Mexico City’s popular Rayo Cocktail Bar has announced the expansion of their award-winning program with the arrival of two key new leadership team members : Luis Miguel Cardona (Alquimico) as Head Bartender and Audrey Hands (Trailer Happiness, Havana Club) as Head of Strategic Partnerships and Guest Experiences. The announcement reflects Rayo’s continued pursuit of excellence by incorporating and embracing industry leaders with extensive experience at renowned establishments with refined understanding of global and regional cocktail culture.
Creating unique tastings and conceptual experiences are a key element contributing to Rayo’s highly successful ascent to becoming one of the world’s best bars. Since its inception, Rayo has been the recipient of numerous accolades and awards, providing authentic hospitality via showcasing Mexico’s diverse beauty, rich culture, and artistry. The cocktail bar’s location features a special elevator and “one of a kind” creative menus and experiences found only at Rayo. The cocktail menu offers guests a highly curated selection and chance to sample a range of tincture sized cocktails instead of just one. In lieu of a traditional menu, one can indulge in their innovative 3D Box “Mexico Through The Senses” offering containing droppers with mini-samplings of their signature cocktails. Rayo’s Masterclass on the creative process behind the “Through The Senses” experience was shared on You Tube (shown below) alongside the Soujourn Trading Company as part of “Rayo’s Bar Takeover & Masterclass.”
Accompanying the leadership announcement, a recent press release provided additional details :
Mexico City, MX – (October 23, 2024) – Mexico City’s Rayo cocktail bar announces two new team members, Luis Miguel Cardona (Alquimico) as Head Bartender and Audrey Hands (Trailer Happiness, Havana Club) as Head of Strategic Partnerships and Guest Experiences. With extensive experience at renowned establishments, these industry leaders bring a refined understanding of global and regional cocktail culture to their new roles. In addition, Miguel Bolanos, a member of the founding team of Rayo, has been promoted to Beverage Director overseeing the award-winning program.
The vision for this new management team is to go deeper into the original essence of Rayo, which is to celebrate the cultural heritage of Mexico’s spirits and gastronomy through fine signature cocktail crafting and to focus on fostering a contemporary and vibrant experience for guests.
“We’re excited to move forward with two incredibly talented lead bartenders to man the ship and to take Rayo to an even greater place. It will be great to have these two talented bartenders at home, at our bar, working on creating an experience representing the best in Mexican hospitality. And we hope everyone visits us soon to meet them and the rest of our talented team,” says Rayo’s founder and owner, Victor Garibay.
The team will infuse inspiration from Mexico’s rich distilling traditions and history to Rayo’s cocktail menu, telling the stories behind Mexico’s distillates, and honoring the culture and history of the country that Rayo represents. There is a keen interest in local spirits such as agave-based spirits, Pox, Tuxca, and Charanda. The cocktail menu is a celebration of Mexico in itself. Intended to take imbibers on a flavor-forward journey throughout the country, each of the concoctions (which are titled by number) incorporates a different Mexican spirit and is emblematic of the regions in which they come from.
“One of the new directions is that we will concentrate more on Mexican spirits as we will have one of the largest (if not the largest) collections of different Mexican spirits in the world and create unique tastings experiences around the concept,” says Garibay.
For further details, visit Rayo’s online or Rayo’s Instagram account – 3D Box “Mexico Through The Senses” at https://www.instagram.com/rayocdmx/p/CsKls10uiVP/?img_index=1
