Handshake Speakeasy’s founders have opened a second address in Mexico City, and the expectations are unavoidably high. Their flagship took No. 1 on The World’s 50 Best Bars list in 2024, then followed with a No. 2 ranking in 2025 — a rare arc for a bar that has become, in a few years, a shorthand for technical precision and relentless consistency. The new venue is called Ahorita Cantina. Whether it will earn a similar reputation is still an open question, but Rodrigo Urraca, co-founder of both Handshake and Ahorita, is clear about what this place is — and what it is deliberately not.
Ahorita Cantina, a Different Kind of Idea
“We wanted to do something different,” Urraca said. In practice, “different” meant loosening the structure that often comes with destination cocktail bars: no reservations as a requirement, no fixed seating times, no choreography that dictates how long a guest should stay. Ahorita is built for spontaneity — for dropping in, standing at the bar, moving through the room, dancing if the night tilts that way. “If you want a bottle, you can ask for it,” he added, describing a service model closer to the everyday social ritual of a Mexican cantina than to the controlled cadence of a speakeasy.
At a certain point, the team realised they were circling a familiar format. The classic cantina already offers what many modern cocktail bars try to simulate: energy, informality, a room that belongs to the crowd. “The concept”, Urraca said, “became a blend — cantina atmosphere, cocktail-bar execution — with the goal of bringing the best of both into one address”.
From Concept to Reality
In many bars, the counter is a boundary. At Ahorita Cantina, it is a nucleus. The bar station sits in the centre of the space, with guests gathered around it, dissolving the usual separation between “service” and “scene.” Bartenders, floor staff and the DJ are part of the room’s composition. “Ahorita is full of energy,” Urraca said, and the layout is designed to keep that energy moving — a detail that matters in a city where nightlife is as much about the room as what is in the glass.
What’s on the Menu at Ahorita Cantina?
The menu takes recognizable cantina staples and reworks them with a cocktail bar’s sensibility. “We do twists on typical cantina drinks — Batanga, Margarita, Cantarito,” Urraca said. The Cantaritos, for instance, is offered in two sizes and can be ordered with different tequilas and different sodas. The structure is familiar — tequila, fresh lime, salt — but the finish is tailored to the guest: a choice of grapefruit, mango or ginger beer soda. It is built to be cold, bright and fast-drinking: the kind of cocktail that makes sense when you are standing, talking, deciding whether the night is about one round or several.
For something sweeter and more aromatic, there is a Palo Santo Batanga made with palo santo–infused tequila, lime, cola and a salted rim, leaning into smoke, citrus and that specific snap of cola. Two other drinks sketch the range. Manzana pairs vodka with calvados infused with shiso leaves and carbonated green-apple juice, pushing the cantina idea into a cleaner, more perfumed register. Then there is the Ahortini, “an herbal and nutty twist on the dry martini,” Urraca said — built with gin, aromatized wine, tonka and vanilla.
Food Is Coming, Just Not Yet
In a traditional cantina, drinking is rarely separated from eating; even the simplest places have something to nibble on, whether complimentary or inexpensive. Ahorita Cantina will move in that direction, Urraca said, but on a delayed schedule. In February 2026, the bar plans to launch a menu created specifically by a Mexican chef. For now, the team is keeping details close.
The Meaning of “Ahorita”
The name is a wink with teeth. In Mexican Spanish, ahorita can mean “right now,” but it can also mean “in a bit,” “later,” “when I get the chance,” and, in certain contexts, a polite form of refusal. It is a word that depends on tone, circumstance, and the social contract between speakers — elastic by design.
That elasticity makes it a neat answer to the question hanging over any second act: Will Ahorita win the kinds of prizes that turned Handshake into a global destination? The only honest response, for the moment, is the one embedded in the name: ahorita.
Photo courtesy of Ahorita Cantina
