Why (and how) We Started Following 50 Best Bars

August 24, 2023 ~ Kate ~ 1 Comment

I’ve been meaning to explain WHY I started tracking the 50 Best Bars list ever since my spreadsheet went slightly viral (by spreadsheet standards) – but decided to point out some of the issues I have with it when an Instagram post made that more relevant. Now I’m finally back to finish my original post.

(Pictured: A Ramos Gin Fizz at Herbs & Rye in 2015. They entered the World’s List in 2016 at #68 and were on the first North America list in 2022 at #28. I hadn’t yet started following any bar lists at this point, but this cocktail made a lasting impression on me so feels like a fitting “first ever drink at one of the World’s Best Bars.”)

The 50 Best Bars list first came on my radar in 2017 when my husband and I were planning our honeymoon to London and Scotland. We had taken a few small trips together but mostly one or the other tagging along to a work trip – this was really our first time planning a big trip together. We asked around for recommendations and in one late night Google session, searching for London bars, the 50 Best Bars popped up. I’d seen the list before but this time I noticed that many of the recommendations we received from bartenders were on the list. Lists and awards are great but personal recommendations always win – so seeing so much overlap made me take notice.

We visited several bars from the list on that trip – Happiness Forgets, Dandelyan, Callooh Callay, and American Bar at The Savoy. Then, based on recommendations from people at those spots, we then visited several bars that debuted on the list soon after – Three Sheets, Coupette, and Swift. The list wasn’t the be all and end all of our bar outings, but it provided some good starting points from which to play “bar tag.” (More on bar tag in a post soon!) After that trip, we often used the list (along with personal recommendations) to get us started in a new city. These days I think my personal experience has changed into a more critical look at what ties some of the winners together and what factors get them to the top – I talked about this a fair bit in my last post.

The World’s 50 Best Bars list has existed since 2009 and seems to have added the 51-100 list in 2015. While the bars on the 51-100 list aren’t in the official “50 Best” list (obviously), I’ve chosen to track them because a)MORE DATA and b)not every great bar has a PR team or is interested in chasing the hype and attention it takes to get enough voters in the door. They also added the “50 Best Discovery” program in 2019 which is great, but I’d love to know more about how bars get on that list. The website simply says “In 2019, the brand launched 50 Best Discovery, a travel- and experience-focused platform featuring thousands of bars and restaurants across the globe endorsed by the 50 Best Academy of experts.”

So that’s how we started paying attention to this list and how our take on it has changed over the years – but what about our personal stats?

(Pictured: Tuxedo Tails at Jewel of the South, July 2023. Our most recent visit to a bar on the list – Jewel of the South was on the first North American list in 2022 at #24 and was #5 on the list in 2023.)

List	Unique Bars (All Time)	# Visited	% Visited
World	356	53	15%
North America	66	15	23%
Asia	161	0	🙁

Until now, we haven’t planned a trip specifically for the purpose of ticking off more bars on the list, but that will change when we visit Barcelona this fall. With three of the eight most represented cities on the list being in Asia (Tokyo, Singapore, & Hong Kong), we definitely need to start planning that trip as well.

How have you used The World’s 50 Best Bar lists (or others like it)? Do you seek out bars on best of lists or purposely avoid them?

The Message that Matters

August 8, 2022 ~ Kate ~ Leave a comment

About a week ago, the Instagram account for Healthy Pour posted an amazing series that should be required reading for everyone who is in or enjoys the hospitality industry.

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My first reaction was joy. Here was the message I’ve been trying to share for ages, being spread by people I respect and getting amazing responses. (The Healthy Pour Beyond the Bar seminar at Tales was one of the things I was most bummed to miss when my trip got cancelled.)

My second reaction was deflation. Their words are so similar to what I keep saying I want to write, but actually polished and posted. The internet tends to makes us feel like if you’re not first to a trend, then you’re last. For years I’ve had these thoughts swirling in my head, but when I sit down and try to type them out, anxiety, self-doubt, and imposter syndrome get in the way. Given that a week ago I was still wallowing in pity over Covid cancelling my trip to Tales of the Cocktail, it’s probably not surprising that “oh poor me” was one of my reactions.

Thankfully, I eventually landed on validation. At the end of the day, it’s the message that matters and the message that will make lives better on both sides of the bar (or table). Customers need to share in the ownership of and responsibility for their experiences and having more people saying so can only be a good thing. My work with the local chapter of the United States Bartenders’ Guild has allowed me the opportunity to straddle the line between customer and insider – giving me a unique opportunity to both amplify the voices of the people on the line and also add my unique perspective and experience as a “professional customer” (as one local bartender recently called me).

Follow @Healthy.Pour on Instagram, and check out the resources on their website, because they are doing important work for people who work in the hospitality industry. And if you want advice on how *you* can be a better participant in this industry, on either side of the line, submit a question here.

New Orleans & a Taste of Tales

August 3, 2018January 16, 2020 ~ Kate ~ 2 Comments

New Orleans – July 2018

St. Louis Cathedral through Jackson Square

A few months ago, my husband’s company announced that they would be having a work meeting in New Orleans in July. “New Orleans in July?” I said, “that’s going to be awful!” Turns out, I was right – at least in terms of the weather. July in New Orleans is objectively awful to a Northern Gal like me but because of that, it’s also cheap. That makes it appealing to people hosting large meetings and conferences.

One of the conferences held in New Orleans in July happens to be Tales of the Cocktail. This year, it happened to be held the week before Chris’ work trip and happened to be at the same hotel as his company meeting. We happened to put two and two together and fly down late Friday night, to catch the tail of Tales.

I’m not usually a fan of slushies, but when the heat index is 112F, it’s hard to say no.

Despite the fact that I’ve been doing the social media for the Minneapolis-St. Paul chapter of the USBG for most of two years, most of that as the elected “Social Media Coordinator” and despite the fact that most of the local bartenders consider me “industry,” I still have a strong case of imposter syndrome when navigating this world. My husband, Chris, is the actual cocktail nerd of the family – I can barely make myself an Old Fashioned and am often that dreaded customer who freezes like a deer in the headlights when asked if I want my Manhattan up or on the rocks. My passion for this world comes from a love of the hospitality of a good bar. In other words, I’m in it for the people.

Any fears that I didn’t belong at Tales started to dissipate when, just minutes after dropping our bags in our room at the Hotel Monteleone after our very late arrival, we walked into The Carousel Bar and within ten feet, I was being hugged by Jonathan Schulze, an MSP rep for A. Hardy Spirits who sponsored our last guild meeting. The chance meeting gave me some confidence that I was in the right place, doing the right thing.

I made myself a spreadsheet of the Tasting Rooms schedule but forgot it at home. I literally squealed with delight when I stepped out of an elevator and saw this on the wall – causing the person who created it to squeal in delight at my delight.

With only one day of Tales overlapping with our trip, our tail of Tales was mostly limited to the Tasting Rooms on Saturday and Pig & Punch on Sunday. I went into the Tasting Rooms hoping to a)taste a lot of cool things and b)feel worthy of both my attendance as an enthusiast and the media credentials I was able to get. Despite starting the trip feeling like a total fraud, I finished Saturday feeling like I’d made some contacts of actual value – several of the spirits we tasted are launching in our area soon and they were thrilled to make contact with the local guild.

Oh, and we also learned that if you wander through Tasting Rooms as a couple with him in a seersucker suit and you in a cocktail print dress, you will get a zillion compliments. That didn’t hurt at all.

My only shot of Chris in seersucker. And also of random Malort shots on the street.

Our taste of Tales taught us that we want to get back and experience more of the events next year. We learned that we’ll need to pace ourselves, eat well, drink lots of water, and share samples (at sampling events, I’d rather drink half as much of twice as many). For me, personally, I learned that I can bring value to this industry that I love so much. I need to stop doubting my place in this world, stop thinking about myself as an outsider, and start actually putting more words on paper. (Words on screen just sounds so much less dramatic!)

I’ve been discovering that while I want to write about eating, drinking, travelling, and the hospitality industry in general – I don’t want to be a reviewer. Maybe I could get more followers if I gave scathing reviews of bad places or things – but I’d rather be positive and grow organically, if slowly. If I don’t like something or somewhere, I’m just not going to post about it. Maybe that’s too “laissez faire” but I’m okay with it, because it’s me.

New Orleans is a strange city and hard to categorize. Sometimes the city felt like Paris, other times I imagined I was in Cuba. Rarely did it feel like I was in the US. I went into this trip dreading the weather, the strangeness, the insanity of places like Bourbon Street – but I left with a strong desire to go back and find more oddities and hidden gems. Because of the heat and humidity, I didn’t discover as much of the city as I would have liked but I believe the unique personality of New Orleans helped me discover myself, far more than ever expected. So, as they say on the other end of the Mississippi from my home in St. Paul, “laissez les bons temps rouler.”