unexpected ingredients, aromas, textures, colors and wonderfully imaginative

presentations turn each cocktail into a small work of art. Some arrive in vessels you

would never associate with a bar; others incorporate smoke, light, unusual textures or

surprising culinary techniques. You don’t simply order a cocktail here. You wait to see

what happens next.

There’s serious experimentation behind all that showmanship. Paradiso’s creative team

operates its own Paradiso Lab, exploring ingredients, techniques and new approaches to

cocktails, while experiences such as The Macallan Experience push spirits tasting into

something much more immersive and sensory. It feels less like bartending in the

traditional sense and more like a fascinating intersection of gastronomy, chemistry,

design and performance.

And apparently the rest of the world noticed. In 2022, Barcelona accomplished

something extraordinary: three of the world’s Top 10 bars were here—Paradiso at #1,

Sips at #3 and Two Schmucks at #7. Paradiso’s recognition as The World’s Best Bar

suddenly made perfect sense. This wasn’t simply about making an exceptional cocktail.

It was about completely reimagining what the experience of having one could be.

That may be what stayed with me most.

Barcelona turns architecture into sculpture, food into art—and at Paradiso, even a

cocktail becomes theater.

We went looking for one of the world’s great bars.

We found one of Barcelona’s great experiences. www.Paradoso.cat