The World's Top 100 Cocktail Bars

1. 50 Best #2 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
3. 50 Best #12 · North America's 50 Best Bars

1. James Beard Awards 2024 · Winner · Outstanding Bar
2. 50 Best #44 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. 50 Best #6 · North America's 50 Best Bars

Julia Momosé's Japanese-inspired dining bar on West Lake holds a James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar and the Spirited Awards title for World's Best Bar, which tells you something before you've even sat down. Staff in sharp black uniforms somehow manage to feel genuinely warm rather than stiff, and the tasting menu now matches the cocktail program's precision, leaning into Japanese flavors and technique. Come for the drinks, stay through dinner, and plan to linger longer than you intended.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 3 Pins
2. Spirited Awards 2025 · Winner · World's Best Bar
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Winner · Outstanding Bar

1. 50 Best #12 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #9 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Winner · Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service · Ignacio "Nacho" Jimenez

Walk-ins only, no reservations, queues that can stretch an hour on a busy night: that's Bar Leone's terms, and half of Central seems happy to accept them. The cocktail bar holds the top spot on both Asia's 50 Best Bars and the World's 50 Best Bars lists, the first Asian bar to claim the global title. The drinks lean toward simple and timeless rather than theatrical, which somehow makes the whole thing harder to pull off.

1. 50 Best #1 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #1 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. 50 Best Roku Industry Icon Award 2025 · The World's 50 Best Bars · Simone Caporale

1. The Pinnacle Guide 3 Pins
2. 50 Best #8 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. 50 Best #1 · Europe's 50 Best Bars

A former textile warehouse in the semi-central city holds a Michelin-starred cocktail bar and restaurant that Europe's 50 Best Bars ranks seventh in the world. The ground floor runs as a bistrot and cocktail bar, while twelve seats upstairs, half of them at the kitchen counter, host an experimental tasting menu that travels from Romagna to Spain without quite settling anywhere. The chef stops by every table, which at twelve covers is less a gesture than a genuine conversation.

1. 50 Best #7 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #6 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
3. Michelin Guide 1 Star

1. 50 Best #4 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
3. 50 Best #9 · Europe's 50 Best Bars

1. 50 Best #39 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #1 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2025 · Winner · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar

One cocktail bar split into two very different moods. Elementary faces the street with draft Old Fashioneds and Aquavit on tap, a One Sip Martini menu, and prices that won't require a sit-down afterward. Pass through the partition and Tayēr goes darker and quieter, with seasonal menus that change fast and ingredients that lean toward the unusual. The brutalist concrete and exposed steel read warmer than they should. Ranked fifth on the World's 50 Best Bars.

1. 50 Best #5 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
3. 50 Best #12 · Europe's 50 Best Bars

The martini trolley arrives tableside like a small piece of theater, the bartender waiting while you choose your gin, your bitters, shaken or stirred. This is a cocktail bar inside one of Mayfair's grand hotels, all platinum silver leaf walls and candlelit grey marble, and it holds a Forbes Five Star and a spot on the World's 50 Best Bars. Bar snacks run through the afternoon; canapes take over by evening. Dress accordingly.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. 50 Best #6 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. 50 Best #41 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. 50 Best #35 · North America's 50 Best Bars

The entrance is a fake barbershop front on Queen Street, complete with foreign currency in the window as the only signal you're in the right place. Head downstairs and you're in a dim, prohibition-themed cocktail bar with curiosities on the walls and a menu built around freezing techniques: cryo-concentration, freeze-drying, the works. It's on Europe's 50 Best Bars and The World's 50 Best Bars lists, which the pandas on the walls take in stride.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. 50 Best #34 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. 50 Best #20 · Europe's 50 Best Bars

Taxidermy on the walls, vintage booze ads by candlelight, and hip-hop on the sound system: Satan's Whiskers is a Bethnal Green cocktail bar that looks grungy from the outside and somewhat like hell from the inside, in the best possible sense. The menu changes daily, so regulars who've memorized the classics are always slightly off-balance. It holds a spot on the World's 50 Best Bars and has done the top-slot thing at Top 50 Cocktail Bars more than once.

1. 50 Best #21 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
3. 50 Best #11 · Europe's 50 Best Bars

1. 50 Best #59 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #4 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. VinePair Bar Program of the Year · The Next Wave Awards

1. 50 Best #20 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
3. 50 Best Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award 2025 · The World's 50 Best Bars

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. 50 Best #27 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. 50 Best Rémy Martin Legend of the List Award 2025 · The World's 50 Best Bars

1. 50 Best #17 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #5 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best International Cocktail Bar

1. 50 Best #15 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #4 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · World’s Best Cocktail Menu

1. 50 Best #14 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #4 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Cocktail Bar – Europe

Gerald Scarfe's caricatures cover the walls of this cocktail bar inside the Rosewood London, turning a room full of leather-bound books and low couches into something between a drawing room and a satirist's fever dream. The fire is real, the wood panelling is deep, and live jazz runs nightly. It holds a spot on The World's 50 Best Bars, and the crowd around the fireplace rarely whispers.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. 50 Best #31 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. 50 Best #47 · Europe's 50 Best Bars

1. 50 Best #23 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #5 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. MexBest Best of the Best: Nominados · Premios MexBest

1. 50 Best #10 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Bar Team – Latin America & Caribbean
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Cocktail Bar – Latin America & Caribbean

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. 50 Best #64 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. 50 Best #14 · North America's 50 Best Bars

1. 50 Best #16 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #2 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best International Cocktail Bar

1. 50 Best Campari One To Watch Award 2025 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #54 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. 50 Best #2 · North America's 50 Best Bars

Bentwood chairs, a marble bar, and jazz on Sundays give this College Street cocktail bar the plausible deniability of a Parisian café. The drinks are where things get interesting: curry leaf and rum, cognac stirred with masala chai, combinations that sound like a dare and drink like they were inevitable. North America's 50 Best Bars places it at number eight, and the hospitality matches the ambition. The garden patio fills up fast.

1. 50 Best #55 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #8 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin

1. 50 Best #19 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best International Cocktail Bar
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best International Bar Team

1. 50 Best #75 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #23 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Esquire The Best Bars in America

1. 50 Best #46 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #33 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar

1. Spirited Awards 2025 · Winner · U.S. Bartender of the Year · Christine Kim
2. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
3. 50 Best #39 · North America's 50 Best Bars

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. 50 Best #47 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. 50 Best #2 · Europe's 50 Best Bars

1. Spirited Awards 2025 · Winner · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar
2. Punch Industry Icon
3. Food & Wine The 10 Top Bars in the US

1. Spirited Awards 2024 · Winner · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar
2. 50 Best #67 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Esquire Old Bay Martini · The Best Martinis in America

1. 50 Best #11 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. 50 Best #53 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #6 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Bar Team – APAC

1. 50 Best #15 · North America's 50 Best Bars
2. Esquire Martini of the Year: Clemente Martini · The Best Martinis in America
3. VinePair Bartender of the Year · The Next Wave Awards · Sebastian Tollius

Bitter melon, green curry, and tequila sharing a glass is either a terrible idea or a stroke of genius, and Coa has built a following on exactly that tension. This agave cocktail bar in Central pulls from local Hong Kong ingredients to make mezcal and tequila feel native to the city, with long queues to prove it. It holds a spot on the World's 50 Best Bars list, and the room stays packed enough that the team has clearly figured out how to scale without cutting corners.

1. 50 Best #38 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #17 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best International Cocktail Bar

1. VinePair Food & Beverage Program of the Year · The Next Wave Awards
2. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
3. 50 Best #27 · North America's 50 Best Bars

The man who ran the American Bar at the Savoy for nearly eight years now runs this sleek Mayfair cocktail bar a short walk from Green Park. Erik Lorincz built Kwãnt around drinks that don't resemble anything else in London, layering fermented teas, misos, and awamori into compositions that feel genuinely considered rather than merely unusual. It ranks on the World's 50 Best Bars list. The room is calm and grown-up, which lets the cocktails do the talking.

1. 50 Best #79 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
3. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. 50 Best #93 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. VinePair Food & Beverage Program of the Year · The Next Wave Awards

There's no sign on Eldridge Street, just a faux tailor's shop window with a glowing "A" and a buzzer you'll wait at long enough to second-guess yourself. This is the cocktail bar that opened in the old Milk & Honey space after Sasha Petraske moved on, and it runs on the same no-menu, tell-us-what-you-like philosophy. North America's 50 Best Bars lists it, and the wait outside on any given night suggests people have read that list.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. 50 Best #72 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. 50 Best #37 · North America's 50 Best Bars

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Bars
2. 50 Best #70 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Esquire The Best Bars in America

1. 50 Best #3 · North America's 50 Best Bars
2. Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 4 Finalist · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar
3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best New Bar

1. 50 Best #16 · North America's 50 Best Bars
2. Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Bar Team
3. Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar

Live music fills the room most nights at this Cuban cocktail bar and restaurant on Calle Ocho, where the décor slides between Havana and mid-century Miami without quite landing in either. Michelle Bernstein and cocktail veteran Julio Cabrera run the place together, which means the food and the drinks get equal attention. It holds a spot on The World's 50 Best Bars list, and the James Beard Foundation named it an Outstanding Bar Semifinalist.

1. 50 Best #82 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #42 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar

Soy sauce in a martini garnish is the kind of move that either makes you put down your phone or pick it up to photograph the menu. Hope & Sesame is a Cantonese cocktail bar that runs sous-vide infusions and centrifuges alongside familiar pantry flavors from the region, landing on Asia's 50 Best Bars at number seven and the World's 50 Best Bars at twenty-nine. The room has expanded recently, which tells you something about how the city feels about it.

1. 50 Best #29 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #7 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. South China Morning Post 2026 · 100 Top Tables

Tableside martinis have been a feature of this jewel-toned, Art Deco cocktail bar inside the Fairmont Royal York for longer than most regulars have been alive. The cocktail menu takes its plot points from Michael Ondaatje's Toronto novel "In the Skin of a Lion," so drinks arrive with actual literary backstory, which is either charming or a lot, depending on your mood. North America's 50 Best Bars ranked it nineteenth on the 2026 list.

1. 50 Best #19 · North America's 50 Best Bars
2. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
3. 50 Best Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award 2026 · North America's 50 Best Bars

A metal beaded curtain on the fourth floor of a downtown Marriott is not where you expect to find one of the country's better cocktail bars, and yet here we are. The menu arrives illustrated like a small field guide, one drawing per drink. The cocktails run from riffed classics to things you won't find elsewhere, with bar snacks serious enough to anchor a full evening. It won the Spirited Award for Best U.S. Hotel Bar in 2025, and a James Beard semifinalist nod followed.

1. Spirited Awards 2025 · Winner · Best U.S. Hotel Bar
2. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
3. Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Hotel Bar

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Bars
2. 50 Best #76 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Esquire The Best Bars in America

Dark green walls, framed art, and a room that somehow feels like midnight at noon, ViceVersa is a Neapolitan pizza and cocktail bar tucked just off the lobby of the Elser Hotel. The thin-crust pies are the anchor, but the bar program is the real argument for staying. The affogato martini landed on Esquire's radar, and the place sits on North America's 50 Best Bars list. A James Beard nominee for Best New Bar in 2025, too.

1. 50 Best #46 · North America's 50 Best Bars
2. Esquire Affogato Martini · The Best Martinis in America
3. Punch Best New Bars

1. 50 Best #30 · North America's 50 Best Bars
2. Esquire The Best Bars in America
3. The Banchets Winner · Bar of the Year

1. 50 Best #71 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best Altos Bartenders' Bartender Award 2026 · North America's 50 Best Bars · Freddy Andreasson
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best International Cocktail Bar

1. 50 Best #61 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Cocktail Bar – Latin America & Caribbean
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Bar Team – Latin America & Caribbean

1. 50 Best #63 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #28 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Cocktail Bar – Europe

The bar counter runs along stainless-steel fish scales, with a fluorescent seascape glowing behind it, which tells you everything about the commitment level here. Salmon Guru is a serious cocktail bar on one of Madrid's liveliest streets, ranked among the World's 50 Best Bars, with a menu that runs from impeccable classics to stranger, chipotle-forward originals. Grab a counter seat if you can; the booths are fine, but the bar is the point.

1. 50 Best #37 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #46 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
3. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

The cocktail menu here is built around restraint, which sounds modest until you taste what that actually means. Three Sheets Soho is a neighbourhood cocktail bar from the Venning brothers, landing on both the World's 50 Best Bars and Europe's 50 Best Bars lists. Seasonal rotations sit alongside signatures, oysters come free with a Martini order, and the whole room feels like it's trying less hard than it should be able to at this level.

1. 50 Best #80 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #41 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
3. Top 50 Cocktail Bars 2026 · #11 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. 50 Best #92 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. 50 Best Sustainable Bar Award

The elm counter runs eight metres and seats a dozen, which matters because where you sit shapes what you drink at this Japanese cocktail bar in Shoreditch. Counter seats unlock the full menu, split between seasonal pours and "Evergreen" cocktails built on fermentation, carbonation, and centrifugal clarification. The seasonal side nods to Japan's 72 micro-seasons. Ranked fifth on Top 50 Cocktail Bars, it pulls a crowd that knows the difference.

1. 50 Best #23 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
2. Top 50 Cocktail Bars 2026 · #5 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best New International Cocktail Bar

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Bars
2. Wildsam The 50 Most Essential Bars in America
3. Midwest Living 2024 · Best of the Midwest

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Bars
2. Esquire Sadōtini · The Best Martinis in America
3. Philadelphia Magazine 2025 · Best New Cocktail Bar · Best of Philly

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
2. 50 Best #47 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Houstonia The Official 50 Hottest Bars in Houston

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. 50 Best #24 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Hotel Bar – Latin America & Caribbean

1. 50 Best #44 · North America's 50 Best Bars
2. Punch Best New Bars
3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best New Bar

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. 50 Best #34 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
3. 50 Best Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award 2026 · Europe's 50 Best Bars

1. 50 Best #88 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #5 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Cocktail Bar – APAC

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
2. Food & Wine The 10 Top Bars in the US
3. Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar

1. Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 4 Finalist · U.S. Bartender of the Year · Libby Lingua
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar
3. Imbibe Where to Drink in Phoenix

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. 50 Best #25 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Bar Team – Latin America & Caribbean

The cocktails here come with QR codes explaining the science behind them, which sounds gimmicky until you're reading about rooftop honey and sea-salt chocolate fish scales at midnight. Lab 22 is a Cardiff cocktail bar that takes a genuinely theatrical approach to the glass, with bartenders who have been known to breathe fire in service of a drink. Ranked in the Top 50 Cocktail Bars, with Bar Team of the Year 2026 to its name.

1. Top 50 Cocktail Bars 2026 · Bar Team of the Year · Top 50 Cocktail Bars
2. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
3. Top 50 Cocktail Bars 2026 · #24 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars

The name nods to gin, but Origin is a rum bar at heart, with 75 expressions on the menu and a cocktail list organized around five Singapore districts. It sits in the lobby of the Shangri-La, which gives it a certain hotel-bar grandeur, though the drinks stay firmly grounded in place. Asia's 50 Best Bars has it at number 60. Dress like you know where you are.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
3. 50 Best #60 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. 50 Best #34 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Eater Best Night Out · The 2025 Eater DC Award Winners

The basement of Hotel Georgia has cycled through a jazz bar, a techno club, and a medieval pub before landing here, which feels like an upgrade for everyone involved. Prophecy is a cocktail bar with serious intentions: drinks that look effortless and take months to develop, a mood-coded menu, and digital art shifting on the walls. It landed on North America's 50 Best Bars list. Come dressed; this one earns the low lighting.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. 50 Best #32 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Golden Owl Awards Winner · Best Cocktail Experience

1. 50 Best #89 · North America's 50 Best Bars
2. Esquire Amis Martini · The Best Martinis in America
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. 50 Best #55 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Esquire Silver Service Martini · The Best Martinis in America

A red mirrored hallway leads you down into this speakeasy-style cocktail lounge beneath a north Scottsdale restaurant, which is exactly the kind of entrance that makes people feel they've earned their drink. Inside, gold ceilings, red velvet drapes, and live music set a mood that commits fully to the bit. The cocktails lean sweet-and-savory strange, and small bites keep the evening going. Phoenix New Times named it Best Bar in 2025.

1. Industry Excellence Awards Bar of the Year
2. Sunset Better Bars · Where to Eat and Drink
3. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner · Iconic Speakeasy Experience

1. 50 Best #48 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #79 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

Backlit anatomical illustrations and a menu titled "Prescriptions and Antidotes" set the tone at this Chinatown cocktail bar, where traditional Chinese medicine drives the drink program. Bamboo liqueur, motherwort, and tofu turn up alongside baijiu and rum in combinations that shouldn't work but do. The ice is carved in-house, the DJs are good, and North America's 50 Best Bars has it at number seven.

1. 50 Best #7 · North America's 50 Best Bars
2. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
3. Golden Owl Awards Nominee · Best Cocktail Experience

1. 50 Best #65 · North America's 50 Best Bars
2. Esquire The Best Bars in America
3. The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars In Chicago

1. 50 Best #71 · North America's 50 Best Bars
2. Esquire The Best Bars in America
3. Esquire Cartagena · The Best Martinis in America

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. 50 Best #93 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar

Checkered floors, exposed pipes, and white walls give Tjoget the look of a place that decided against trying too hard and never looked back. It's a cocktail bar with a wine bodega and beer café folded in, all spread across enough zones that you can usually find a corner. The bar holds a spot on the World's 50 Best Bars list, and the team bartends like they know it, which is mostly a compliment.

1. 50 Best #76 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #37 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
3. White Guide Fine Level · White Guide

Glittery couches, a backbar stacked with hard-to-find agave and sugar-cane spirits, and DJs on weekends make the setup clear before the first drink arrives. This is a cocktail bar that takes its mixing seriously, with odd, exciting combinations sitting alongside mastery of the classics. The kitchen turns out proper bar food, too. North America's 50 Best Bars has it listed, and the crowd skews local, which is usually the better sign.

1. 50 Best #62 · North America's 50 Best Bars
2. Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 4 Finalist · International Bartender of the Year · Kate Boushel
3. Tastet 101 Must-Try Restaurants in Quebec

1. Esquire Candarin Orange · The Best Martinis in America
2. Punch Best New Bars
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best New Bar

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America
2. Esquire Olive Drive · The Best Martinis in America
3. Wildsam The 50 Most Essential Bars in America

The cabin is dressed in burnt orange and warm walnut, the windows show a looping blue-yonder reel, and a flight attendant is rolling the beverage cart your way. Carry On is an immersive cocktail lounge built around the first-class, Mad Men-era flight fantasy, preflight announcements and all. Reservations drop weekly and go fast, so plan accordingly. The Spirited Awards named it a Top 10 U.S. Nominee for Best New Cocktail Bar.

1. 50 Best Best Bar Design Award
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best New Bar · Best of Phoenix
3. Imbibe Where to Drink in Phoenix

1. The Pinnacle Guide 3 Pins
2. Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Hotel Bar
3. Miami New Times 2025 · Best Hotel Bar · Best of Miami New Times

The cocktail menu arrives as a fabric-swatch book, sourced from a textile shop up the street, which tells you exactly the kind of cocktail bar this is. Each drink comes tethered to a chapter of Toronto history, wars and labour movements and immigration woven into the tasting notes. It lands on North America's 50 Best Bars list, and the ambition never crowds out the fun: they also do craft-cocktail Jell-O shots, which is the right call.

1. 50 Best #29 · North America's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best Best Cocktail Menu Award
3. Foodism Mixology Icon · ICON Awards · Élise Hanson

Every cocktail on the menu is built around a film, and the menu itself is designed as a picture editorial, so you're reading a small magazine before you drink. This walk-in neighbourhood cocktail bar in Stirchley topped the Top 50 Cocktail Bars list in 2026, which is a long way from a quiet side street in Birmingham. Wednesday to Saturday, 4pm onward, stools at the bar and bistro tables, no reservations required.

1. Top 50 Cocktail Bars 2026 · #1 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars
2. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin

1. 50 Best #83 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
3. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. 50 Best #89 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best #48 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
3. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Winner · Best New Bar
2. 50 Best #73 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. 50 Best Campari One To Watch Award 2026 · North America's 50 Best Bars

1. 50 Best #52 · North America's 50 Best Bars
2. Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 4 Finalist · U.S. Bartender of the Year · Masa Urushido
3. Time Out #18 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Winner · Best New Bar
2. Punch Best New Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. East

A four-tap absinthe drip at the center of the bar is a replica of the one at the Absinthe House in New Orleans, and that tells you most of what you need to know. Maison Premiere is a cocktail and oyster bar in Williamsburg that commits fully to the bit: dim golden light, mock antique everything, marble bar top, the faint sense that you've wandered into another city and century. It landed on North America's 50 Best Bars list, which tracks.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. 50 Best #40 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Time Out #7 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America
2. Esquire Cold AF Martini · The Best Martinis in America
3. Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 4 Finalist · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar

1. 50 Best #12 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
2. 50 Best Three Cents Best New Opening Award 2025 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Cocktail Bar – APAC

1. 50 Best #84 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
3. 50 Best #45 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars

The digital windows scroll through passing landscapes while you sit inside a wood-paneled Presidential Pullman car that never moves, which is either the concept or the joke, possibly both. Platform 18 is a reservation-only immersive cocktail bar built around Prohibition-era drinks and Roaring Twenties New York. The Pinnacle Guide awarded it 2 Pins. Book ahead; walk-ins go nowhere fast.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. Foodist Awards 2023 · Winner: Barter & Shake · Outstanding Hospitality Group
3. Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Bar Team

A back-alley cocktail bar from Erik Bruner-Yang and Paola Velez, where the food refuses to stay in its lane. The menu riffs on Taiwan and El Salvador in the same breath, papusas share space with gochujang mayo, and the baked Alaska, a Washingtonian dish of the year, arrives under torched Dominican meringue hiding guava shaved ice and whatever surprises the kitchen buried underneath. Bon Appétit named it one of America's best new bars, and the room earns the fuss.

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Bars
2. Punch Ni de Aqui Ni de Alla · Our Favorite Cocktails
3. Eater Bar of the Year

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Bars
2. Punch Best New Bars
3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best New Bar

Hidden behind a menswear shop in a grand old Golden Square Mile building, this 25-seat cocktail bar operates on the tailor's principle: no menu, just a conversation about what you feel like, followed by something made precisely for you. The bar team draws on a deep house library of amari, liqueurs, and tinctures alongside vintage spirits to put it together. Canada's 100 Best named it the top bar in the country in 2026.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
2. 50 Best #56 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Tastet 101 Must-Try Restaurants in Quebec

Multicolored lights, mismatched vintage stools, and enough rum cocktails to stock a small ship set the mood at this funky cocktail bar and dining den inside Krog Street Market. The food leans creative but unfussy, with global touches and most plates meant for sharing. It holds a spot on North America's 50 Best Bars and was a James Beard Outstanding Hospitality nominee, which tracks: the room has that rare quality of feeling genuinely cared for without trying to make you notice.

1. Punch Industry Icon
2. 50 Best #85 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Outstanding Hospitality

A neighborhood cocktail bar in Newquay running on renewable energy, with compost feeding the herb planters and over 140 bottles behind the stick. Foraged coastal botanicals show up when they're in season, kitchen scraps get upcycled into salts and sherbets, and the non-alcoholic list is taken as seriously as everything else. Named the Sustainable Bar of the Year by Top 50 Cocktail Bars, and it earns that without making you feel like you're attending a lecture.

1. Top 50 Cocktail Bars 2026 · Sustainable Bar of the Year · Top 50 Cocktail Bars
2. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin