Where is Gilbert Perez Bar?

Gilbert Perez Bar is at 14633 Ventura Boulevard, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403, on the second floor above Daisy. Guests enter through Daisy, walk to the back past a curtain and head upstairs. It opened on October 22, 2026.

What are Gilbert Perez Bar's hours?

Thursday from 6 to 11 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 6 p.m. to midnight.

Do you need a reservation for Gilbert Perez Bar?

Yes. The bar has 24 seats, takes reservations only, has no standing room and books 90-minute tables. Start at gilbertperezbar.com.

Can you use your phone at Gilbert Perez Bar?

No. Phones and photography are not allowed, and staff are reportedly trained to spot smart glasses and cameras.

What does Gilbert Perez Bar pour?

Roughly 70 to 75 small-batch Mexican rums, aguardientes and charandas, plus seven cocktails including the Primordial Frutero, Liquid Limpia and Paloma Fizz. Classics such as the daiquiri, ti' punch, mojito, Old Fashioned and Negroni are made on request with the house rums. The bar does not serve mai tais.

Who is behind Gilbert Perez Bar?

Beverage director Max Reis of Mírate created the bar and runs the drinks. Alexa Nafisi-Movaghar of Adean Studios designed the interiors, and Spike Kienholz built the visual effects.

Why is it called Gilbert Perez Bar?

It is named for Gil Pérez, a Spanish soldier who, according to a legend dated to 1593, was on guard in Manila one night and found himself in Mexico City the next morning.

There Is a 24-Seat Rum Bar Above a Sherman Oaks Cantina, and You Cannot Bring Your Phone

2 days ago

4 min read

You get there by walking through Daisy, to the back, past a thick curtain, and up. There are 24 seats. You cannot stand, you cannot walk in, and you cannot take your phone out.

Gilbert Perez Bar opened on October 22 at 14633 Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, on the second floor directly above the margarita bar. That is why it has no Google listing of its own.

The Name Is A 400-Year-Old Story

Gil Pérez was a Spanish soldier who, according to a legend Daisy dates to 1593, was standing guard in Manila one night and found himself in Mexico City the next morning with no idea how he had gotten there.

The bar takes that literally. Its own invitation reads “Book a portal to Mexico.”

The Room Moves

Over the course of an evening the space shifts to a different Mexican destination, using lighting, mist, sound, screens and music. Each change is a portal, and transitions have included lightning, thunderclaps, dripping water and narrative voices. The team reportedly rehearsed them for months.

Two details worth noting as unsettled. Published accounts put the rotation at either 45 or 50 minutes, and the screen count at either three or four. We are not going to pretend to know which.

What does not change is the core cocktail. Everything else on the list rotates with the destination, drawing on each stop's regional ingredients. One stop recreates the 2009 opening night of the Guadalajara mezcal bar Pare de Sufrir, pouring rare mezcals that are not otherwise available in this country.

The Rum Is The Point

Behind the bar sit roughly 70 to 75 Mexican rums, aguardientes and charandas from small-batch producers, selected with an emphasis on sustainability and ethical sourcing. Some run north of 54 percent alcohol.

Mexican rum is not a category most Los Angeles bars take seriously, and building a 24-seat room around it is a real bet.

Primordial Frutero. The one constant. A clarified blend of more than ten fruits, named for teóxocotl, the mythical god-fruit.
Liquid Limpia. Hoja santa, Alambique Serrano Single Barrel #26 Mírate Selection, sugar cane, lime and Licor Limpia'uras.
Paloma Fizz. Grapefruit, Primo Aperitivo, Montagave Blanco Las Rocas tequila and house soda.
Seven cocktails total, not all of them rum.
Classics on request. Daiquiri, ti' punch, mojito, Old Fashioned, Negroni, built with the house rums.

Beverage director Max Reis has been clear about one boundary: the bar does not serve mai tais.

Who Built It

Reis created the bar and runs the drinks. His path there is worth the paragraph. He started at a Napa bakery at 14, moved to Los Angeles at 17 for art school, took a pay cut to barback at RockSugar in Century City and was behind the bar by 21. After touring with a band he came back in 2016, worked at Gracias Madre and République, and rebuilt Gracias Madre's agave list after trips to Oaxaca, pulling brands he considered unethically produced. He joined the opening team at Mírate and leads its beverage program. StarChefs named him a Los Angeles Rising Star Bartender in 2024.

As a kid he foraged mushrooms with his father and sold chanterelles to The French Laundry.

Alexa Nafisi-Movaghar of Adean Studios designed the interiors, as she did for Mírate and Daisy, describing the approach as “more is more” and drawing on San Miguel de Allende's colors, Luis Barragán's architecture, 1940s pool parties and modern baroque. Spike Kienholz, who has toured with Phoebe Bridgers and LCD Soundsystem, built the visual effects.

Matt Egan is named as a partner. Sources describe him differently, as a restaurateur in one account and as a film and television director of photography in another, and no source reconciles the two. No outlet we found publishes a formal ownership structure, and coverage generally credits “the team behind Daisy.”

If You Go

Gilbert Perez Bar, 14633 Ventura Boulevard, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403, second floor, entered through Daisy
Hours: Thursday 6 to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday 6 p.m. to midnight
Seats: 24, reservation only, no standing room, 90-minute tables
Phones: not allowed. Staff are reportedly trained to spot smart glasses and cameras.
Reservations: reported as Resy by one outlet and as the bar's own site by another. gilbertperezbar.com is the address to start with.
Prices: not published anywhere.

Reis has said the reservations are staggered rather than set at uniform times, which makes sense in a room where the show restarts every 45 minutes.

Sourcing

The opening date, address, format, no-phone policy, rum count and cocktail builds come from Hoodline and Haute Living, both published October 23, 2026, which disagree on the rotation interval, the rum count and the reservation platform. Those disagreements are noted above rather than resolved. Max Reis's career history and the Rising Star award come from his StarChefs profile. The design approach, the Gil Pérez legend dating and Daisy's own description come from Velvet Hollywood. The bar has no Google Business Profile and no Instagram handle we could verify, so we have not printed one. Checked October 25, 2026. Food Journal Magazine has not visited Gilbert Perez Bar.