The Vinyl Bar Where the Menu Arrives in a CD Case
A Roma Norte cocktail room built around 1,500 records, a hi-fi rig, and a mezcal negroni worth the wait.
The drinks menu arrives inside a CD case. Slide out the insert, read the track credits, and the cocktail you're about to order is built around the song listed alongside it. Roughly 1,500 vinyl records line the walls, and the hi-fi rig in the corner is doing more work than the lighting. This is the concept, and it holds.
The room is on Chihuahua in Roma Norte, and the team behind it came out of Pujol before opening a bar built around records. Café de Nadie has landed on North America's 50 Best Bars every year from 2022 through 2025 — peaking at #15 in 2022 — and ranked #60 on the North America's 50 Best Bars 51-100 list for 2026. It is trying to be a serious cocktail bar attached to a serious record collection, and most nights it clears the bar.
A cocktail bar organised around 1,500 records, a hi-fi rig, and a house negroni that earns the trip to Chihuahua.
Editorial Deep
Order the mezcal negroni. It is the house signature, cited more often than anything else on the list, and it does what a bar built around mezcal should do — the smoke leads, the bitter follows, and neither dominates the other. The espresso martini is the second-most-ordered pour and it is well made. La Borrachita — tequila, Earl Grey, lychee liqueur, tomato juice, guava oil — is the one for the reader who came here for the concept. It reads like an ambush and drinks like a considered one.
Roughly 1,500 records on the walls, a hi-fi rig doing the sonic work, and enough vinyl density that the room reads as a collector's project before it reads as a bar. The lighting sits low. The speakers are the focal point of the wall behind the bar, not an afterthought pushed into a corner. There is an outdoor seating area for the nights when the indoor room hits capacity, which it does.
Roma Norte cocktail regulars, out-of-town visitors working the 2025 North America's 50 Best list, and a music-literate contingent that came for the records and stayed for the negronis. The mix skews thirties, dressed well without dressing up, and the volume rises in step with the room filling. By ten on a Friday or Saturday the bar is packed and you will wait for a stool. The energy is the product on those nights. If the reader wants a quiet conversation over a drink, this is not the room after nine.
Small plates, including oysters, sit alongside the drinks and are part of why people stay for a second round. Mexican law requires prices to display IVA included; a tip is voluntary and cannot be added without your consent. The mezcal negroni, at $295, is the item on the list where the price-to-quality ratio is most defensible. The espresso martini is fairly priced. Nothing on the bill is a mark against the room.
This is a first-drink-of-the-night bar that turns into an anchor bar if the crowd is right and the seat holds. Come early — before nine — for the room, the sound system, and a proper read of the menu. Come late for the energy and accept that you will stand. The reader who plans a night around records, mezcal, and one great small-plate order will build an evening here. The reader who wants a quiet nightcap should go elsewhere after ten. Return on a Wednesday for the room, on a Friday for the scene.
Order this
Drink this.
Mezcal negroni ($295)
“Go for the mezcal negroni and the records. Skip if you want a quiet late drink.”
A Roma Norte cocktail bar built around 1,500 vinyl records, a hi-fi rig, and a menu printed on CD inserts where each drink tracks a song. The mezcal negroni is the pour to order and the reason to return; the room is the reason to stay. Arrive before nine for the sound system and a seat, after ten for the scene and a wait. Walk-ins only, no reservations — plan for a queue on weekends. Skip if you want a quiet nightcap after ten; go if you want a bar that means what its concept says.
The Verdict
