Why the list of the world’s 50 best bars should be taken with a grain of salt

The World’s 50 Best Bars list was announced overnight in Madrid, with three superb Australian bars: Maybe Sammy in Sydney, Caretaker’s Cottage in Melbourne and Byrdi, all of which received a coveted spot.

But what does this mean? Who decides these questions and why do these establishments in particular qualify when there are so many great bars to choose from?

To decipher such lists, context is important. Firstly, World’s 50 Best, which also hosts the World’s 50 Best Restaurants award, is a commercial business, a division of British data and events company William Reed.

This is not the Nobel Foundation, which tirelessly searches for the world’s most brilliant minds for purely philanthropic reasons. The main purpose of World’s 50 Best is to sell sponsorships. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – these awards provide much-needed publicity for the hospitality industry and recognize the work of dedicated professionals – but it does change the lens through which these lists should be viewed.

Secondly, no one group of people can visit every bar or restaurant in the world, which means there are all sorts of biases built into the system. As many have noted, there is a tendency to favor North America and Western Europe. The situation is improving, but much more diversification is needed and many cultural biases still need to be broken down. William Reed has a beautiful Diversity, Equity and Inclusion section on its website, but its leadership team is 100 percent white.

Third, countries that are off the beaten path are at a distinct disadvantage. The condition is that commissioners must have visited the bars they vote on within the last 18 months. So while the goal of the World’s 50 Best is to attract diverse and well-traveled panelists from around the world, these voters are far more likely to visit hospitality hubs like New York, Paris and Singapore than see the bars of Bolivia or Borneo.

In larger, wealthier cities, it is easier to tip the scales. I was recently in Hong Kong for the Asia’s 50 Best Bars Awards, a trip sponsored by the Hong Kong Tourism Board. I have now visited many of the city’s best bars with Hong Kong taxpayers’ money, and if I was called upon to vote for the world’s 50 best bars, I can confidently name them.

“Many of the bars on the Top 50 list are associated with multinational luxury hotel chains or hospitality empires with huge marketing budgets.”

This is the main reason why Tourism Australia paid a lot of money for the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards ceremony to be held in Melbourne in 2017. But I’m still waiting for a call from Tourism Bolivia – I can’t vote for a bar I’ve never participated in. visited.

Those of us who have the luxury of traveling often have limited time. We want to visit big award-winning bars to kick the tires, and there’s not always time to discover new things. On the other hand, there is also the “shiny and new” aspect that attracts voices to newly opened venues.

Bar Leone debuted at number 1 on this year’s Asia’s 50 Best Bars list after being open for less than a year and is now ranked number two on the global list. Meanwhile, Dante in New York was number one in 2019 and has now dropped to 79. I doubt it’s any worse than it was five years ago.

Guest shifting is another way many bars try to succeed. This involves bartenders traveling to another city to take over a local bar for the evening. More often than not, the main goal is to attract local panelists from the world’s top 50 list.

A Hong Kong-based liquor brand who travels frequently to the region told me that the endless rotation of guests is having a detrimental effect on the bar scene, especially in Singapore. “It used to be about being the best you can be and having fun doing it,” they told me. “Now it’s about doing as many guest shifts as possible and getting on the list. It became an obsession.”

Of course, flying bartenders around the world to do guest shifts costs money, and this is the last and probably most important factor to consider. Many of the bars on the Top 50 list are associated with multinational luxury hotel chains or hospitality empires with huge marketing budgets, while others are small independent businesses. The playing field is uneven.

Maybe Sammy it is perhaps the first bar in Australia to be included in the world’s top 50 list. Run by a well-funded group of international bar professionals who have previously worked in top bars such as London’s Artesian, the bar has great decor, a serious marketing machine and cocktails that go well in real life and on the street. Instagram. It is a concerted effort to win awards. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that Maybe Sammy offers some of the best hospitality in Australia, along with the best martinis, in a room that will make you feel like a movie star.

The Caretaker’s Cottage approach is a bit more organic and very similar to Melbourne. A small, independent business, it has built its reputation from the ground up. It’s not that they don’t have advantages. The owners of the small Melbourne bar are well connected, having worked in some of the world’s best bars, including Fitzroy’s Black Pearl, which reached number 7 on the Top 50 Bars list during its tenure.

But Caretaker’s also has a distinct style of hospitality and an atmosphere that is inviting, professional and exciting. Classic enough to be timeless and modern enough to be cool, this is the kind of bar you want to sit in. And unlike many entries on the list, it speaks loudly to the culture and character of its time and place: Melbourne 2024. This bar couldn’t be found anywhere else.

Byrdi is another place that speaks volumes about its specific location, but in this case, the ingredients in the drinks speak for themselves. Most of what goes into the glass at Birdie comes from within a 100km radius of Melbourne, it’s all seasonal, much of it is sourced, fermented and otherwise hung by a dedicated team of bartenders/mad scientists under the watchful eye of Luke Wirty. which is perhaps the closest thing in the bar world to Noma’s René Redzepi.

After all, most people love rewards when they get them and feel nothing but contempt for them when they don’t. The most important thing is to treat these lists with a healthy skepticism, as they are erroneous and subjective opinions.

We should be proud of any local bars that are mentioned and not too sorry for those that don’t. Spend your hard-earned money where you think it is most deserved, and ask locals for advice when traveling. For my money, I’ll sit in Caretaker’s Cottage or any of the other 50 or so bars around Australia that I think can rival anything on the world’s top 50 list, without objectivity.

Fred Siggins is a Melbourne-based freelance writer and co-owner of cocktail bar and American whiskey bar Goodwater. He has been lucky enough to work in some bars that have won awards, and some bars that have never won an award.