[imagesource: Connaught Bar]

The scene of mixologists doing their thing at this year’s best bar in the world could easily feature in a Wes Anderson movie.

Just look at them pour from such great heights in the Cubist-inspired 1920s-style bar in the image above. It feels like Bill Murray and Owen Wilson will pop out any moment.

Aesthetics aside, that bar in London, the Connaught Bar, was crowned the world’s best bar of the year.

This is according to the annual ranking by William Reed Business Media’s “The World’s 50 Best Bars”.

It’s the same organisation that publishes the popular “The World’s 50 Best Restaurants” list each year.

The 50 Best organisation started publishing its annual bar ranking in 2008. Connaught Bar, located inside the five-star The Connaught hotel in Mayfair, London, now has two consecutive wins.

This makes it only the third bar to have won twice in a row in the award’s 13-year history:

Image: Jamie McGregor Smith_The Connaught Bar

The hotel was born out of the 1800s and the bar opened in 2008, designed by the late David Collins.

CNN has more:

The Connaught’s leadership team of director of mixology Agostino Perrone, head mixologist Giorgio Bargiani and bar manager Maura Milia have perfected their winning formula of consistently high-quality drinks and service in an elegant setting.

CNBC reported Perrone saying that the Connaught Bar “remains classic and traditional in its key features, while we always work to push the boundaries of creativity and surprise our guests with sophisticated and elegant innovations”.

While the menu changes every year to keep the bar from becoming “old-fashioned”, its speciality is its Martini trolley, where the guests get a personalised drink experience from the bartenders.

After scoring last year’s Highest New Entry, Alex Kratena’s Tayēr + Elementary on London’s Old Street cracked second place:

“A bar of two parts, Elementary is the easy-going space you’ll first step foot in,” says 50 Best, while “behind the concrete partition is Tayēr, where things get more serious.”

Image: Andy Parsons

With their signature drink bottles:

Image: Tayēr + Elementary

In third place is Giacomo Giannotti’s Paradiso in Barcelona, Spain – a Mediterranean-style speakeasy, which you enter through the freezer door of a pastrami bar:

Image: Paradiso Bar

The ranking from this year included bars from 17 countries, with 18 new entries added to the list from Australia, India, Mexico, Russia, Argentina, Sweden, Spain, China, and the UAE.

No South Africa. Yet…

Here’s the top 20 out of the World’s 50 Best Bars for 2021:

1. Connaught Bar, London
2. Tayer + Elementary, London
3. Paradiso, Barcelona
4. The Clumsies, Athens
5. Floreria Atlantico, Buenos Aires
6. Licoreria Limantour, Mexico City
7. Coa, Hong Kong
8. El Copitas, St. Petersburg
9. Jigger & Pony, Singapore
10. Katana Kitten, New York
11. Two Schmucks, Barcelona
12. Hanky Panky, Mexico City*
13. Insider Bar, Moscow*
14. Baba Au Rum, Athens
15. Manhattan, Singapore
16. Atlas, Singapore
17. Zuma, Dubai
18. The SG Club, Tokyo
19. Drink Kong, Rome
20. 1930, Milan

It’s tough knowing I have to remain at home while there is so much to explore and sip on, but alas.

I guess I will just have to settle for Wes Anderson’s Hotel Budapest.

[sources:cnbc&cnn]