The ‘world’ in The World’s 50 Best Bars list has long been the Awards’ strength – no other list has better uncovered standout venues from such a wide geographical spread. Yet there was always one inescapable fact: over the 13 lists The World’s Best Bar had always been between London or New York. Indeed, never had there been a bar from outside of these two cities in second place either.  

For a long time, that wasn’t controversial. London and New York had long been where talent gravitated – super-leagues, if you will, where the money rolled and bartending ambitions were sated. These competitive playing field propagated world-class bars and few argued that the awards winners from 2009-2021 – Milk & Honey London, PDT, Artesian, Dead Rabbit, American Bar at the Savoy, Dandelyan, Dante and Connaught Bar – weren’t the best around, regardless of where they called home.  

Well, the world has been catching up these past years. While these two hubs have strength and depth, scenes across the world have emerged with bars and bartending talent that can mix it with the best. And so to 2022 and a first for the list: Barcelona is now home to the 2022 World’s Best Bar, and that bar is Paradiso. It’s not alone in the top 10 either – from the same city is third-placed Sips and Two Schmucks in seventh.

Paradiso has been climbing the list ever since it debuted in 2018, and it was last year that it made the leap into the upper reaches of the list. From third to first was always an achievable step, particularly given its location in a growing cocktail scene frequented regularly by Academy judges. But it’s also true that few would have put it as the favourite against last year’s winner Connaught Bar and runner up Tayer + Elementary for the winner’s medal in 2022.  

If that’s the bird’s-eye view, what about down on the ground, the bars themselves. What does it take to be named world’s best bar? We can take it for granted that these bars have great service, sparkling décor and finely tuned marketing – Paradiso is no slouch here – but what about their approach to drinks? It’s arguable that six of the nine previous winners have foundations in a classical style, tying the knot between history and modernity. The three exceptions are Dandeylan, Artesian, the four-time winner from 2012-2015, and this year’s champion, Paradiso. Here, the currency is less rooted in tradition, and in the cases of Artesian and Paradiso, the presentation of cocktails became almost as important as the liquids themselves. Within this style, drinks tend to be framed around conversation pieces, that augment the drinking experience, and they often come with the grand unveiling of new, ever-wondrous menus. Paradiso’s win reminds us that the theatrical drinks trend has not entirely made way for ingredient-centric cocktails and aesthetically minimalist serves. The queues coming out of Paradiso on a nightly basis proves that liquid entertainment remains a sell.

From here the top 10 throws up more surprises. Having planted its flag at the summit for two years, Connaught Bar dropped down and much more steeply that anyone could have predicted – finishing in eighth. Why? With no big changes to offering and personnel at the bar, it’s hard to say, only that it’s slippery at the top – just one bar, Artesian, has managed more than two wins on the spin.

Monica Berg and Alex Kratena’s Tayer + Elementary, which leads on many of the modern trends (think minimalist serves, ingredient-led, sustainable/seasonal cocktails), meanwhile stayed in second. Nobody but the number-crunchers at 50 Best knows how close it was between the top two, but you sense it was a good fight between bars that offer opposing approaches to cocktails.  

Sips, in third, was always likely to climb the ladder, launched as it was in 2021, immediately making it into that year’s list. In the event, it rose 34 places – the highest of any bar this year. Founded by Simone Caporale and Mark Alvarez, this bar came with expectations – %%PAGE_BR%%and the Academy clearly agree it delivered. Meanwhile, Licorería Limantour and Little Red Door in fourth and fifth place are both nine-time members of The World’s 50 Best Bars, but the top five is new territory for both. Time will tell whether they’ve found their summit.  

Double Chicken Please is the hot bar in New York right now. For visitors to the city – particularly for NA50BB and BCB Brooklyn – this was the bar everyone was talking about and in GN Chan the bar has a figurehead known to the community. To make landing inside the top 10 though, is up there with the best debuts in the list’s history. Meanwhile, refined dives Two Schmucks (making its third appearance) in seventh and Katana Kitten (with four lists) in ninth are both bartender bars, co-owned by well known figures – Masahiro Urushido and Moe Aljaff respectively. They are both safe bets to be top 10 finishes for future lists, barring unforeseen developments.  

Which takes us to 10th, where Alquímico lands, after an absence last year. Led by Jean Trinh, the Bartenders’ Bartender 2022, this farm-to-glass bar has inspired many. Its absence in last year’s list could probably be put down to how severely hampered travel to South America was in 2020 and some of last year. We might see Alquímico’s 2022 placement as a better indication of its future direction – upwards.

The spread

The top 10 has more of an international feel than ever before, and more cities were represented in the 50 than last year – 26 to 23. But while this broadening of excellence trend is visible, within it there has also been a return to form for New York, the cocktail capital for 2022 with six bars on the list (its highest since 2019), and London, which reclaimed some of its lost ground to claim five spots. As we discussed on these pages in 2021, this year saw more global travel and, while the destinations are now more varied, it was a boon for the two bar hubs on either side of the Atlantic.  

While gains have been made also in Mexico City, which is increasingly becoming a powerhouse bar scene, there have been losses in Asia. Here, Covid restrictions have limited travel: Singapore’s share shrunk by four bars, Shanghai’s by three. In total, Asia’s number halved from 16 to eight. Australia suffered a similar fate, with two bars dropping out. These places were shared around Europe (rising from 17 to 20), North America (from eight to 12), South America (from three to five) and Africa & The Middle East (from two to three).  

Indies vs hotels

In 2018, the top five of the list was: Dandelyan, American Bar, Manhattan, The NoMad and Connaught Bar. It was peak hotel bar – a time of grand concepts, plush bars and big budgets winning over bartender start-ups – and it felt like a trend that was here to stay. Well, fast forward to 2022 and there are only five hotel bars in the entire list – just one in the top 10. It’s been a steady development, but collectively independents are now the power. As travel returns to full speed over the next few years and hotels recover their swagger, it’s probable their share of the list will increase.  

The churn

Nineteen bars left the list this year, which, while one fewer than last year’s 20, is considerably more than the five-year average of 15. It is the second largest churn since 2012. What’s more, seven of the 19 to have departed were from the top 30 of 2021’s list – a high proportion, historically speaking – proving that in today’s unstable times, even a top-half finish is scant guarantee of a bar repeating the feat the following year.  

Though, as we said last year, 2021, with its voting period reaching back to the start of the pandemic in 2020, was an outlier list which might then lead to a natural correction. The
2022 list certainly feels less volatile but was still impacted by reduced travel and Covid-related factors restricting performance in Asia, particularly Singapore and China.