Solara Bar in São Paulo is the only independent venue outside North America certified by Bumble as a verified safe space for dates, and the bar has built an operational culture of safety that the wider industry has yet to learn how to replicate.
There is a bar in Vila Madalena where the entire operation stops if a woman feels unsafe. The music cuts. The staff moves. If the situation calls for it, the police are called. There is no hesitation, no waiting to see what happened. There is protocol, a trained team, and a management conviction that guides every shift: the well-being of every woman inside Solara is non-negotiable.
That culture did not happen by chance. It has a name, a method, and a partnership the house considers one of the most important in its history. And it sits on top of a serious cocktail program. Since opening in 2022, Solara has collected more than five major recognitions from Brazil’s leading food and drinks press. Here, safety and excellence are not competing values. They are the same thing.
A Bumble Certification No Other Bar Outside North America Holds
Bumble, the dating app with more than 100 million downloads across 190 countries, launched the BumbleSpot program in November 2018 in partnership with Marriott’s Moxy Hotels. The premise was simple. Users, mostly women, kept asking the same question: where is the best place to meet someone for the first time? The answer was a curated network of venues evaluated against rigorous standards of safety, inclusivity, hospitality, and atmosphere.
Certified locations are rare. Solara Bar is the only independent establishment outside North America to carry the seal. The only one in Brazil, in Latin America, and in any country beyond the North American continent. There is no other like it in the world.
The Partnership With Livre de Assédio
Getting there required method, training, and a partnership with the leading authority on safety in entertainment venues in Brazil. Livre de Assédio, founded by Ana Addobbati, is the country’s first platform specialized in the prevention and combat of harassment in bars, restaurants, and entertainment spaces. Its proprietary methodology combines technology, practical protocols, and human capacity-building to change the internal culture of a venue, not just the surface behavior.
The organization already operates at national scale. It provided technical advisory to the state of Rio de Janeiro for a mandatory training course for bar and restaurant workers, established by state decree. It is part of the Johnnie Walker Harassment-Free Bars Movement, which aims to train 4,000 establishments across Brazil. And it partners with Heineken Group and Sympla on the Diversão com Respeito program, hosted on the Sympla Academy platform.
For Solara, Livre de Assédio is not a training vendor. It is a culture-building partner.
“Entertainment venues are responsible for the well-being of their guests. Ana’s work and Livre de Assédio were essential in helping us build an environment where women feel comfortable and, at the very least, safe,” says Bruno Acioli, journalist and owner of Solara Bar.
Why the Culture Is Urgent
Brazil is one of Bumble’s fastest-growing markets in Latin America. Research conducted by Johnnie Walker in partnership with Livre de Assédio puts the challenge in stark relief: 66% of Brazilian women have been harassed in bars and restaurants, 53% have avoided going to an establishment out of fear, and 13% never feel safe in these environments. Among women who work in the sector, the figure reaches 78%.
These numbers do not describe exceptions. They describe the norm.
The Operational Architecture of Safety
Each protocol at Solara is a direct result of the work developed with Livre de Assédio. Together, they form a layered safety architecture, from the front door to the last drink of the night.
Registration and Visibility
Every guest is registered before being served. “Registration is the first barrier. Without it, no one is served. A person with bad intentions is no longer invisible, and knows they will not go unpunished if they do something inside our establishment,” Acioli says. The floor plan was designed for full visibility, with no isolated corners or hard-to-monitor zones. Lighting balances ambiance with visibility. There are no dark pockets where impunity can hide.
Team Composition and Body-Language Training
The majority-female staff is an intentional decision that shapes how guests are welcomed and how sensitive situations are handled. Every member of the team is trained to read body language before a guest has to say a word. A closed posture, a subtle tension, an uncomfortable glance. Any of those is enough to trigger a response. “In three years, we have never had to intervene in any situation of that kind. It is part of our daily briefing: an uncomfortable look is enough for someone on the team to position themselves to act without hesitation,” Acioli says.
Drink Covers and Full Authority to Intervene
Drink cover caps are available on request to prevent spiking, and the staff communicates their availability naturally. When something is identified, the team acts. “Our protocol is to stop the entire operation, cut the music, remove the victim from the aggressor, and call the police. The team is trained and ready to act. The protocol covers moral, psychological, physical, and sexual harassment, with no distinction of severity required to trigger a response,” Acioli says.
The Match Menu
On top of that operational foundation sits an experience designed for people meeting for the first time. The Match Menu is a curated selection of cocktails and dishes developed for couples on first, second, or third dates. Sensory profiles that invite conversation, dishes built for sharing, combinations that work as natural conversation starters. Printed ice-breaker questions arrive at the table: light, unexpected prompts that ease the tension of the first few minutes without forcing intimacy.
The house list itself is a love letter to the sun, a collection of cocktails made with sun-dependent ingredients that each require more than 40 hours of preparation. Solara’s Manhattanhenge was named one of the 10 best cocktails in São Paulo by VEJA SP in 2022, and the bar holds the Best Drinks Menu Award from Prazeres da Mesa Magazine for both 2022 (won within 40 days of opening) and 2024, plus three stars in the VEJA Comer & Beber Guide.
The Sunshine Society and the Wider Frame
Every year, Solara runs The Sunshine Society, an international bartender exchange that hands the counter to outside talent for one night. The lineup has included Thunderbolt from Los Angeles (24th in North America, 64th globally on the World’s 50 Best Bars list, and winner of the 2025 Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award), Barely Disfigured from Brooklyn, Fable from Cape Town, Machete from Puerto Rico, and Aruba Day Drink from Mexico, ranked 22nd best bar in North America by the World’s 50 Best Bars in 2025. Solara is also the first bar in Brazil sponsored by Copa Airlines and a partner of Diageo World Class, Amarula, Bombay Sapphire, Fords Gin, El Jimador Tequila, and Woodford Reserve.
“This is, without a doubt, our greatest source of pride. In the end, what matters is people. Having a distinction like this proves that our commitment goes far beyond the drinks served at the bar. It is about the well-being of every guest who chooses our address for a good night out,” Acioli says.
The cocktail industry has spent years talking about hospitality as a craft. Solara has translated that talk into an operational standard, with documented protocols, third-party certification, and three years of evidence behind the door. It is the benchmark the rest of the world’s bars now have a reference point to measure themselves against.
