At Hong Kong cocktail bar and 2026 Imbibe 75 Place to Watch, Montana, it’s all about “daring drinks, classic vibes, and music that strikes you,” says co-founder Lorenzo Antinori in our January/February 2026 subject. Award-winning bartender Antinori opened the colourful cocktail bar final July with associate and compatriot Simone Caporale (No. 3 World’s Finest Bar Sips Barcelona), transporting bar-goers from Hong Kong’s SoHo neighborhood to Seventies Miami by means of its Daiquiris and disco.
The 2-level house options raucous Miami dive bar vibes on the primary flooring and an artwork deco-style lounge upstairs with elegant seating and paintings depicting music legends. On Wednesday nights, a stay band performs Cuban music within the lounge. The place Antinori’s Bar Leone can function a pregaming spot throughout aperitivo hour, Montana is the vacation spot for dancing the night time away.
Feeling sluggish? The bar crew greets every visitor with a shout of “Ritmo!” (rhythm), immediately invigorating anybody needing a second wind. You’ll additionally be capable to recharge with Cubanos and cocktails just like the Café Havana, made with scotch, rum, amaro, cream sherry, Bénédictine, and cold-brew espresso, whereas songs by iconic Latin artists—suppose Gloria Estefan, Celia Cruz, and Unhealthy Bunny—and touches of disco from ABBA, Lou Rawls, and Michael Jackson fill the house.
Montana is a tribute to the Membership de Cantineros, a Thirties Cuban bartenders guild. However its energetic theme is impressed by the Cuban bartenders who migrated to Florida within the ’70s. For extra on the bar’s body-moving soundtrack plus a condensed model of their 200-song playlist, we talked with Caporale.
What’s the standards for a tune to make it onto the Montana’s playlist?
It have to be the one which shakes the hips of the company from 4 generations—20s to 60s. We see that occur each night time. A cocktail bar that may make anybody really feel at residence at such a various age vary is one thing you don’t see that always on the market. Cuban congas, early salsa, mambo, and early disco and funk.
Why these genres?
As a result of precisely through the ’70s-’80s, these cultures had been fashioned by complementing one another, uniting the “totally different” mixing elegantly, in an trustworthy and human means. Such outcomes occur as soon as each 100 years relating to tradition, type, and rhythm. There are 100 Cuban bars on this planet, however a “Cuban migrated to Florida within the Seventies” place has not been conceptualized earlier than within the final 50 years.
Which songs would you cue as much as begin the night time and finish it?
What’s the right cocktail (or cocktails) to pair with the Montana playlist?
The Montana Daiquiri embraces the traditional Daiquiri No. 4 from Cuba, the place, moreover the best Cuban rum, there’s hand-squeezed lime, tremendous contemporary on the spot. We add a splash of maraschino liqueur and raspberry eau de vie. The result’s a zesty, scrumptious Daiquiri with a delicate rose-ruby coloration. Along with the Rum & Coke Bitter, a cross between the enduring Cuba Libre and bourbon bitter.