Wax On, Berlin

If it is true (and I believe it is) that quality of life is mostly about expectations, it must not be easy for a bar such as the Wax On to live up to its short history. Voted 2023 “Best New Bar of the Year” and 2024 “Bar of the Year – Germany” at the Mixology Bar Awards, plus a few more, this bar is actually my new “go-to” place in Belin, for at least five good reasons. First, the fact that the six waiters and bartenders turns, meaning that you get to talk at the table to a real top bartender, which helps. Second, the service is super attentive (thanks Denis!) up to the level that if you go to the toilet your drink is taken and put in the freezer, or that in the middle of your martini your glass is being substituted with a chilled one (never seen this before, guys I love you). Third, the fact that the bar has no visible bottles and feels like a laboratory with tools and shakers, so no branbds around but just good booze (there is a drinks lab downstairs where some ingredients are produced in house it seems, next time I’ll ask to visit). Fourth, the menu is twisting some classics in creative and sometimes extreme ways, but the result (yes, even with their banana drink) is always impeccable, Fifth, I got one of the best martini cocktails of my drinking career: temperature, dryness, glass, ingredients, it was all perfect. Did I say that when the drink was starting to get warm my glass was changed? And that the music, athmosphere and crowd were just great? Faboulous night, with a Classic Martini Rate of 10.