Licorería
Limantour

Our Take on Licorería Limantour

There are bars that make cocktails and then there are bars that have changed how a country thinks about drinking. Licorería Limantour is firmly in the second category. When José Luis León opened the first location on Álvaro Obregón in 2011, Mexico City's cocktail scene was a handful of hotel bars and mezcal cantinas. Fifteen years later, it is one of the most sophisticated drinking cities in the world, and Limantour built much of that foundation.

The menu changes with the seasons and the harvest, drawing on ingredients from across Mexico. A recent autumn menu featured a cocktail built around hoja santa — the anise-forward herb used in Oaxacan mole — paired with sotol from Chihuahua and fermented tamarind. The technique is exacting, but the drinks never feel clinical. These are genuinely pleasurable things to consume, not experiments in a glass.

The Roma Norte location occupies a former liquor store — hence the name — on one of the neighbourhood's busiest corners. The room is warm and unassuming: dark wood, exposed stone, a long bar that seats 18. There is a second location in Polanco for when you want more space and a slightly dressier crowd. We recommend Roma Norte for its energy and its proximity to everything else worth drinking in the neighbourhood. Baltra Bar is three blocks south; Xaman Bar is a short walk east. A night that starts at Limantour rarely ends early.