The ‘world’ in The World’s 50 Greatest Bars listing has lengthy been the Awards’ power – no different listing has higher uncovered standout venues from such a large geographical unfold. But there was at all times one inescapable reality: over the 13 lists The World’s Greatest Bar had at all times been between London or New York. Certainly, by no means had there been a bar from exterior of those two cities in second place both.
For a very long time, that wasn’t controversial. London and New York had lengthy been the place expertise gravitated – super-leagues, if you’ll, the place the cash rolled and bartending ambitions had been sated. These aggressive enjoying area propagated world-class bars and few argued that the awards winners from 2009-2021 – Milk & Honey London, PDT, Artesian, Useless Rabbit, American Bar on the Savoy, Dandelyan, Dante and Connaught Bar – weren’t the very best round, no matter the place they referred to as residence.
Properly, the world has been catching up these previous years. Whereas these two hubs have power and depth, scenes internationally have emerged with bars and bartending expertise that may combine it with the very best. And so to 2022 and a primary for the listing: Barcelona is now residence to the 2022 World’s Greatest Bar, and that bar is Paradiso. It’s not alone within the high 10 both – from the identical metropolis is third-placed Sips and Two Schmucks in seventh.
Paradiso has been climbing the listing ever because it debuted in 2018, and it was final 12 months that it made the leap into the higher reaches of the listing. From third to first was at all times an achievable step, significantly given its location in a rising cocktail scene frequented recurrently by Academy judges. However it’s additionally true that few would have put it because the favorite in opposition to final 12 months’s winner Connaught Bar and runner up Tayer + Elementary for the winner’s medal in 2022.
What makes a world’s finest bar?
If that’s the chicken’s-eye view, what about down on the bottom, the bars themselves. What does it take to be named world’s finest bar? We will take it as a right that these bars have nice service, glowing décor and finely tuned advertising and marketing – Paradiso isn’t any slouch right here – however what about their method to drinks? It’s controversial that six of the 9 earlier winners have foundations in a classical fashion, tying the knot between historical past and modernity. The three exceptions are Dandeylan, Artesian, the four-time winner from 2012-2015, and this 12 months’s champion, Paradiso. Right here, the foreign money is much less rooted in custom, and within the circumstances of Artesian and Paradiso, the presentation of cocktails turned nearly as necessary because the liquids themselves. Inside this fashion, drinks are typically framed round dialog items, that increase the ingesting expertise, they usually typically include the grand unveiling of latest, ever-wondrous menus. Paradiso’s win reminds us that the theatrical drinks pattern has not solely made method for ingredient-centric cocktails and aesthetically minimalist serves. The queues popping out of Paradiso on a nightly foundation proves that liquid leisure stays a promote.
From right here the highest 10 throws up extra surprises. Having planted its flag on the summit for 2 years, Connaught Bar dropped down and way more steeply that anybody might have predicted – ending in eighth. Why? With no large adjustments to providing and personnel on the bar, it’s laborious to say, solely that it’s slippery on the high – only one bar, Artesian, has managed greater than two wins on the spin.
Monica Berg and Alex Kratena’s Tayer + Elementary, which leads on most of the trendy traits (suppose minimalist serves, ingredient-led, sustainable/seasonal cocktails), in the meantime stayed in second. No one however the number-crunchers at 50 Greatest is aware of how shut it was between the highest two, however you sense it was a great combat between bars that supply opposing approaches to cocktails.
