The votes are in, and Fitzroy booze icon Black Pearl has scored big at the 2018 World’s 50 Best Bars ceremony this week.
Black Pearl was announced as the 30th best bar in the world and the best bar in Australasia at the ceremony, which took place in London on Wednesday. Judges said it was the bar’s classic Aussie hospitality that made Black Pearl stand out among the crowd. "This is a bar where you are treated like you are part of the Black Pearl family, the kind of place where everyone is an insider."
Keen to try Black Pearl for yourself? Check out our five-star review from when we visited earlier in the year.
But Black Pearl will have to share some accolades this year, as another Melbourne bar also made its way into the top 100. Above Board, a tiny Collingwood operation by Bar Americano alum Hayden Lambert snuck into the bottom half of the list at 95. When we visited in February, it was clear that Above Board was a bar entirely in Lambert's vision backed by impressive skill. We even gave Above Board the Best Cocktail Bar gong at the 2018 Time Out Bar Awards.