BarrioLoco Bacardí

In 2018, Albert Adrià created a gastronomic experience unique in the world: El Barrio Loco.

As part of the BACARDI INNOVATION LAB, Adrià and Bacardí are worked hand in hand to create a new dialogue between gastronomy and cocktails, as well as a new revolution, interpretation and language of both territories in the 21st century.

More than 250 consumers were invited to enjoy this unique social and gastronomic event. “I can’t think of many experiences in the world that offer such gastronomic intensity in such a short time. We are going to go far beyond the cocktail in a glass and we are sure to surprise the guests with things they do not expect. What we are going to do will not leave anyone indifferent. That is the challenge,” says Albert Adrià.

All the restaurants in the elBarri group hosted a unique four Michelin star experience. On the night of 10 July 2018, the restaurants Tickets, Niño Viejo, Bodega 1900, Hoja Santa, Pakta and Enigma organised a travelling dinner, where participants could taste the best samples of this dialogue between gastronomy and cocktails at the highest level, the result of the joint work of the BACARDI INNOVATION LAB.
MARTINI Vermouth, GRAY GOOSE Vodka, BOMBAY SAPPHIRE Gin, PATRÓN Tequila, DEWAR’S Whiskey, ST GERMAIN Liqueur and BACARDI Rum were chosen as the basis for the liquid and solid preparations tasted by the guests.

According to journalist Ferran Imedio:

“The night was definitely crazy. One of the good ones, one of those that define an era, one of those that everyone wants to repeat, one of those that no one dares to go on because it seems like an unattainable dream. But how do you define this tour of eight gastronomic spaces? of six restaurants where you ate five or six tapas and had a cocktail in each? What does it matter? The point is that it happened. It was possible. And it worked.
Adrià and Bacardí must already be wondering whether they will do it again, given the success of this unique proposition in Spain and probably the rest of the world. Because it is not easy to get 260 people together. It was not just one group that went from restaurant to restaurant, all concentrated in a radius of a few metres, but six. And that forced the organisation to create a logistics that worked like a Swiss watch; the comparison is almost literal, because it even took into account the time it took to get from one place to another, including waiting at traffic lights.
There was no shortage of music from renowned disc jockeys, some from Berlin, or mariachis, depending on the venue. It was crazy, and it took all our brains.