BAR CANTINA ROO

This is the bar of Cantina Roo, a rest-bar that drinks tequila and eats chipotle under murals based on the tradition of votive offerings. Come on, a Mexican in every rule. Mezcal for everyone!

A curious mixture of industrial air, retro brightness and an unmistakable canteen inspiration. This is the decoration that Juan Castro used to give life and soul to Cantina Roo, in Madrid, much more than a Mexican. “The environment is based on the concept of the canteen and Mexican cuisine itself, the contrast that emerges from the combination of basic products with more sophisticated elements. We have used simple materials such as iron, wood, tile or Formica but combined in a more modern way. And the bar, for example, is very popular but with a touch `déco’, inspired by those typical of the thirties where you could eat and drink at any time.

The ideologist of all this is Óscar Polanco, a Mexican living in Spain, a photographer and a great connoisseur of gastronomy, who wanted to merge the best of each house to bring the experience of eating to another dimension. “We had been trying to open a restaurant for a while and could not be more than Mexican because of my origin and my education, but without forgetting my life in Spain; the rest-bar is a fusion of Mexican flavors, their roots and their tradition, with European cuisine and the highest quality products on this side of the Atlantic, “Polanco sums up. This is the only way to explain this interior design, full of contrasts that changes as the hours progress. “Everything is part of that idea,” says Castro, “workshop materials, industrial, iron doors in front of the neon logo; the tile and the murals on the walls. And as the night comes, the place becomes perverted and becomes something sinful, scoundrel. ” Much of that personality comes from the hand of the murals, painted by the graphic artist Juan Múgica: “These murals come from the Mexican tradition of votive offerings, a popular expression to thank the help of the gods; they are everyday scenes that represent problems of the common people, which we have updated looking for their most surreal, mysterious and funny aspects “. If we add to all this the know-how of Chef Guillermo Ortega, it is only necessary to decide the day, because we have dinner, we have dinner. And drink, we drink.