Hanky Panky

Colonia Juárez and the Making of a Serious Bar Scene

Colonia Juárez sits at the northern edge of Reforma, a neighbourhood that has tracked Mexico City's broader shift from commercial thoroughfare to creative district over the past decade. The streets around Turín and Londres carry a specific energy: ground-floor creative businesses, mid-century residential architecture, and a density of bars and restaurants that have accumulated not by accident but through deliberate choices by operators who wanted proximity to a well-travelled, internationally aware clientele. It is the kind of neighbourhood where a cocktail bar can build a genuinely global reputation without feeling displaced from its city — which is precisely the condition Hanky Panky occupies at Turín 52.

Mexico City's cocktail scene has matured considerably from the tequila-and-mezcal-forward model that defined it for foreign visitors a generation ago. The city now hosts a range of bars operating at different tiers of ambition and technique, from neighbourhood mezcalerías to internationally ranked programs with sourced spirits, house-made preparations, and formal tasting formats. Hanky Panky sits at the upper end of that spectrum, not as an outlier but as the clearest articulation of where the scene has arrived.

What the Rankings Actually Signal

Award rankings in the bar world are imperfect instruments, but they are not meaningless. Hanky Panky's position across four consecutive years of World's 50 Best programming tells a more useful story than any single placement. The bar entered the global list at #12 in 2021, reached #22 in 2023, and has held a sustained presence through 2025, where it sits at #35 globally and #62 on Top 500 Bars. On North America's Leading Bars specifically, it ranked #16 in 2022, climbed to #20 in 2023, and currently holds #35 in 2025.

Sustained presence across multiple years and across both global and regional lists is a different credential than a single peak ranking. It signals a program that has built durable infrastructure — in technical execution, in sourcing, in staff continuity , rather than a bar that crested on novelty. By comparison, Baltra Bar and Bar Mauro are part of the same Mexico City tier conversation, while Bijou Drinkery Room and Brujas represent adjacent approaches to the city's serious drinking culture. Among this peer set, Hanky Panky carries the longest sustained international recognition.

The 4.3 Google rating across 1,921 reviews is a useful secondary signal. At that volume and at that score, the rating reflects consistent delivery rather than a curated sample , it is the kind of number that accumulates when a venue performs reliably across a wide range of visitors, not just those predisposed to be impressed.

The Juárez Address as Part of the Experience

Where a bar sits in a city matters for how it functions in practice. Hanky Panky's Colonia Juárez location means it operates within walking distance of the Zona Rosa, the Paseo de la Reforma hotel corridor, and the restaurant density of Colonia Roma to the south. For visitors staying in the central hotel belt, the bar is reachable on foot or by a short ride , a practical advantage in a city where late-night logistics can otherwise shape which venues actually get visited.

The neighbourhood also exerts an influence on the bar's character. Juárez is not a tourist district in the conventional sense; it has enough residential and local commercial life to resist the kind of performance that some internationally ranked bars adopt when they know their clientele is primarily foreign. A bar in Juárez has to hold up to regular customers who will return on a weeknight, not just destination visitors arriving for a single occasion. That condition tends to produce more honest and more durable programs.

Operating hours run Tuesday through Saturday, 6:00 AM to 2:00 AM , a span that covers both the late-afternoon aperitivo window and the deep end of Mexico City's late-night culture. The Tuesday opening is worth noting for visitors whose itineraries don't cluster around weekends; many of the city's better bars close Sunday and Monday, and a Tuesday-to-Saturday format gives more flexibility for a short trip.

Mexico City in the Wider Latin American Bar Context

Mexico City now occupies a different position in the global bar conversation than it did a decade ago. The city competes on the same international circuits as São Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Bogotá, and it exports bartending talent and technique in ways that would have been less legible to a global audience in the early 2010s. The emergence of internationally ranked bars across Juárez, Roma, and Condesa reflects infrastructure , industry education, local spirit production from agave-based categories, and a professional bartending culture with genuine depth.

Within Latin America, Mexico City's cocktail scene draws a specific credential from its proximity to world-class agave spirits. Mezcal and tequila are not regional novelties here but primary ingredients with the same seriousness that Scotch carries in Edinburgh or wine carries in Lyon. Bars operating at Hanky Panky's level treat those ingredients accordingly: not as colour on a menu but as the foundation of a technical program. Visitors arriving from other markets where agave spirits function as novelties often find their assumptions about those categories revised in Mexico City's better bars.

For reference points at a similar tier elsewhere in the region and beyond: Arca in Tulum represents the resort-adjacent version of serious Mexican bartending, Aruba Day Drink in Tijuana shows how the northern border cities are building their own credentialed programs, and Bar Leather Apron in Honolulu offers a point of comparison for how ranked bars operate in smaller, more isolated markets. Each of those addresses is doing something distinct; Hanky Panky's value in the comparison set is that it operates at global ranking level while remaining embedded in one of the world's largest cities and its attendant competition.

Planning Your Visit

The bar operates Tuesday to Saturday, opening at 6:00 PM and running to 2:00 AM (note: hours listed in the database show 06:00, which in Mexico City bar context typically denotes an evening opening; confirm current hours directly before visiting). Colonia Juárez is well-served by Uber and the city's ride-sharing options; the Insurgentes metro station sits within reasonable walking distance for those comfortable with the neighbourhood. Booking in advance is advisable for weekends and for any visit where you want a specific seat or table , at the bar's recognition level, walk-in availability on a Friday or Saturday is not guaranteed.

For a fuller picture of where Hanky Panky sits within Mexico City's wider hospitality offer, see our Mexico City bars guide, Mexico City restaurants guide, Mexico City hotels guide, Mexico City wineries guide, and Mexico City experiences guide.

FAQ

What should I drink at Hanky Panky?

Hanky Panky's sustained presence on the World's 50 Best Bars list , including a #22 global ranking in 2023 , is rooted in a program built on technical precision and serious engagement with Mexican spirits. Agave-based cocktails are the natural starting point: mezcal and tequila are not used here as genre markers but as primary ingredients worked with the same attention that a leading European bar gives to its base spirits. Beyond that, a bar operating at this recognition level typically maintains a repertoire of house-made preparations and spirit-forward formats. The most useful approach is to engage the bar team directly, describe what you are in the mood for, and allow their knowledge of the current list to guide you , that is, in fact, exactly the kind of interaction a bar at this level is built to handle well.