Handshake Speakeasy’s interiors masterfully evoke the bygone age of the Hollywood speakeasy. — Photos: Handout
Mexico City’s Handshake Speakeasy was recently crowned The World’s Best Bar in the World’s 50 Best Bars of 2024 awards list, the first time a bar from Mexico has claimed the No.1 spot.
The 16th edition of the list was unveiled last month during an awards ceremony in Madrid, Spain, and featured bars from 28 cities.
Hidden behind a secret door in the Colonia Juárez neighbourhood of Mexico City, Handshake Speakeasy is one of the Mexican capital’s best-kept open secrets.
The bar’s interiors masterfully evoke the bygone age of the Hollywood speakeasy, while bar director Eric van Beek melds tradition and innovation, elevating the classics through cutting-edge technique developed in the on-site lab, revolutionising familiar recipes with unexpected flavours and a complex palate.
A few months ago in July, I got to interview one of the founding members of Handshake Speakeasy, Rodrigo Urraca, who was in Kuala Lumpur with bartender David Rocha (who has since left Handshake to open a new bar in Mexico City) for a one-night-only guest shift at Reka:Bar.
At the time of the interview, Handshake had just been voted the Best Bar in North America, and was No.3 on the World’s 50 Best Bars 2023 list.
Handshake Speakeasy co-founder Rodrigo Urraca (right) was in town for a guest shift at KL's Reka:Bar with former bartender David Rocha. — Reka:Bar
Funnily enough, the origin story of Handshake Speakeasy is closely tied to the World’s 50 Best Bars awards as well.
“I used to be a brand ambassador for a brand that supports 50 Best Bars, and I had tickets to the 2018 ceremony, so I invited my best client from Mexico, Mark (DiBatista),” he recalled.
“He asked me at the time, ‘what would it feel like to win an award like this?’ I told him I had no idea.
“Then he said, ‘Maybe we will. Let’s open a bar. Don’t worry about the money, I will take care of that, just focus on the public relations’. And at that moment, I got the 10% share of the bar for free!” Urraca said, laughing.
“We called it ‘Handshake’ because there’s no contract between the partners. It’s a handshake only, because we say that if one of us leaves the company, the other one still works.”
They eventually opened the bar in January 2019. However, things didn’t go as planned initially, as they had disagreements with their then partners, and subsequently, the Covid-19 pandemic forced them to close for a while. Things were looking bleak for the bar, until Urraca met Dutch bartender Eric van Beek.
Urraca (centre) accepting the World’s Best Bar award at the recent award ceremony in Madrid.
Van Beek was a rising star in the international bartending industry at the time, having been crowned the Bacardi Legacy Global Winner in 2018, and winning the most creative cocktail program in the Netherlands in 2018 and 2019. In 2019, he moved to Mexico City to open a new bar, and that was where he met Urraca, who offered him to be part of Handshake as its head bartender.
“In the beginning, Eric didn’t want to be part of this, because he thought speakeasies always had jazz music, strong drinks and so on,” Urraca recalled. “But then I asked him, ‘Why should we continue making the same thing that all the people do? Let’s make a speakeasy for you and me’.”
Van Beek eventually joined Handshake as its bar director and co-owner in 2021. At the same time, they moved the bar from its previous location to a former shoe store inside the NH Hotel in the Colonia Juárez neighbourhood of Mexico City, and retained the 1920s Prohibition-style look of the bar, which was inspired by The Great Gatsby. The bar only has 32 seats, though they also have a second bar in the basement that seats 55 (more on this later).
According to Urraca, when they started the first Handshake five years ago, they did not have a clear identity.
“We were just copying what people were doing at the time. We saw that it wasn’t taking us anywhere. So we start changing things, buying special glassware, making more clarified drinks. What you see in front of you may not be how it tastes,” he said.
“Remember the feeling you have as a kid jumping in the rain? We want you to feel that again, through our drinks,” he said.
When you order a drink at Handshake Speakeasy, ‘what you see in front of you may not be how it tastes’, Urraca says.
Among the best-selling cocktails at Handshake Speakeasy are a clarified version of the Pina Colada, the mezcal and chilli-based Salt and Pepper, and Once Upon A Time In Oaxaca, which is inspired by Mexican master distillers, and made with Siete Misterios Doba-Yej Mezcal, mint and Absinthe.
Being a bar in Mexico, which is famous for agave spirits like tequila and mezcal, Urraca said there are some people who come to the bar expecting to try these spirits.
In response to that, they actually opened a second space in the bar that specialises in Mexican spirits from local producers such as agave, sotol, tequila and mezcal.
“So this basement spot is where we have Mexican spirits. Here, you will find a lot of special spirits, not the commercial brands, only small batches and small productions from local producers.
“Here, people can try special products, special brands, special spirits over there. It’s not just agave spirits, there’s Mexican vodka, whiskey, and even Mexican sake as well.”
As for what people should expect when they walk through the doors of Handshake, Urraca said it would be best not to have any expectations when you come to Handshake (as if that’s even possible, now that it has been named the Best Bar In The World!).
But there is one thing he says you can expect when you are there. “You can expect to have a great time, and leave with a big smile on your face,” he said.
Michael Cheang tried some of Handshake’s drinks at the Reka guest shift, and they were GOOD. Follow him on Instagram (@mytipsyturvy) and Facebook (fb.com/mytipsyturvy).
