Bekeb is the most important signature bar in San Miguel de Allende

Fabiola Padilla talks about how Bekeb, the bar that has become her life project, came about and has evolved.

Published January 10, 2024

Fabiola Padilla imagined Bekeb before it materialized. A native of San Miguel Alto, in the Altos de Jalisco, she studied law in León, Guanajuato, although she discovered early on that her passion was in bars.

“I studied for a degree, gave my degree to my father and then, at the age of 21, I went to New York to do an internship at the UN. Soon I discovered that this wasn’t my thing, so I started working as a barback in a place that was in Downing Street, in the West Village,” says this talented Mexican mixologist and entrepreneur.

For several months he devoted himself to the most rudimentary tasks: making juice, taking care of ice, raising and lowering boxes; but later, thanks to his perseverance, he learned the craft of bartending empirically: “For me it’s an art, it’s about working and doing it with cool people, being like a sponge and absorbing everything you can from all the people, as well as studying and researching on your own,” he says. At the age of 23, he knew he wanted a bar. “It took me seven years to do it: working five or six days a week with 10- to 12-hour shifts,” says Fabiola.

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