Someplace warm

Casa Salles, best CDMX fine dining, Cotswolds real estate, Bar Panisse, Fasano Rio de Janeiro, Le Perche, MORE

Jan 24, 2026

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This week, one fresh PROMPT for which we seek your intelligence:

Tell us about your favorite hotel in the world, one worth booking an entire trip around.

More answers or questions? Hit reply or email found@itsfound.com.

GETAWAYS • Mexico

Tequila sunset

Instead of wine country, consider Tequila in the Mexican state of Jalisco for a culturally rich, spirit-infused vacation. A 90-minute drive from Guadalajara Airport, the town of Tequila is a UNESCO World Heritage site where the production of tequila fuses pre-Hispanic and European traditions in both agriculture and industry.

Casa Salles is the most modern, comfortable place to stay, a 25-room boutique hotel opened in 2020 and owned by the Salles family (who also produce El Tequileño, one of the very few tequila brands produced at its own distillery, next door to the hotel). The fruity aroma of fermenting agave juice wafts from the distillery to the loungers by the heated outdoor pool, where guests sip cantaritos, the citrus-y local cocktail served in a clay cup. In the spacious backyard, carne asada, quesadillas, and guacamole al fresco are served under the shade of majestic mango trees. Fresh mangoes are abundant in May and June.

Distillery tours and tastings are available daily for hotel guests, and you can watch workers chop agave piñas in half with machetes and throw them in the steam-pressured autoclave (ingeniously engineered by Don Jorge from old rail cars) to slow roast for 16 hours. The roasted agave is too fibrous to eat, but delicious to chew on, with its honeyed sweet potato flavor. After it’s passed through a mill to extract the sugars, the agave juice is fermented in small batches and distilled.

There’s no gym at Casa Salles, but sunrise yoga classes on the grassy rooftop are available and artwork from Cuban sculptor Rafael San Juan adorns the lobby. In-room amenities include L’Occitane toiletries, Nespresso machines, and smart TVs. My room was the only one with a Toto toilet. Dining highlights included octopus zarandeado, breakfast molletes, regional cheese from Jalisco, and warm fresh baked seeded sourdough bread at dinner.

A short walk away, the historic town of Tequila is a colorful place to explore and buy dried chilies to take home or try street tacos in taco alley. Nieves San Antonio serves roasted agave ice cream, and the boisterous bar La Capilla is where the simple Mexican cocktail, the batanga, was invented in the 1960s.

Most leisure travelers in Tequila are Mexican, which sets it apart from much of Mexico’s vacationland. And there are few places where drinking a local cocktail by the pool is more enriching than Casa Salles. –Amber Gibson

→ Casa Salles (Tequila, Jalisco, Mexico) • C. la Villa 3, La Villa • Rooms from $200 per night.

REAL ESTATE • On the Market

Three for-sale properties in the Cotswolds.

→ Family home (Kingham) • 4BR/3BA, 2790 sqft house • Asking price: $3.7M • modernist design with touches that call back to Cotswolds style, close to Daylesford Organic Farm • Ownership type: freehold • Agent: Andrew Barnes, Sotheby’s.

→ Finstock Manor (Chipping Norton) • 8BR/6BA, 4.6 acres compound • Asking price: $4.36M • classic Cotswolds manor house with pool, pool house, and paddock • Ownership type: freehold • Agent: Charles Elsmore-Wickens, Savills.

→ Tormarton Court (Tormarton, above) • 7BR/5BA, N/A sqft house • Asking price: $5.06M • southwest facing with private gardens, original house dates to 16th century with major recent restoration • Ownership type: freehold • Agent: Hamptons.

BARS • Berkeley, CA

Berkeley buzz

After three years of anticipation, Alice Waters finally opened her newest restaurant, Bar Panisse. Located next door to her iconic Chez Panisse, the space had been home to popular tapas bar Cesar for over two decades — and when Waters evicted Cesar to make way for her new business, some of Berkeley’s biggest names cried foul. But the new cocktail and light bites addition to the North Berkeley scene has been greeted with open arms.

With its beautifully milled Craftsman-inspired wood paneling, zinc bar, marble back bar, and moody lighting, the place feels like an immediate part of the Chez Panisse family. And like the restaurant, everything from the menu to the service has a European cafe-by-way-of-Berkeley feel, starting with the small bowl of Banyuls vinegar potato chips (made from local purple fingerlings) that lands in front of you when you sit down.

While the place is geared toward drinks and snacks, it’s possible to assemble a full meal here. A plate of three crisp, cheesy gougeres comes with a couple of pickled carrots and a small smear of Dijon. Anchovies are served either plain as tapas with pickled piparras peppers, or fried with sage leaves as a pungent and salty cocktail snack. No one doubted, really, that a bar made by the Chez Panisse team would be anything less than an on-brand delight, and it certainly is. –Jay Barmann

Like a samba

A modern counterpoint to Rio de Janeiro’s century-old Copacabana Palace (intel), Fasano Rio de Janeiro has all the makings of a classic. Built in 2007 with architecture and interiors by Philippe Starck, it cuts a modernist silhouette in dark wood and glass on a bend of famed Ipanema Beach — arguably, the hotel’s greatest asset.

Starck has taken maximum advantage of the views in his architectural lines. A sublime rooftop infinity pool puts you at eye level with the ocean and perfectly frames the iconic Dois Irmãos (Two Brothers) peaks. Here, passionfruit caipriñhas go down smooth and pair perfectly with a classic filet mignon sandwich at lunchtime.

For those familiar with Starck’s work at early aughts (now shuttered) hotspots, like the Hudson Hotel in New York City or the Delano (whose comeback is imminent) in Miami Beach, his playful, surreal touch is on full display, set against a minimalist, tropical modern backdrop. He favors dark, moody lighting, gleaming hardwood, amorphous mirrors, cushy jewel-toned sectional sofas, and abstract sculptures inspired by Dalí. At times, the design feels timeless; at others, it feels like time-traveling back to that era when Starck’s touch was ascendant. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially for someone like me, who has happy memories wrapped up in those times and places. –Shayne Benowitz

MORE on FOUND Miami

AROUND FOUND • Other Notable Intel & Recs

→ NY: Massive and marble-clad, Houston fine-dining import Musaafer swaggered into Tribeca last August. Chef Mayank Istwal — whose regional Indian cooking is grounded in traditional flavors via modern presentations — runs both the kitchens at the restaurant and its accompanying bar. It might be the best Indian restaurant in New York right now.

→ SF: Fashion trailblazer Sherri McMullen’s namesake boutique landed in an elegant new home in San Francisco after moving across the bridge from its first two Oakland shops. Fans can expect the same expertly curated collection and white-glove service that Sherri is known for, but what’s different is that McMullen (above) stands out from its sometimes-stuffy, often appointment-only neighbors on tony Sacramento Street as a beacon of inclusivity. The salon-style shop is as inviting as it is luxurious.

→ FRANCE: Off France’s Atlantic coast, on the edge of Noirmoutier’s fishing port, lies a rare pairing: La Marine, the award-winning restaurant of chef Alexandre Couillon, and La Maison Moizeau, its understated, soulful guesthouse. Together, they offer a weekend of dining or resting, fully immersed in the rhythms of the presqu’île. Between meals at La Marine and the nearby sister-restaurant Elise, hopping on a bicycle is highly recommended to explore the rest of this “almost-island.” You can also stroll to the salt marshes, visit the local markets, or simply watch the boats drift in and out of the harbor. Life here moves to a different rhythm.

ROUTINES • Getaways

Select answers to the FOUND ROUTINE query, Any weekend getaways?

→ SAM GRAVES, wine director, Dunsmoor (LA): Two Bunch Palms, in Desert Hot Springs, CA, full stop. Once Al Capone’s hideaway, it was one of the first wellness resorts in the world (started in the ‘20s…) and it’s quite literally perfect. In order to relax, I sometimes need to go somewhere where there is actually NOTHING to do besides soak and eat and nap.

→ CLARA PINTO, founder, Clara Pinto (LDN) Kendal in the Lake District. I went in December. The lake at night, the lights of the old town and the cold winter air made it perfect. Another favourite is Coombeshead Farm in Cornwall. I’ve never eaten or slept better in my life.

→ HANAKO MURAKAMI, artist, researcher, interpreter (Paris): Le Perche. For our wedding anniversary this weekend, we’re going to D’une île, which is much more than a restaurant. If you like Septime, La Cave, or Clamato in Paris, you’ll love this. It’s their countryside version, a maison d’hôte in the heart of Le Perche. Everything is local, seasonal, sustainable, and honestly delicious. I’ve written a lot of my recent texts and poems while staying there. Good food in a good mood makes you a poet, I guess. It’s one of the reasons we chose Le Perche for our second home.

GETAWAYS LINKS: Why are there so many hotel collections, and what do they even mean? • For travelers in 2026, prices are all over the map • Six Senses London sets March 1 opening • The Cotswolds has become a global property brand • Aman’s cruise ship is heading for the Mediterraean in 2027 • Italy photo diary: Venice.

GETAWAYS • The Nines

Fine dining, CDMX

The Nines are FOUND’s distilled lists of the best. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or email found@itsfound.com.

Quintonil (Polanco, above), Jorge Vallejo’s temple to Mexican gastronomy, solo diners welcome at 8-seat Mexican green marble chef’s counter

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