The Women-Run Izakaya That Moved to Juárez
The first all-women-operated bar in Latin America now runs out of a bigger room on Hamburgo 70B, with a cocktail lab, a kitchen and a DJ booth behind the neon.
The neon reads in kanji before it reads in Spanish, and the room behind it is a Japanese izakaya crossed with a serious cocktail bar. Sake threads through the menu. So does shiso, genmaicha, yuzu, wasabi. The kitchen sends out gyoza, takoyaki, okonomiyaki under spicy mayo, katsu sandos.
Kaito opened in 2016 as the first 100% women-operated bar in Latin America and still runs that way — every shift, front and back. In 2025 it left the Del Valle address the name still carries and reopened on Hamburgo 70B in Juárez, in a room roughly double the size, with a cocktail innovation lab, a proper kitchen and a DJ booth added to the build. The name did not follow the neighbourhood. The bar did.
Editorial Deep
Sake is the base spirit assumption across the list rather than a novelty section on it — the menu leans on shiso, genmaicha tea, yuzu, ginger and wasabi the way most CDMX cocktail bars lean on mezcal, and the balance is what earns its place on North America's 50 Best every year from 2022 to 2026. Fuji, Cinthia Mina's, is the second call.
Neon signage, hand-painted kanji on the walls, custom glassware on the counter. The Hamburgo 70B build, opened in 2025, is roughly double the old Del Valle footprint and adds a cocktail innovation lab behind the bar, a proper kitchen, and a DJ booth. Counter seats face the work. The tables are small — four people is the ceiling before the seating stops making sense.
The 2026 North America's 50 Best listing pulls a specific weekend crowd — cocktail travellers working through a CDMX list, plus Juárez locals who have moved with the bar from Del Valle. Mid-week the room settles into a regulars-and-industry read; weekends run hotter and louder, and the DJ booth is used. Come Tuesday or Wednesday if the crowd is meant to be a background to the drinks rather than the point of the night.
IVA and any service are on top and are not published as a combined figure, so read the check when it lands. The food menu is small, which is a real limit if a long counter session is the plan.
Kaito is a two-to-three-drink anchor for a Juárez evening rather than the whole night — the room is small, the food menu is short, and the drinks want attention rather than volume. Book the counter for a mid-week date or a solo session, take Amas and Fuji, add a plate of gyoza, and route on afterwards. The group of six looking for a late loud night is the booking that will not work; the four-top ceiling on the tables says so before the door does.
Order this
Drink this.
Amas by Emma Centeno
“Go for Amas at the counter mid-week. Skip the weekend group booking.”
The first women-run bar in Latin America, now in a bigger Juárez room with a cocktail lab and a DJ booth behind the neon. Book a counter seat on OpenTable, order Amas and Fuji, add a couple of izakaya plates, and treat it as a two-drink anchor rather than a full night. The food menu is small and the tables cap at four — plan accordingly.
The Verdict
