Another Day In Paradiso

Giacomo Giannotti brings his cocktail dreams to India, and in an exclusive chat reveals what it's like to run and reinvent the World's Best Bar '22

- By Sharan Sanil

When Paradiso first opened its iconic fridge door in Barcelona's El Born district in 2015, it reimagined the speakeasy as theatre. Hidden behind a pastrami shop, Giacomo Giannotti’s curved-wood-and-Carrara-marble sanctuary became a place where high-concept storytelling met technical precision; a laboratory of textures, illusions, and unexpected flavours. By 2022, the bar had ascended to the top of the world, crowned The World's Best Bar at the 50 Best ceremony in its own hometown, a landmark win that cemented Barcelona as a new cocktail capital.

For Giannotti, born in Tuscany and raised in his family’s gelateria, this was the culmination of years spent chasing craft across London, Barcelona, and beyond. At Paradiso, he built more than a bar: it’s a collaborative playground powered by projects like Paradiso Lab, a sustainability-focused research hub, and Galileo, a sister venue that fuses Italian flavours with Spanish flair. “Passion is what got us here,” he said on that fateful night in October ‘22. In Paradiso’s hands, passion means relentless reinvention.