On the evening of Tuesday 30 June Athens’ Line was announced the winner of Europe’s 50 Best Bars at De Kromhouthal in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Venues from 22 cities featured in the new list, which is now the third regional ranking under The World’s 50 Best Bars portfolio alongside North America and Asia.

Analysing the results, bars editor Hamish Smith said: “The inaugural Europe’s 50 Best Bars was a hard one to forecast. As we’ve seen with other spin-offs from The World’s 50 Best Bars – Asia and North America – regional tastes differ and so do travel patterns. We now know what Europe thinks Europe’s best bars are.”

Geographically it was London that had the most bars on the list with seven, followed by Barcelona with six, Athens and Paris on five and Milan four.

Smith added: “On the surface the new European list had many familiar names – 22 featured in last year’s World’s 50 Best Bars list. Bars that featured in both lists moved up 12.4 places on average. However, within the ranking, you notice nuanced differences in the thinking.

“The winner, Athens’ Line, was certainly in the pre-announcement conversation to win but still made a newsworthy jump from eighth in the world list to number one in Europe. Perhaps most notably, another Athens bar The Bar in Front of the Bar was a surprising runner up, having registered 47 in the world list.

“London was announced as the Cocktail Capital of Europe, with seven bars in the list, though none of its number challenged the upper echelons, with Connaught Bar highest placed in tenth. It’s early days – future European lists may confirm or deny this – but it’s possible London is more of a global cocktail hub than a European one.”