Grab a glass, because there’s a brand new ranking to get stuck into. European bars have long featured heavily on the World’s 50 Best Bars list, but now the continent has its own dedicated spin-off: the aptly-named Europe’s 50 Best Bars.
The inaugural edition (sponsored by Perrier) was revealed at a ceremony in Amsterdam on June 30, and the results prove just how much ground there is to cover between Lisbon and Ljubljana.
Taking the top spot is Line in Athens, a sustainability-minded bar built inside a former art warehouse which was also recently awarded with the prestigious three-pin accolade in the Pinnacle Guide. Nearly everything that comes out of the kitchen gets a second life here, with the leftover ingredients and byproducts recycled straight back into the drinks, including the Delusional Margarita, made with ketchup, mustard and potato water, and the Why-Ins, which uses every fruit going except grapes. It’s an inventive operation.
Edinburgh’s Panda & Sons sits at number 20 and hides behind an unmarked barbershop facade. It opens into a basement lab run by ice specialist Iain McPherson, who pioneered a technique called ‘switching’. He’s been able to strip the water out of a spirit and replace it with a different spirit entirely to create hybrid ‘franken-spirits’ for the bar’s cocktails.
Over in Oslo, Svanen is at number 15 and has taken up residence in a beautifully preserved 1896 pharmacy, trading the tinctures for a cocktail menu built around clean Nordic ingredients. With all of the basements, pharmacies and converted mechanics’ shops, Europe’s bar scene isn’t short on unusual real estate, and the judges clearly love it.
London had plenty to celebrate too, landing more entries than any other city and being crowned the continent’s ‘undisputed cocktail capital’. The Connaught Bar took tenth place and the title of Best Bar in the UK, with judges praising its consistency, right down to the ice programme and the pacing of service. Full breakdown of London’s seven entries here, and the top 20 for across the continent is below.
These are Europe’s 20 best bars right now
- Line, Athens
- The Bar in Front of the Bar, Athens
- Sips, Barcelona
- Himkok, Oslo
- Bar Nouveau, Paris
- Moebius Milano, Milan
- The Cambridge Public House, Paris
- Mirror Bar, Bratislava
- Paradiso, Barcelona
- Connaught Bar, London
- Satan’s Whiskers, London
- Tayēr + Elementary, London
- Barro Negro, Athens
- Baba au Rum, Athens
- Svanen, Oslo
- Nouvelle Vague, Tirana
- Wax On, Berlin
- Camparino in Galleria, Milan
- Danico, Paris
- Panda & Sons, Edinburgh
See the full list of Europe’s 50 Best Bars here, and for more drinking inspiration, check out our full round-up of the world’s best bars.
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