Mexico Metropolis Welcomes Define, a New Draft Cocktail Bar by a Trio of Award-Successful Bartenders

When Mexico Metropolis’s latest cocktail bar and restaurant, Define, opened on the finish of September, it was the fruits of months price of preparation between a few of the greatest within the enterprise. However only a 12 months in the past, the longer term was far more opaque. 

Restaurateur Walter Meyenberg is well-known in Mexico Metropolis as the person behind a few of the most celebrated bars and eateries on the town, together with Hanky Panky and Brujas, each of which recurrently rank on the much-lauded World’s 50 Finest Bars checklist annually. However when enthusiastic about his subsequent transfer, Meyenberg knew he needed to work with Maura and Alex Lawrence Milia — the husband-and-wife duo who’ve themselves helmed a few of the most notable bars on this planet. Alex is the managing director and co-owner of the Mr Lyan group, which incorporates Silver Lyan in Washington D.C., Tremendous Lyan in Amsterdam, and Lyaness in London; whereas Maura has spent the previous ten years on the two-time World’s Finest Bar, The Connaught. 

“Alex is a legend within the business; he’s a genius. And Maura is the grasp of hospitality,” Meyenberg mentioned. “But it surely wasn’t simply their abilities that made me need to work with them. We share a connection and imaginative and prescient that simply works very well collectively.” 

However this time final 12 months, the couple had been each nonetheless residing in London, enthusiastic about their very own subsequent steps there, with a transfer to Mexico Metropolis not even an actual thought. “Maura and I had been speaking rather a lot about perhaps doing one thing collectively in London,” Alex mentioned. “However doing something in London is unattainable.”

After a number of conversations with Meyenberg and seeing firsthand what he’s carried out along with his areas in Mexico Metropolis — between the meals and beverage choices and the structure and design of his areas — each Maura and Alex knew that working with him was an excellent subsequent step.

Each had been to Mexico Metropolis earlier than, Maura having participated in a pop-up at Meyenberg’s Brujas, a female-led bar within the upscale Roma Norte neighborhood, and Alex on a variety of events for each private journey and work. By February 2023, the pair headed to the town, which is a few 5,548 miles from London, to have fun their honeymoon and host one other pop-up with Meyenberg. That’s when the actual groundwork was laid.

“Walter referred to as me a number of months later and was mainly like, ‘Are you coming?’” Alex says. “I used to be in my flat in London, and I used to be like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ I put the cellphone down and referred to as Maura and was like, ‘I feel we’re transferring to Mexico.’”

As soon as the decision was made, Alex and Maura made their approach to Mexico Metropolis for good to begin constructing out three totally different ideas below the brand new bar group with Meyenberg, aptly referred to as MWA. Their first idea, Define, opened in Roma Norte in late September and focuses on draft cocktails and small bites, with the capability to accommodate 150 visitors. The menu options diner-style dishes from each the USA and Mexico, like tacos, hotdogs, and burgers. And so they partnered with Mexican streetwear designer Tony Delfino on every thing, from the menu design to the workers uniforms, to present the house a definite feel and appear. 

When ideating the idea, the staff was adamant about creating a singular house that belonged. Their experience lies in high quality cocktails using new methods, in order that they needed to carry one thing totally different to the scene. All 30 of their revolutionary drinks — such because the Tomato Highball, Clear Colada, and Turin Greens — are pre-batched and provided on draft from specifically made containers, making them able to serve. 

Their second idea, Café Arixi, is an all-day Italian restaurant and bar that pulls inspiration from Maura’s upbringing in Sardinia, all whereas mixing Mexican components with Italian dishes and methods, however as Alex places it, “isn’t attempting to Disneyland Italy.” Somewhat, it serves a threefold objective: to showcase their personalities, lean into Italian hospitality, and have fun scrumptious flavors from each cultures. “Café Arixi showcases the weather of an Italian household occasion,” Alex says. However particularly, his and Maura’s marriage ceremony in Sardinia, of which Meyenberg was a visitor. “It’s based mostly on the occasion that we threw at our marriage ceremony at Maura’s dad and mom’ home. And the thought is we get to throw that occasion each evening.”

“We actually need to create a way of house,” Maura says. “The place folks will hang around all evening with their associates, simply consuming nice meals and consuming nice drinks.”

Plans are nonetheless being ironed out for his or her third idea, which the group plans to open in Oaxaca in early 2025. The concept is for all three areas to be distinctive from each other, so whereas visitors can anticipate the excessive degree of service that’s imbued into every thing the trio has labored on, each collectively and individually, every will have fun the neighborhoods that they’re part of — with world-class foods and drinks.