One of the most decorated cocktail bars on the planet is setting up shop on the Las Vegas Strip this fall. Sips Drinkery House of Barcelona, ranked among the top three bars in the world for both 2024 and 2025, will take over Vista Cocktail Lounge at Caesars Palace starting October 31 and running through December 31.
The residency lands as part of Caesars Palace's 60th anniversary programming, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The resort opened on August 5, 1966, and has spent 2026 marking the milestone with retro-inspired menus and commemorative programming across its venues, according to Caesars Entertainment. Bringing an internationally ranked bar to the property fits that anniversary push, and Caesars Entertainment Chief Commercial Officer Sean McBurney said the Sips residency is part of a broader strategy to introduce limited-time international pop-ups tied to major property milestones.
Barcelona Pedigree Behind the Bar
Sips is co-founded by Simone Caporale and Marc Álvarez, two names with serious weight in global cocktail circles. Caporale previously directed London's Artesian bar during its four-year run atop the World's Best Bar rankings from 2012 through 2015, per the Review-Journal's reporting and background compiled by Barcelona Obertura. Álvarez, meanwhile, spent more than eight years as head of mixology and beverage director for elBarri, the Barcelona restaurant group run by culinary pioneers Albert and Ferran Adrià.
That pedigree paid off in October 2023, when Sips was named the World's Best Bar, marking the second consecutive year a Barcelona establishment claimed the top spot following Paradiso's win in 2022, a run that broke the historic dominance London and New York bars had held over the award every year from 2009 through 2021, according to reporting compiled by the50 and Tasting Table. Caporale said Sips is excited to bring its cocktail experience to Caesars Palace and create memories in Las Vegas, per the Review-Journal.
What the Pop-Up Will Pour
The Las Vegas menu will include the Mosaic, which combines pisco brandy with aromatic woods from the Amazon rainforest and arrives in a glass hand-painted in the style of Barcelona modernisme, according to the Review-Journal's reporting. Also on the list is the Purple Rain, a modern spin on a whiskey sour featuring bourbon mellowed by wild sour honey and beetroot. Sips has built its reputation showcasing cocktails that emphasize technique and flavor over glassware and showmanship, the outlet notes, even as the brand is separately known for elaborate serving vessels at its Barcelona flagship — including the Primordial, presented in a metal cast of human hands, and the Krypta, served in an egg-shaped glass fitted with olfactory scent ports, according to Catalan News.
An Open Bar Design Meets Vegas Spectacle
The flagship Sips location, which opened in Barcelona's Eixample neighborhood in 2021, replaces the traditional back-bar counter with a central island workstation designed to eliminate physical barriers between bartenders and patrons, according to FEAST Journal. The founders have kept experimenting with format since then, adding Esencia, an intimate 14-seat bar-within-a-bar offering a liquid tasting menu of micro-cocktails, the same outlet reported.
That open, barrier-free layout will now share space with Vista Cocktail Lounge's own brand of spectacle. The venue, located near Amalfi by Bobby Flay and Dominique Ansel Las Vegas at Caesars Palace, features high-definition LED screens that display dynamic digital panoramas of global city skylines like New York, Shanghai, and Dubai, according to Las Vegas Magazine.
Hours and Reservations
Vista Cocktail Lounge is open from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Thursday and from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday through Sunday, per the Review-Journal. Reservations for the Sips residency are available through the nightlife link on the Caesars Palace website.
