\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Last week, the 50 Best organization announced its list of the top bars in North America. Now in its fourth year (though, globally, the group has been awarding restaurants since 2002 and bars since 2009), the annual ranking has a lot of eyes on it\u2014and some critics.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n When <\/span>we checked in last year<\/span><\/a>, industry attendees at the awards ceremony had mixed feelings. Some found the list important and validating, while others felt they prioritized certain kinds of bars\u2014those with PR teams, namely\u2014and one anonymous attendee said the awards \u201ctend to be a little bit of a circle jerk.\u201d In the past, 50 Best has also received criticism related to <\/span>sexism<\/span><\/a> (which is one reason that the voting body now comprises \u201ca 50\/50 gender split\u201d) and <\/span>preferential treatment<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Those who have made the list say they have felt meaningful, material impacts from being awarded. \u201cEven though we\u2019ve always believed we were in the caliber, external recognition wasn\u2019t always our primary goal,\u201d says Nicolas Torres, owner of San Francisco\u2019s True Laurel<\/a>, No. 17 on this year\u2019s list. \u201cThese systems do tend to drive good foot traffic, and that matters. At the end of the day, we have people to take care of\u2014our team and our guests. This is the system we\u2019ve all, in some way, agreed to participate in. We need new people constantly discovering what we do, right alongside our regulars, and something like 50 Best certainly helps facilitate that.\u201d For Max Reis, beverage director of M\u00edrate<\/a> (No. 12), the benefits that come from recognition enable the bar to continue supporting others. \u201cWe support families and producers in Mexico as directly as you can in my field,\u201d he says, \u201cand this just means we get even more ability to support and momentum to continue to do so.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
This year, the nominators comprised one-third bartenders and bar owners, one-third drinks writers and educators and one-third \u201cwell-travelled cocktail experts.\u201d As for criteria, there aren\u2019t many. Each voter (there are more than 300) is asked to name up to seven bars where they have had their \u201cbest experience\u201d in the past 18 months, and a maximum of five of those bars can be in a voter\u2019s home country (for those outside of the U.S.) or home state (for those in the U.S.). The list comes with accompanying <\/span>Individual Awards<\/span><\/a>, though not every bar that received one of these made the top 50.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n But what does it take to be a 50 Best bar? We ran the numbers, looking at every entry on the list in consideration of various factors: location, drink prices, social media following, years open and more. We looked at how many bars take reservations, how many have a centrifuge or <\/span>rotovap<\/span><\/a>, how many were new to the list compared with how many were veterans\u2014and we compiled all that data to see what it really takes to be awarded one of the coveted spots.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n More than half of the awarded bars (54 percent) are in the U.S., followed by 28 percent in Mexico, 16 percent in Canada and 2 percent in the Cayman Islands. The most popular city represented on the list is New York City, followed by Mexico City, Chicago and Toronto.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n Only eight bars on the list are new to 50 Best. Last year, Los Angeles bar M\u00edrate was No. 46. This year, it\u2019s No. 12, jumping 34 places in the list (the biggest shift from 2024 to now). Asked how the bar has changed in the past year, beverage director Max Reis says the team \u201choned in and developed our voice as a bar\u2014same tonality, but clearer and louder.\u201d<\/span> Also making big moves: New York\u2019s Katana Kitten and Dante, which dropped by 30 and 26 spots, respectively, Caf\u00e9 de Nadie in Mexico City (-30) and Best Intentions in Chicago (+23).<\/p>\n<\/section>\n Last year, Sother Teague of Amor y Amargo, which opened in 2011, <\/span>told Punch<\/span><\/a>, \u201cI\u2019ve been on [the list] as high as No. 23 [in 2022] and then I haven\u2019t been on the list at all since then… I do see that many of the new bars that open and that have money behind them and PR behind them, they do come screaming outta the gate with a lot of sizzle and not as much steak.\u201d So, does newness matter? On this year\u2019s list, six bars (12 percent) opened in 2024, and 22 bars (44 percent) opened in the 2020s. The oldest bar on the list, Employees Only (No. 18), opened in 2004\u2014unless you count Angel\u2019s Share, whose original location opened in 1994, while the new iteration opened in 2023. But perhaps most interesting\u2014especially for a list capturing the past 18 months\u2014is the newest bar on the list: Bar Mauro, at No. 14, opened <\/span>very<\/span><\/i> recently, in November 2024.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The top bars on the list also tend to have larger social media followings, although it can be a bit of a chicken-or-egg situation. For example, the No. 1 bar this year, Handshake Speakeasy, also has the highest number of followers on Instagram, around 159,000, though it\u2019s fair to assume that a lot of that following came from topping the list last year. Still, the average follower count for the top 10 on the list (54,100) is higher than the average of the full list of 50 (38,920).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Also, 52 percent of bars on the list have been covered by Punch.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n As <\/span>Eater reported<\/span><\/a> a few years ago, \u201cspontaneity is officially dead\u201d at the hottest bars. We found this to be true, to an extent, at most of the 50 Best: 52 percent take reservations, and on a recent Friday when our team tried to secure seats for a party of two that same night, only eight (about 31 percent) of those had availability. As for the reservation platform of choice, 13 bars use Resy, nine use OpenTable, two use CoverManager, one uses SevenRooms and one takes reservations over the phone.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n At least one bar on the list, Double Chicken Please (No. 19), <\/span>has reported<\/span><\/a> issues with bots snatching up reservations; on a reservations brokerage site (it sounds as dystopian as it is), owner GN Chan saw seats selling for $340.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n <\/p>\n We looked at a total of 43 bars\u2019 menus. For those whose menus were not publicly available, we reached out for digital copies. Five bars did not respond, and two bars (Civil Liberties in Toronto, No. 21, and Cloakroom in Montreal, No. 31) don\u2019t have set menus.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n One of the, if not the most, expensive drinks you can get at a 50 Best Bar is at Library by the Sea, in Grand Cayman. The Three Musketeers <\/span>is described as<\/span><\/a> a mix of brandys, bourbon, rum, amari and liqueurs from the 19th and 20th centuries, and it will run you 690 Cayman dollars, or about $829 USD. The most affordable drinks (not including mini or N\/A cocktails) are around $8, at several bars.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n We also reached out to top bars on the list to learn more about their bestselling drinks. At Superbueno, No. 2 on the list, the<\/span> Vodka y Soda<\/span><\/a> still reigns supreme. <\/span>Tlecan<\/span><\/a>, No. 3, says the Pulque Colada (a coconut-washed version of the drink made with fermented agave sap) is most popular, while Jewel of the South (No. 4) is selling lots of the Jewel Sazerac. Sip & Guzzle (No. 5) reports the Yuzu Mugirita (a shochu-based take on the Margarita), Miami Vice Negroni and Tomato Tree (a floral gin cocktail) are tied as bestsellers.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Also trending: Coladas of all sorts, from the aforementioned Pulque Colada to the Absinthe Colada at Maison Premiere (No. 33) and Negroni Pi\u00f1a Colada at Clemente Bar (No. 11), as well as high-tech cocktails\u2014at least 26 percent of bars on this list appear to have a centrifuge or a <\/span>rotovap<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\nDisclosure: Some Punch contributors\u00a0are part of the voting body for the 50 Best Bar awards.<\/i><\/h4>\n<\/section>\n