Simone Caporale

Barcelona

Cocktail rule-breaker and master of innovation

In 2009, Simone Caporale arrived in London with €2000 and a dream: to make it big in what he believed to be the cocktail capital of the world. Now, with an armful of world-recognised accolades, he's an inspirational figure for bartenders with similar ambitions.

Born in a small village near Lake Como in Italy, Caporale began his journey in hospitality as a glass washer in a lakeside bar. After working his way up to the role of bartender, he followed his heart to London, where he saw the diverse mix of cultures as the perfect environment to create something truly special in the glass.

He spent five years at Artesian at The Langham where, alongside head bartender Alex Kratena (co-founder of London superstar bar Tayēr + Elementary), he turned the classic hotel bar upside down with an experimental cocktail offering. His rule-breaking spirit won the venue The World's Best Bar title four times between 2012 and 2015.

Beyond the bar, Caporale launched P(our) Symposium in 2016 – a not-for-profit collective for bartenders – alongside Kratena and Roku Industry Icon Award 2024 winner Monica Berg. His dedication to developing the next generation of bartenders continues through his pandemic-born, video-based learning programme The Art of Bartending.

Perpetually on the hunt for a new challenge and the chance to further develop his already sizable skillset, Caporale opened Sips in 2021 in Barcelona's Eixample district with Marc Álvarez, a fellow legend of the bar world who cut his teeth with the Ferran brothers of El Bulli fame. After just two short years, the precise yet playful venue garnered a reputation as cutting-edge and stormed to the No.1 spot to be named The World's Best Bar in 2023. The bar was further enhanced in the form of clandestine drinking den Esencia – a sibling to Sips at the same address serving small, creatively constructed cocktail sips – in 2024.

Still not satisfied with his current empire, Caporale and Álvarez teamed up once more to take on the ownership of Barcelona's oldest cocktail bar Boadas, embracing the bar's rich heritage and infusing it with fresh energy. 2025 saw him open yet another new venture, this time with fellow Italian Lorenzo Antinori (the founder of The Best Bar in Asia 2025, Bar Leone), and for the first time in Asia. Montana burst onto Hong Kong's busy bar scene in July 2025 slinging Cuban-inspired sips and irreverent snacks – think crisps covered in sour cream and caviar served straight from the bag – cementing Caporale's patented approach of serious drinks served in a beautifully unserious manner.

It's hard to deny Caporale's career-shaping eye for innovation and admirable motivation to pass on his masterful technique and unrivalled knowledge to aspiring bartenders. This, plus his pioneering spirit, has afforded him true icon status, both among his peers and the world at large, making him a well-deserved winner of the Roku Industry Icon Award 2025.

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