Final week, the 50 Greatest group introduced its listing of the highest bars in North America. Now in its fourth 12 months (although, globally, the group has been awarding eating places since 2002 and bars since 2009), the annual rating has loads of eyes on it—and a few critics.
When we checked in final 12 months, business attendees on the awards ceremony had combined emotions. Some discovered the listing essential and validating, whereas others felt they prioritized sure sorts of bars—these with PR groups, particularly—and one nameless attendee stated the awards “are usually a bit little bit of a circle jerk.” Previously, 50 Greatest has additionally obtained criticism associated to sexism (which is one purpose that the voting physique now includes “a 50/50 gender break up”) and preferential therapy.
Those that have made the listing say they’ve felt significant, materials impacts from being awarded. “Regardless that we’ve all the time believed we had been within the caliber, exterior recognition wasn’t all the time our major aim,” says Nicolas Torres, proprietor of San Francisco’s True Laurel, No. 17 on this 12 months’s listing. “These techniques do are likely to drive good foot site visitors, and that issues. On the finish of the day, now we have individuals to maintain—our group and our visitors. That is the system we’ve all, indirectly, agreed to take part in. We’d like new individuals continuously discovering what we do, proper alongside our regulars, and one thing like 50 Greatest definitely helps facilitate that.” For Max Reis, beverage director of Mírate (No. 12), the advantages that come from recognition allow the bar to proceed supporting others. “We assist households and producers in Mexico as immediately as you’ll be able to in my subject,” he says, “and this simply means we get much more skill to assist and momentum to proceed to take action.”
This 12 months, the nominators comprised one-third bartenders and bar house owners, one-third drinks writers and educators and one-third “well-travelled cocktail specialists.” As for standards, there aren’t many. Every voter (there are greater than 300) is requested to call as much as seven bars the place they’ve had their “finest expertise” up to now 18 months, and a most of 5 of these bars could be in a voter’s residence nation (for these outdoors of the U.S.) or residence state (for these within the U.S.). The listing comes with accompanying Particular person Awards, although not each bar that obtained one in every of these made the highest 50.
However what does it take to be a 50 Greatest bar? We ran the numbers, taking a look at each entry on the listing in consideration of varied components: location, drink costs, social media following, years open and extra. We checked out what number of bars take reservations, what number of have a centrifuge or rotovap, what number of had been new to the listing in contrast with what number of had been veterans—and we compiled all that knowledge to see what it actually takes to be awarded one of many coveted spots.
Greater than half of the awarded bars (54 %) are within the U.S., adopted by 28 % in Mexico, 16 % in Canada and a couple of % within the Cayman Islands. The most well-liked metropolis represented on the listing is New York Metropolis, adopted by Mexico Metropolis, Chicago and Toronto.
Solely eight bars on the listing are new to 50 Greatest. Final 12 months, Los Angeles bar Mírate was No. 46. This 12 months, it’s No. 12, leaping 34 locations within the listing (the most important shift from 2024 to now). Requested how the bar has modified up to now 12 months, beverage director Max Reis says the group “honed in and developed our voice as a bar—similar tonality, however clearer and louder.”
Additionally making massive strikes: New York’s Katana Kitten and Dante, which dropped by 30 and 26 spots, respectively, Café de Nadie in Mexico Metropolis (-30) and Greatest Intentions in Chicago (+23). On common, most bars moved round 9 locations.
Final 12 months, Sother Teague of Amor y Amargo, which opened in 2011, advised Punch, “I’ve been on [the list] as excessive as No. 23 [in 2022] after which I haven’t been on the listing in any respect since then… I do see that lots of the new bars that open and which have cash behind them and PR behind them, they do come screaming outta the gate with loads of sizzle and never as a lot steak.” So, does newness matter? On this 12 months’s listing, six bars (12 %) opened in 2024, and 22 bars (44 %) opened within the 2020s. The oldest bar on the listing, Workers Solely (No. 18), opened in 2004—except you rely Angel’s Share, whose unique location opened in 1994, whereas the brand new iteration opened in 2023. However maybe most fascinating—particularly for a listing capturing the previous 18 months—is the latest: Bar Mauro, at No. 14, opened very lately, in November 2024.
The highest bars on the listing additionally are likely to have bigger social media followings, though it may be a little bit of a chicken-or-egg state of affairs. For instance, the No. 1 bar this 12 months, Handshake Speakeasy, additionally has the best variety of followers on Instagram, round 159,000, although it’s truthful to imagine that loads of that following got here from topping the listing final 12 months. Nonetheless, the common follower rely for the highest 10 on the listing (54,100) is increased than the common of the complete listing of fifty (38,920).
Additionally, 52 % of bars on the listing have been lined by Punch.
As Eater reported a number of years in the past, “spontaneity is formally useless” on the hottest bars. We discovered this to be true, to an extent, at many of the 50 Greatest: 52 % take reservations, and on a current Friday when our group tried to safe seats for a celebration of two that very same night time, solely eight (about 31 %) of these had availability. As for the reservation platform of selection, 13 bars use Resy, 9 use OpenTable, two use CoverManager, one makes use of SevenRooms and one takes reservations over the telephone.
Not less than one bar on the listing, Double Rooster Please (No. 19), has reported points with bots snatching up reservations; on a reservations brokerage web site (it sounds as dystopian as it’s), proprietor GN Chan noticed seats promoting for $340.
We checked out a complete of 43 bars’ menus. For these whose menus weren’t publicly obtainable, we reached out for digital copies. 5 bars didn’t reply, and two bars (Civil Liberties in Toronto, No. 21, and Cloakroom in Montreal, No. 31) don’t have set menus.
One of many, if not essentially the most, costly drinks you may get at a 50 Greatest Bar is at Library by the Sea, in Grand Cayman. The Three Musketeers is described as a mixture of brandys, bourbon, rum, amari and liqueurs from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and it’ll run you 690 Cayman {dollars}, or about $829 USD. Probably the most inexpensive drinks (not together with mini or N/A cocktails) are round $8, at a number of bars.
We additionally reached out to high bars on the listing to study extra about their bestselling drinks. At Superbueno, No. 2 on the listing, the Vodka y Soda nonetheless reigns supreme. Tlecan, No. 3, says the Pulque Colada (a coconut-washed model of the drink made with fermented agave sap) is hottest, whereas Jewel of the South (No. 4) is promoting a lot of the Jewel Sazerac. Sip & Guzzle (No. 5) stories the Yuzu Mugirita (a shochu-based tackle the Margarita), Miami Vice Negroni and Tomato Tree (a floral gin cocktail) are tied as bestsellers.
Additionally trending: Coladas of all kinds, from the aforementioned Pulque Colada to the Absinthe Colada at Maison Premiere (No. 33) and Negroni Piña Colada at Clemente Bar (No. 11), in addition to high-tech cocktails—at the very least 26 % of bars on this listing seem to have a centrifuge or a rotovap.
Disclosure: Some Punch contributors are a part of the voting physique for the 50 Greatest Bar awards.
