Thiago Banares

The Climb

Administrative work trains a kind of mise en place before any knife or grill is involved: order, timing, records, and the habit of tracking moving parts under pressure. Thiago Banares worked early as auxiliar administrativo, and that discipline reads cleanly into hospitality work where the room, the pass, the bar, and the service rhythm all need structure. Family cooking can carry technique without formal language. In Thiago Banares’s own account, the entry point was a grandfather who had cooked at sea and taught him how to cook. The useful inheritance here is practical confidence: feeding people, repeating actions, and treating food as work that has to hold up in front of others. Owner-operated restaurants require a different register of craft: not only menu development, but pacing, staffing, beverage logic, and the feel of the room. As chef/proprietor of Kotori since 2021 and chef/proprietor of The Liquor Store, Thiago Banares works across food, drink, service, and atmosphere as connected parts of the same trade.

Today

The format also makes room for drinking, and Thiago Banares became known through that room for bringing cocktails toward the center of São Paulo’s dining and drinking scene. The bar is not treated as a waiting area; the glass is part of the meal’s structure. Kotori in São Paulo, Brazil, led by Thiago Banares since 2021, works from Japanese technique and Brazilian ingredients. Yakitori is the main dish, using different cuts of chicken served on wooden skewers; the format is plain enough to expose mistakes and demanding enough to reward control of heat, seasoning, texture, and timing. Rabanada de shokupan with milk ice cream and toffee brings the sweeter side into the same frame: recognizable comfort, handled with restaurant precision. The Liquor Store in São Paulo, Brazil, extends the same concern with the relationship between appetite and drinking. Across these addresses, Thiago Banares keeps family cooking, Brazilian restaurant culture, Japanese technique, Brazilian ingredients, and cocktails in active conversation. A skewer, a sandwich, a noodle bowl, or a drink is treated as part of the same service language.

Signature

The signature set—Yakitori, Dirty Collins, aka teba, and katsu sando—places grill work, cocktail construction, chicken technique, and sandwich form in the same operating field. In Thiago Banares’s hands, the point is not separation between bar and kitchen, but continuity: smoke, crispness, texture, acidity, and satisfaction moving through food and drink with equal weight.

In Their Words “I entered into this industry with the influence of my grandpa, who was a marine cook and taught me how to cook.” “I'm Thiago Bañares from Tan Tan bar in Brazil, and I cook and I love cocktails.”

Recognition

Thiago Banares has received Bar World 100 — No. 55 among the most influential figures in the global bar industry (2026). Recognition has come from both the Bar World and restaurant guides: Tan Tan ranked No. 24 on The World's 50 Best Bars, Tan Tan ranked No. 31 on The World's 50 Best Bars (2024), Tan Tan ranked Global No. 19, 18th Annual Spirited Awards - Best International Restaurant Bar, Kotori received a Bib Gourmand distinction, and Listed among the 100 most influential people in global cocktails. The pattern is consistent with the work: bar craft placed inside the meal, restaurant craft attentive to drink, and a São Paulo practice where the kitchen and counter are built to carry equal consequence.