Two Bars at One Address, and Only One Takes Walk-Ins
Simone Caporale and Marc Álvarez run Sips as two separate operations. Esencia books online only. Drinkery House turns walk-ins away until half past midnight.
The first thing to understand about Sips is that it is not one bar. Carrer de Muntaner 108 houses two distinct operations under one green-velvet roof, and choosing between them is the actual work of visiting. Esencia is a seated tasting-menu format, booked online through OpenTable, closer to a chef's counter than a bar. Drinkery House is the room most people picture — an island bar, cocktails shaken or stirred in front of you or brought to your table — but it runs on a strict door policy until about 00:30, after which it opens to walk-ins.
Simone Caporale and Marc Álvarez opened the room in 2021. Caporale came out of Artesian in London; Álvarez has spent years in cocktail R&D. The World's 50 Best Bars ranked it first in 2023 and third in 2024 and 2025, which is the sort of ranking that guarantees a queue on Muntaner every night and makes the door harder, not easier. Sips calls itself a drinkery house rather than a cocktail bar, which sounds like semantics until you drink there and realise the distinction is real: the technique is precise, the presentation is theatrical, and none of it is trying to lecture you.
Sips runs two operations at one address, and the reservation you didn't make decides which one you're in.
Editorial Deep
Drinks arrive with non-melting ice and icy fruit pearls that hold their shape until the last sip, which sounds like a party trick and holds up: the third mouthful tastes like the first. Cocktails are shaken or stirred either at the island bar in front of you or brought to the table and finished there. The technique is obvious without being narrated.
Green walls, green velvet chairs, low light, and an island bar you can sit at or stand near. The seating splits between the bar itself and small tables in the lounge, and the two experiences are different enough that where you sit changes the visit. At the bar you watch the build; at a table you get it brought to you and finished in front of you.
Early evening is the reservation crowd — cocktail travellers, industry people passing through Barcelona, a solid layer of locals who booked two weeks ago. It reads as an international bar room rather than a Barcelona one. After 00:30 the walk-in wave arrives and the temperature shifts louder and later. The volume climbs, the pace picks up, and the crowd tips younger. Dress accordingly — the door enforces it.
Sips prints no prices publicly, which is a choice, and it means walking in without a reservation is walking in without a number in mind. Assume the tab lands where a top-ranked international cocktail bar lands — meaningfully above a neighbourhood room. Spanish law puts VAT in the listed price; service is not stated. Given what reaches the table and how consistently it does, the number is defensible for what it is. This is not the bar for a cheap round.
This is the best version of what a technique-driven cocktail bar can be right now, which is why the awards keep landing. Come back for Esencia if you want the full seated format and are willing to plan weeks ahead; come back for Drinkery House after midnight if you want the room without the reservation. Skip it if you want a quiet neighbourhood drink, a short queue, or a bar that will let you turn up in trainers at nine on a Friday and walk straight in. None of those things are on offer here.
Order this
Drink this.
Take the bartender's recommendation from the current rotation — the technique holds across the menu
“First on The World's 50 Best Bars in 2023, run as two operations at one address.”
Book Esencia online weeks ahead for the seated tasting format. For Drinkery House, either reserve for early evening or turn up after 00:30 for walk-in access — the door turns people away before then. World's 50 Best No. 1 in 2023 and No. 3 in 2024, and the pour earns it. Skip if you want a quiet round or a short queue.
The Verdict
