To anyone who’s been there this will come as absolutely no surprise, but a cool as hell inner-Melbourne cocktail bar has been named in the World’s 50 Best Bars for the second year in a row.
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Fitzroy’s Black Pearl, situated on the ever-popular Brunswick St strip, was anointed the top bar in the Australasia region at the World’s 50 Best Bar awards, which were handed out in London earlier today.
In the overall awards, Black Pearl managed to snare 30th place overall. It’s the second year in a row the hugely popular bar has featured in the list, and while it’s something of a slide from the 22nd-place finish the bar achieved last year, it remains Australia’s one and only entry on the Top 50 list. In the extended list of 100 best bars, Above Board in Collingwood managed to sneak in at 95th place.
Excruciatingly hip London joint Dandelyan scooped the top spot in the list, deposing fellow Londoner and previous champion American Bar at The Savoy Hotel for the top spot overall. This, despite the fact that Dandelyan’s owners had announced the bar’s permanent closure just two days before the awards were handed out.
The Black Pearl has long been a favourite of industry insiders and savvy Melbourne drinkers, and its recent success on a global scale has only confirmed what many have known for a while now: It good.
The 2018 list of Top 50 bars represents 26 cities from 20 different countries, and was voted on by in excess of 500 industry experts. The full list is as follows:
THE WORLD’S 50 BEST BARS 2018
- Dandelyan – London, UK
- American Bar – London, UK
- Manhattan – Singapore
- The Nomad – New York, USA
- Connaught Bar – London, UK
- Bar Termini – London, UK
- The Clumsies – Athens, Greece
- Atlas – Singapore
- Dante – New York, USA
- The Old Man – Hong Kong, China
- Licoreria Limantour – Mexico City, Mexico
- Bar High Five – Tokyo, Japan
- Native – Singapore
- Floreria Atlantico –Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Attaboy – New York, USA
- The Dead Rabbit – New York, USA
- Oriole – London, UK
- Coupette – London, UK
- Himkok – Oslo, Norway
- Speak Low – Shanghai, China
- Sweet Liberty – Miami, USA
- Baba Au Rum – Athens, Greece
- Operation Dagger – Singapore
- Le Syndicat – Paris, France
- Lost and Found – Nicosia, Cyprus
- Employees Only – New York, USA
- Central Station – Beirut, Lebanon
- Scout – London, UK
- Three Sheets – London, UK
- Black Pearl – Melbourne, Australia
- Tales and Spirits – Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Linje Tio – Stockholm, Sweden
- Little Red Floor – Paris, France
- 28 Hong Kong Street – Singapore
- Happiness Forgets – London, UK
- La Factoria – San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Paradiso – Barcelona, Spain
- Indulge Experimental Bistro – Taipei, Taiwan
- El Copitas – Saint Petersburg, Russia
- Tommy’s – San Francisco, USA
- Blacktail – New York, USA
- Candelaria – Paris, France
- Schumann’s – Munich, Germany
- Trick Dog – San Francisco, USA
- Fifty Mils – Mexico City, Mexico
- Swift – London, UK
- Salmon Guru – Madrid, Spain
- Buck and Breck – Berlin, Germany
- Bar Benfiddich – Tokyo, Japan
- Lost Lake – Chicago, USA
Weird. All these supposedly “good” New York bars listed and not a single one of ’em is Turtles All The Way Down in Bed-Stuy, clearly the far superior joint.
Fancy cocktails are all well and good but I bet all of your asses none of them have a Simpsons arcade machine and screen Jeopardy with the sound on at Happy Hour.
You tell me which bar you’d rather go to.
