Mercado San Cosme

Located in what used to be a 20th century butcher shop on Torstraße 116 in Berlin’s Mitte neighborhood, Mercado San Cosme is a mezcal bar and a showroom for Mexican design.
Mercado San Cosme was born, inspired by iconic elements from Mexican culture, its Modernist architecture, and its magical, ancestral liquor: mezcal. This mystical, colorful, and comforting atmosphere is now revisited within a new space in the German capital.

In the showroom, some of these products are displayed on a large shelf subtly placed behind a latticework that recalls the work of Mathias Goeritz, a series of simple wooden structures — in a cumbersome and brutalist way — also serve as display modules.

Further into the shop, in a small interior garden, there is a sculpture/altar that displays products and objects. To its right, there is a bar where mezcal tastings take place while savoring Mexican bites. The bar exudes a mystical atmosphere inspired by the emotional architecture of Luis Barragán. A wall made of wooden cacti with colored thorns is used as a coat-hanger, while the other wall is decorated with geometric graphics and motifs.

At the end of the bar, there is a private room which is intended for tastings of the different types of artisanal mezcals on offer, and for conveying all there is to know about this drink. There is also a sitting room with geometric tiled floors — a typical characteristic in Mexican towns — and custom made furniture. The walls feature screen prints based on pre-Hispanic imagery, reproduced in bright colors.

Using the iconic 1968 Mexico Olympics typography — originally designed by Lance Wyman; the glowing "68" transforms a historic cultural symbol into a modern, glowing artifact. It serves as both a high-contrast lighting feature and a piece of visual storytelling that anchors the space in its Mexican roots.

This bespoke display shelf functions as both a structural partition and a product showcase, designed to bring a monumental architectural narrative into a compact exhibition format. The piece features a geometric, semi-permeable screen that draws direct inspiration from the iconic modern Mexican architecture of Luis Barragán. 
By playing with light, shadow, and depth through the see-through framework, the unit creates furniture that plays a part as the architecture of the experience.

Mercado San Cosme is an embassy for mezcal, and for Mexican design in general, not only in Germany, but throughout Europe as well.