The World's 50 Best Bars is an annual list that celebrates the best of the international drinks scene, providing a yearly ranking of bars, voted for by more than 650 drinks experts from across the globe.
History
The list was first announced in 2009, with annual award ceremonies held in London since the inaugural event in 2012. In 2022, the ceremony moved for the first time from
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
to
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
. Incorporating grand hotel bars, secretive speakeasies, quirky salons and dive bars, The World's 50 Best Bars list aims to celebrate the diversity and universality of the drinks culture and to reflect new bar scenes developing all over the world.
The World's 50 Best Bars is owned and organised by
William Reed Ltd
William Reed is a digital, high value data, and events business serving the food and drinks sector. By 2021, it had offices in five locations – Crawley, London, Montpellier, Singapore and Chicago.
Early history
In 1862, William Reed (publish ...
, the group behind The World's 50 Best Restaurants. William Reed is solely responsible for organising the awards, collating the votes, and producing the lists. None of the employees of the organiser or any of the sponsors associated with the awards, including the main sponsor, has any influence over the results.
In 2016, The World's 50 Best Bars brand was extended with the launch of Asia's 50 Best Bars, the first regional Bars award for the brand. A second regional list, North America's 50 Best Bars, was launched in 2022.
The voting process
The list is compiled by votes from The World's 50 Best Bars Academy, which consists of more than 650 drinks experts with 50/50 gender parity, including renowned bartenders, consultants, drinks writers, and cocktail specialists from around the world. The Academy of voters is spread across 28 global geographic regions, each headed by an Academy Chair who selects their region's voters, with the distribution of voters designed to reflect the relative development and sophistication of the drinks sector, and the concentration of quality bars, in each region. Voters are required to remain anonymous and voting is confidential, secure and independently adjudicated by
Deloitte
Deloitte is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees, and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along wi ...
.
The World's Best Bars
Asia's 50 Best Bars
North America's 50 Best Bars
See also
*
List of food and drink awards
*
The World's 50 Best Restaurants
The World's 50 Best Restaurants is a list produced by the UK media company William Reed Ltd, William Reed, which originally appeared in the British magazine ''Restaurant (magazine), Restaurant'' in 2002. The list and awards are no longer direc ...
References
External links
*{{Official website, https://www.worlds50bestbars.com/
Bars (establishments)
Food and drink awards