Remember the heady days of last summer when we shared an exciting opportunity to rank bars around the world for a brand-new Michelin-style guide?
Well, after months of interviews and anonymous reviews, the Pinnacle Guide has finally released its first ranking of the planet’s most knockout bars.
The platform says it aims to become ‘the cocktail bar industry’s most respected accolade of excellence’, and it hands out one, two or three pins to bars that are either ‘excellent’, ‘outstanding’ or ‘exceptional’. Think Michelin, but for margs and martinis.
25 bars have been awarded one-pin so far, and this list is totally dominated by the UK, with 15 British bars acquiring the ‘excellent’ accolade, such as Kwãnt Mayfair in London and Couch in Birmingham – you can read more about those here.
A further 12 bars were awarded two pins, including the likes of Selva in Oaxaca, Paradiso in Barcelona and Atlas in Singapore.
But nowhere has been awarded three pins just yet. According to the Pinnacle Guide’s website, a bar must submit an ‘exceptional’ application and provide ‘exceptional’ service to bag that third pin – for now, here are all the one and two-pin bars around the world.
These are the 1-pin bars around the world:
- Artesian, London, UK
- Ballroom by Barbary Coast, Singapore
- Blue Bar at the Berkeley, London, UK
- Couch, Birmingham, UK
- Cure, New Orleans, USA
- El Primo Sanchez, Sydney, Australia
- Kiki Lounge, Isle of Man, UK
- Kol Mezcaleria, London, UK
- Kwãnt Mayfair, London, UK
- Little Rituals, Phoenix, USA
- Magnus on Water, Maine, USA
- Maybe Sammy, Sydney, Australia
- Meteor, Minneapolis, USA
- Milady’s, New York, USA
- Nightjar Shoreditch, London, UK
- Passing Fancies, Birmingham, UK
- Rattlebag, Belfast, UK
- Roka, Dubai
- Sexy Fish, London, UK
- Sexy Fish, Manchester, UK
- Side Hustle, London, UK
- Swift Soho, London, UK
- The Dead Rabbit, New York, USA
- The Guards Bar & Lounge at Raffles London, UK
- Velvet by Salvatore Calbrese, London, UK
These are the 2-pin bars around the world:
- Atlas, Singapore
- Bitter & Twisted, Phoenix, USA
- Nipperkin, London, UK
- Origin Bar, Shangri-La, Singapore
- Panda & Sons, Edinburgh, UK
- Paradiso, Barcelona, Spain
- Pretty Decent, Louisville, USA
- Selva, Oaxaca, Mexico
- The American Bar at Gleneagles, Auchterarder, UK
- The Spy Bar at Raffles London, UK
- Thunderbolt, Los Angeles, USA
- True Laurel, San Francisco, USA
Time Out’s favourite bars
We certainly know a thing or two about a proper negroni and some cracking atmosphere. Check out our favourite bars in Europe, North America and Asia.
Did you see that these are officially the best nightclubs in the world right now?
Plus: these are the European cities with the cheapest (and most expensive) pints.
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