The 12 Best Cocktail Bars in São Paulo

Tan Tan

#24 on World's 50 Best Bars 2025.

Order this: Dirty Collins (white cachaça, tequila, olive, Tahiti lime)

Exímia

Created in 2024 by award-winning bartender Márcio Silva, Exímia, from the Latin for the constant pursuit of perfection, drinks its way through Brazil's diversity: native ingredients like amburana and cambuci, menus informed by anthropology and history, and food by chef Manu Buffara built to echo the cocktails. No.61 on the World's 50 Best Bars 2025; now above Restaurante Locale in Itaim Bibi.

Solara Bar

Solara is an award-winning high-end cocktail bar founded in 2022 in Vila Madalena, São Paulo. Since opening, it has quickly established itself as one of Brazil’s most distinctive independent bars, earning the Best Drinks Menu award from Prazeres da Mesa in both 2022, just 40 days after opening, and 2024, as well as three stars from the VEJA Comer & Beber guide. Its signature cocktail Manhattanhenge was also named one of the 10 best cocktails in São Paulo by VEJA SP. The bar’s house menu is conceived as a love letter to the sun: a curated collection of meticulously crafted cocktails built around sun-dependent ingredients, with each recipe requiring over 40 hours of preparation. Beyond its drinks, Solara stands out for its cultural relevance and positioning, being the only independent establishment outside North America certified by Bumble as a verified safe space for dates. Through The Sunshine Society, its annual international bartender exchange program, Solara brings acclaimed global bar talent to São Paulo, having hosted names from Thunderbolt, Barely Disfigured, Fable, Machete and Aruba Day Drink, connecting the city’s cocktail scene with some of the world’s most respected bars.

Bar Brahma

'O bar do coração de São Paulo', on the most famous corner in Brazil, where Avenida São João meets Ipiranga, Bar Brahma is the city's live-music institution: four stages and some 200 shows a month over chope, cocktails and comida de boteco, voted the city's best bar by Folha de S.Paulo readers.

Bar dos Arcos

Built among the foundations of the Theatro Municipal, Bar dos Arcos is all exposed sandstone and vaulted ceilings, its long illuminated tables a nod to the hotel bar in Kubrick's The Shining. Cocktails run from classics to tropical blends and low-alcohol elixirs, there's a ticketed 'Sala Secreta' tasting experience, and lunch is served upstairs in the Salão Dourado.

Cheers Cocktail Bar Adega & Tabacaria

Dentro Bar

Guarita Bar

A 'good time bar' in Pinheiros where the drinks are boozy but expertly made, Guarita crosses boteco informality with serious cocktails, wet martinis and originals like the Sal e Pepino, over pizzas and deep-fried bites.

Order this: Sal e Pepino (Hendrick's gin, Lillet, passion fruit, salted cucumber concentrate, lemon leaf)

Picco

Picco runs on four elements, cocktails, pizza, music and art: classic-leaning drinks and Neapolitan-style pies in a street-art-hung Pinheiros room with live performances nightly, jazz to Brazilian. The house fizzy mate with lemon is the sleeper hit.

Order this: La Maga in Manhattan (bourbon & rye, peanut butter, sweet vermouth, coriander)

Riviera Bar

Santana Bar

A Pinheiros townhouse turned cocktail bar, Santana serves bartender Gabriel Santana's encyclopaedic list of classics, ordered by date of creation, with an 'Intocáveis' (untouchables) section, beside a small run of creative signatures like the guava-skin Moringa. Fine drinks, casual setting.

Order this: Moringa (Ketel One vodka, guava liqueur, guava-skin cordial)

SubAstor

Underground cocktail bar beneath a traditional boteco.