The 13th list of The World’s 50 Best Bars, sponsored by Perrier, was announced at a live awards ceremony on Tuesday 7th December 2021 in London, UK. After extensive consultation with industry figures, its Academy Chairs, bartenders, bar owners and its partners, the 50 Best organisation received overwhelming feedback that the awards should go ahead and be celebrated in person this year following a virtual announcement in 2020 due to the pandemic. The awards recognise the hard work from the entire bar sector over the past year and aim to inspire and encourage hospitality venues in the next crucial stage of recovery.
The 2021 edition of the annual ranking features bars from 17 countries and sees London’s Connaught Bar take the No.1 spot, picking up The World’s Best Bar and The Best Bar in Europe titles.
Under the masterful leadership of Agostino Perrone, the venue’s Director of Mixology, Connaught Bar stays true to its principles of presenting artful, modern drinks with graceful service in an elegant setting. Designed by the late David Collins, the Cubist-inspired bar is known for its unique Martini trolley, where bartenders give a personalised drinks experience to guests. Perrone has developed a strong and dedicated leadership team including Head Mixologist Giorgio Bargiani and Bar Manager Maura Milia, who embody hospitality and drinks craft, as well as providing inspiration to a talented ensemble of junior bartenders who aspire to follow in their footsteps
“Connaught Bar, we salute you – to be named The World’s Best Bar for two consecutive years is a feat that previously only two bars have
achieved in the awards’ 13-year history. It’s a testament to Ago Perrone and his team’s continued pursuit of excellence, which is encapsulated in the way they have developed and modernised the Martini cocktail. We also want to send all the venues on the 2021 list of The World’s 50 Best Bars huge congratulations. It’s been another incredibly tough year for hospitality and the industry’s resilience and togetherness through these challenges is humbling. We hope that the positive stories around the bars’ success in the awards will help to drive vital business in the weeks and months to come,” said Mark Sansom, Content Editor for The World’s 50 Best Bars.
London takes the top two spots with Connaught Bar placing at No.1 and receiving The Best Bar in Europe for the second year in a row, with Tayēr + Elementary at No.2. The city’s third bar in the list is Kwānt at No.31.
For 2021, The World’s 50 Best Bars made a variety of changes to adapt to the impacts the pandemic has had on bars around the world. Due to limited travel opportunities throughout much of 2020 and 2021, the voting guidelines and voting requirements were re-evaluated to reflect this. The list is based on members of The World’s 50 Best Bars Academy’s bar experiences across a voting period between March 2020 to September 2021 inclusive.
For this year there was no requirement for The World’s 50 Best Bars Academy to cast international votes, although if members had been fortunate enough to travel internationally, they were encouraged to allow these experiences to inform their voting choices, and they were asked to vote for 7 bars in order of preference. Voting remained anonymous and secure, and the voting process and results are independently adjudicated by Deloitte
