Cocktail bars in Zaragoza: 'short drinks' make a name for themselves in the city

Almost all of them were told the same thing before opening their businesses, that “Zaragoza is neither Madrid nor Barcelona” and that it was not possible to introduce this type of premises in the city. It is clear that they were wrong and now the 'short drinks' have been able to find a place in the offer of bars in the city.

Moonlight Experimental Bar

Borja Insa, from Moonlight Experimental Bar, at number 2 of San Pedro Nolasco, assures that not everyone classifies them as a cocktail bar to use and he is clear that what they do in their establishment is “different”. It is about putting into practice “what motivates them”. “We like to create a space where things happen and everything happens around the cocktail party, but you never know what you're going to find, where it's a free and creative place,” he says.

Each year its letter and the way it is presented changes. The next one will be released between the months of March and April, now they play with the sounds and environments around the cocktail.

“Now you enter the bar and with the menu you are given a pair of headphones and a 'qr' code that takes you to a website where some audios that correspond to environments are reproduced. For example, Irish music and a pub atmosphere. Through sound we seek to 'force' people to imagine what their cocktail can mean. What we try is for people to take risks and if they don't like it, they make another one”. Borja recounts.

Sherman's Pub

Until March 2019, Sherman's Pub was a “typical neighborhood” bar. Kike Visiedo, who runs the place together with her uncle, suggested changing it to a classic cocktail bar, in the style of the 20s, in which liquors such as whiskey, gin and vodka were protagonists. “We seek to teach people the usual cocktails, the classics that are most forgotten. It is the cradle where everything begins, everyone has a little story behind it, that gives it a bit of romanticism”, he says.

Located on Calle de Antonio Agustín, in La Magdalena, during the day it preserves that characteristic “atmosphere” of the neighborhood, when the residents have their time to drink wine or an aperitif, and it changes at night. Sherman's has whiskey and its 'El siciliano' as its flagship, with which they won the award for the best prepared vermouth in Zaragoza in 2019, an award that came six months after they were open and was a significant boost for the local, as he acknowledges kike.

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Platerías 15

For the last five years, Platerías 15 has been located at that number on Calle Manifestación. Miguel, co-owner of the place, acknowledges that the original idea was to open a place "designed for the night and drinks". Giving him “a spin on the idea” served to guide him towards cocktails. "We created a first menu and the current one two years later, seeking to offer other more elaborate drinks to those customers who take long drinks," he says.

In the world of cocktails, he believes that you must be in constant training and be up-to-date with the news that can bring your audience. “The clientele is different. Right now people come who want to enjoy the time they are here, the place and what they drink”, says Miguel.

Umalas Bar

Open since 2011 on Jussepe Martínez street, it is considered a pioneer of cocktails in the city. His proposal includes more than 60 signature cocktails, as well as versions of classics, wrapped in a space dominated by alternative music and an atmosphere that transports us to the Indonesian island of Bali. For Carlos Méndez, owner of the premises, the Umalas seeks to remind "the warmth that you find when you travel to Asia", and inside which "all types of public" disembark.

In its selection we can find more than 150 references of liquors, paying special attention to whiskey, rum and gin. In 2020 and 2021 he was in the selection of the Top Cocktail Bars, which includes the best cocktail bars in Spain and Portugal.

Bloody

Located on Calle San Miguel, it is another of its own names, with a menu that combines the most traditional preparations and cocktails with its own signature. Geovanny, Bloody's bartender, explains that "the proposal was born from a cocktail school and a group of passionate about this world." For him, the differentiating element of this space is that, in addition to the menu, it offers a personalized service adapted to the client's tastes, so that they "feel at home".

"If the client prefers to go off the menu, we ask them for the base distillate they usually drink and the flavor profile they like the most, thus offering them the experience they want", reports Geovanny.

Calling Room

Recently opened, Calling Room brings a new and hidden proposal. The bar imitates a clandestine local ('speakeasy') from the years of prohibition in the United States. To book, customers must be attentive to the social networks of the premises, where a code is published to know the location of the place, which is entered with a password.