The 10 Best Places to Drink in São Paulo

Exímia means the constant search for perfection in Latin, which tells you something about how seriously the team takes their cocktail bar on the second floor of Itaim Bibi. The drinks are a deep dive into Brazilian history and native ingredients, without a caipirinha in sight. Landing on The World's 50 Best Bars list, this is a place that makes the case for Brazil through the glass, anthropology and all.

1. The 50 #61 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Cocktail Bar – Latin America & Caribbean
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Bar Team – Latin America & Caribbean

The granite counters and hammered metal walls give this underground cocktail bar in Pinheiros a deliberately angular, almost austere feel, as if someone transplanted a Tokyo standing bar to São Paulo and let it settle in. The house drinks lean on Brazilian ingredients, and the katsu sandos alongside suggest a long night is expected of you. It sits at number 24 on the World's 50 Best Bars list.

1. The 50 #24 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

A whisky bar that grew out of a Brazilian whisky blog, which is exactly as obsessive as it sounds. Over 200 bottles line the shelves, with Brazilian single malt given proper room alongside the global canon, all poured in measured drams or themed flights. Cocktails follow their own logic, built around feelings rather than classics. There's a shop attached, in case you leave wanting more than a memory.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Cathedral ceilings, exposed brick, and tropical plants climbing around plush tweed stools set the mood at this cocktail bar in Pinheiros. The drinks lean deep into Brazil's botanical pantry, gin paired with tonka bean syrup, rue herb, and native cambuci fruit in combinations that sound unlikely until they don't. The kind of bar where you come in curious and leave converted to ingredients you couldn't have spelled when you arrived.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Cannoli at nine in the morning, a Spritz by noon, and a proper Italian cocktail by evening: Locale Caffè runs the full day shift without breaking a sweat. The Itaim Bibi space is relaxed enough for a quick espresso stop but shifts into something closer to a classic Italian cocktail bar once the sun goes down. The drinks lean on aperitivo instincts, herbaceous and citrus-forward, and the vibe follows.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Cocktails, pizza, music, and graffiti from São Paulo street artists: Picco has quietly figured out what a bar needs to be. The room is small enough that the backyard, covered in murals, becomes the main event on a good night. Drinks lean toward classics with a few playful signatures thrown in, and a fizzy, lemon-spiked mate shows up like it belongs. Pinheiros locals who came for one drink tend to stay for three.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

A converted townhouse in Pinheiros that now operates as a cocktail bar, where the drinks list is organized chronologically, the way a serious person organizes a library. Gabriel Santana and his team treat the classics with real rigor, then slip in a handful of originals to keep things from feeling like a museum. You can drink inside in a compact lounge or out on the deck, which São Paulo weather makes an easy call most nights.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide