From the street, Candelaria is a tiny, genuine taqueria in the Marais, turning out tacos at a handful of stools. Walk to the back, through an unmarked door behind the kitchen, and you find one of the bars that changed Paris drinking forever: an agave-fuelled, world-ranked cocktail room hidden in plain sight behind a taco counter.
We rank Candelaria No. 7 on our guide to the 25 best speakeasies in the world. It earns its place twice over: as a genuinely excellent hidden bar, and as the pioneer that kicked off the entire Parisian hidden-bar wave, proving a great speakeasy could be joyful rather than solemn.
The taqueria and the door behind it
Candelaria sits at 52 rue de Saintonge, in the Haut Marais. The front room is not a facade but a working taqueria, complete with in-house tortillas and proper Mexican street food, and many visitors come only for the tacos, never suspecting what lies beyond. The cocktail bar is reached through a plain, unmarked door at the back, past the kitchen, a threshold you would walk right by unless you knew to look for it.
That is the essence of the classic speakeasy trick: an ordinary, functioning business up front, a hidden room behind. But Candelaria's version has a particular charm, because the front is not a token gesture, it is a genuinely good taco spot, which means the whole place works as a single continuous experience, from a snack at the counter to a world-class cocktail in the back.
Quixotic Projects and a new kind of Paris bar
Candelaria opened in 2011, created by the team behind Quixotic Projects, Carina Soto Velasquez, Joshua Fontaine and Adam Tsou. Their arrival marked a turning point for the city. Paris in the early 2010s had a cocktail scene that was sleepy and often self-serious, and Candelaria offered something new: a loose, warm, good-time energy paired with genuinely ambitious drinks. The Quixotic team would go on to shape the modern Paris bar world, but Candelaria was the room that started it.
The concept was quietly radical. Rather than reverence, it offered fun; rather than a grand room, it offered a hidden one behind a taqueria; and rather than the familiar spirits of the classic canon, it built its bar around agave. That combination felt fresh in Paris, and it drew a crowd that had not previously seen itself in the city's cocktail bars.
An agave bar at heart
Candelaria's drinks lead with agave spirits, mezcal, tequila, sotol and raicilla, a focus that was unusual in Paris when it opened and that gave the bar a clear identity. The Mexican theme is not confined to the taqueria out front; it runs through the cocktail list, which pairs contemporary technique with the smoky, vegetal, complex character of agave.
The signature is La Guêpe Verte, "the green wasp," built on tequila or agave with jalapeño, cucumber and lime. Spicy, fresh and bright, it became a modern Paris classic and a calling card for the whole bar, the kind of drink that people cross the city for and order on sight. Around it, the list balances agave-forward originals with the polish you would expect from a bar that has spent years near the top of the world rankings.
The bar that started the Paris wave
Candelaria's influence on Paris is hard to overstate. It is widely credited as the bar that kicked off the city's hidden-bar movement, the room whose success showed that Paris had an appetite for concealed, agave-driven, contemporary cocktail bars. In the years that followed, a whole ecosystem of Parisian speakeasies and craft bars grew up in its wake, many of them staffed or inspired by people who had passed through Candelaria or the wider Quixotic orbit.
That pioneering role is a large part of why it ranks where it does. A great speakeasy is measured not only by its own drinks but by its influence on the scene around it, and by that measure Candelaria is one of the most important bars in Europe. It did not just open a hidden room; it opened a door for a city.
Recognition
The accolades matched the influence. Candelaria was a fixture on The World's 50 Best Bars from 2012 through 2018, peaking at No. 9 in 2013, a remarkable run for a bar hidden behind a taco counter. Placing in the global top ten put it among the most acclaimed cocktail rooms in the world at the height of the modern boom, and confirmed that its blend of fun and rigour was not a novelty but a genuinely elite offering.
As with several long-established bars, its list positions have shifted over the years, so it is best understood as a former top-ten 50 Best bar rather than a current ranking, but its reputation and its place in cocktail history are secure.
How to visit
Candelaria is at 52 rue de Saintonge in the 3rd arrondissement, in the heart of the Marais. You can drop in to the taqueria for tacos with no ceremony, then slip through the back door to the bar; the hidden room is intimate, so it fills up, and a wait is common on busy nights. Cocktails sit at premium Paris prices, while the tacos out front are more affordable, making it easy to build a whole evening in one address. Confirm current hours and any booking policy before you go.
The ideal approach is to treat it as the locals do: start with food and a drink at the counter, then move through to the back for the full cocktail experience. Taken as a single journey, from taqueria to hidden bar, it remains one of the most enjoyable nights out in Paris.
The verdict
Candelaria is proof that a speakeasy does not have to be solemn to be serious. Behind its taco counter is a warm, lively, agave-driven bar that spent years among the best in the world and single-handedly set off the Paris hidden-bar movement. The green-wasp bite of La Guêpe Verte, the surprise of the back door, the easy pleasure of tacos-then-cocktails: it all adds up to a bar that is as fun as it is accomplished. For its quality and its outsized influence, it earns seventh place on our list, and a permanent spot on any Paris itinerary.
See the full field in our 25 best speakeasies in the world, or keep exploring in our Paris guide.