2022 North America's 50 Best Bars: Complete Rankings

On Eldridge Street in the Lower East Side, Attaboy has built one of the most sustained award records in North American bartending — ranked as high as #4 globally by World's 50 Best Bars and #1 in North America as recently as 2022. The format is spare and the room is small, but the cocktail program operates with a precision that places it in a different category from most bars in the city.

Handshake Speakeasy claimed the World's Best Bar title at the 2024 World's 50 Best Bars awards and has held the North America number-one position for three consecutive years. Spread across two floors inside a Colonia Juárez hotel, the bar runs a culinary cocktail program across a Gatsby-era ground floor and a hip-hop basement, with every team member rotating through all roles weekly.

Licoreria Limantour on Avenida Álvaro Obregón has appeared in the World's 50 Best Bars ranking every year since 2014, reaching as high as number six globally in 2021. Positioned in Roma Norte, one of Mexico City's most active neighbourhoods for serious drinking, it sits at the top of the city's cocktail scene and holds a 4.4 rating across more than 3,600 Google reviews.

Katana Kitten on Hudson Street in the West Village has spent six consecutive years inside the World's 50 Best Bars global list, peaking at #10 in 2021 and earning a #3 North America ranking in 2023. The bar operates within a Japanese-American cocktail tradition that has reshaped how New York approaches spirits-forward drinking. A Google rating of 4.5 across more than 1,100 reviews signals consistent execution at high volume.

Among Chicago's most decorated bars, Kumiko has earned a 2025 James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar alongside a World's 50 Best global ranking of #97 — credentials that place it in a narrow peer set of American bars operating at the highest level of craft and intention. Open Wednesday through Sunday from 6pm on West Lake Street, it represents Chicago's case for holding its own against any drinking city on the continent.

Ranked #82 globally and #13 in North America by World's 50 Best Bars in 2025, Café La Trova on Calle Ocho is the standard-bearer for Cuban-American bar culture in Miami. The space runs on live music, classic Cuban cocktails, and a room that feels like it belongs somewhere between 1950s Havana and the present. Consistent top-25 recognition since 2021 places it among a small peer set of culturally specific bars that have crossed into global relevance.

Baltra Bar in Condesa ranks among the most consistently recognised cocktail programmes in Latin America, holding a position inside the World's 50 Best Bars global list every year since 2021. The bar operates from a compact address on Iztaccihuatl and draws a 4.5-star average across more than 1,500 Google reviews. Its back bar and spirits curation signal a programme built on depth rather than novelty.

Few bars in New York City carry the kind of documented critical record that Dante NYC has accumulated since 2016. Situated on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village, it holds multiple World's 50 Best Bars placements, including a #1 ranking in 2019, and a 4.5 Google rating across more than 2,500 reviews. The combination of neighbourhood longevity and sustained award recognition places it in a very small peer set.

Thunderbolt has held a position inside the World's 50 Best North America's Best Bars list every year from 2022 through 2025, peaking at #8 in 2024 and sitting at #64 globally that same year. Located on West Temple Street in Echo Park, it occupies a tier of Los Angeles cocktail programs defined by consistent international recognition rather than neighbourhood novelty. A Google rating of 4.7 across 353 reviews tracks closely with its award trajectory.

A neon pineapple is the only signage on Bloor Street West, and that restraint is intentional. Civil Liberties runs on no-menu, bartender-guided cocktail service, house-made fortified wines, and a room that shifts from focused spirits conversation to full neighbourhood party as the night progresses. Ranked #21 in North America's Best Bars for 2025, it has held that tier of recognition since 2022.

Zapote Bar has held a spot in the World's 50 Best North America's Best Bars ranking every year since 2022, peaking at #11 in both 2023 and 2024. Located along the Cancún–Tulum highway corridor in Playa del Carmen, it represents the serious end of the Riviera Maya cocktail scene — a programme built on Mexican ingredients and technical rigour rather than resort-bar ease.

La Factoría has held a place on the World's 50 Best Bars list every year since 2015, making it one of the most consistently recognised cocktail programmes in the Americas. Occupying a colonial building on Calle San José in Old San Juan, the bar operates across several distinct rooms, each with its own format. Open Tuesday through Saturday, it draws a mix of locals and well-travelled drinkers who understand what the ranking signals.

Kaito del Valle sits at the intersection of Mexico City's Japanese-influenced bar culture and the international cocktail circuit, holding a consecutive run of World's 50 Best North America's Best Bars rankings since 2022. Located on Hamburgo 70B in the Juárez neighbourhood, the bar carries a 4.6 Google rating across nearly 800 reviews, signalling consistent performance at a tier where peer pressure is constant.

Sweet Liberty Drinks & Supply Company on Miami Beach has held a position inside the World's 50 Best Bars global rankings, reaching #21 in 2018 before transitioning into the North America tier. Sitting at 237 20th Street in Miami Beach, it draws a 4.6 Google rating across more than 2,500 reviews and holds a 2025 Pearl Recommended designation. For Miami's cocktail scene, it remains a consistent reference point.

Café de Nadie has ranked among North America's top bars in the World's 50 Best programme every year since 2022, peaking at #15 in 2022 and #17 in 2024. Positioned on Chihuahua street in Colonia Roma Norte, the bar operates within Mexico City's most competitive cocktail corridor and holds a 4-star Google rating across more than 670 reviews.

Ranked among the World's 50 Best Bars since 2021 and sitting at #35 on North America's Best Bars in 2025, Hanky Panky operates from Colonia Juárez as one of Mexico City's most decorated cocktail addresses. Its trajectory through global rankings places it in a peer set well above the city's general bar scene, drawing serious drinkers who treat the address as a reference point for where Mexican bartending stands internationally.

Double Chicken Please revolutionizes New York City's cocktail scene through GN Chan's innovative "liquid dishes" concept, transforming beloved foods into extraordinary cocktails across two distinct spaces. This award-winning East Village destination earned Best Bar in North America 2023, offering both experimental cocktails on tap and intimate culinary-inspired mixology experiences.

Service Bar on U Street NW has ranked among North America's top bars every year since 2022, reaching as high as #18 on the World's 50 Best North America's Best Bars list. It holds a Pearl Recommended designation and a 4.6 Google rating across more than 800 reviews, placing it at the serious end of Washington D.C.'s cocktail scene alongside a neighbourhood defined by music history and independent energy.

Ranked #19 among North America's Best Bars in 2022 and still holding a place in the global Top 500, Raised by Wolves is the bar that repositioned San Diego in the serious cocktail conversation. Set inside UTC's Westfield mall in University City, it operates as a full-format cocktail bar with the kind of award-weight that places it alongside the country's most recognized programs.

Sabina Sabe has held a position inside the World's 50 Best North America's Best Bars rankings every year from 2022 to 2025, peaking at #20 in 2022. Located on 5 de Mayo in Oaxaca's historic centre, it represents the city's argument that serious cocktail culture doesn't require a capital-city address. With a Google rating of 4.5 across nearly 2,000 reviews, it draws both locals and international bar travellers.

El Gallo Altanero has held a place on the World's 50 Best Bars list every year since 2022, climbing from #65 to #48 before landing at #71 in 2025 — a trajectory that reflects Guadalajara's growing weight in the global bar conversation. Located in the Col Americana neighbourhood, it operates as the agave-focused anchor of Mexico's second city, where mezcal, tequila, and regional spirits meet considered technique.

Ranked among North America's top 30 bars by World's 50 Best four years running, Selva operates from a courtyard address on Macedonio Alcalá in central Oaxaca. The program draws on the state's extraordinary depth of agave spirits — mezcal, tepache, and beyond — positioned within a broader Mexican cocktail scene that has accelerated sharply since 2022. Google reviewers score it 4.1 across 659 ratings.

On a quiet block of East 6th Street in the East Village, Amor y Amargo has spent years making the case that bitters are a serious category, not a garnish. Ranked #23 on North America's Best Bars in both 2022 and 2024, and Pearl Recommended in 2025, it operates as a specialist bar in the fullest sense: narrow focus, deep execution, and a drinks list that rewards the curious.

Housed in an 1835 Creole cottage on St Louis Street in the French Quarter, Jewel of the South has become New Orleans' most decorated cocktail bar since opening in 2019. A 2024 James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar and a #4 ranking in North America's 50 Best Bars 2025 position it firmly at the top of the city's drinking hierarchy. The bar's identity is built around the historical cocktail record of New Orleans, refined rather than replicated.

Anchored in Chinatown at 135 Keefer St, The Keefer Bar has ranked among North America's top bars on the World's 50 Best list four times since 2022, most recently at #28 in 2025. Its cocktail program draws on traditional Chinese medicine as a design and flavour framework, with Asian ingredients woven through a bitters-forward drinks list. Bar food sourced from Chinatown neighbours rounds out one of Vancouver's more considered late-night formats.

Dear Irving occupies a studied niche in Midtown Manhattan's cocktail scene, combining era-specific room design with a drinks program that earned a place at #26 on North America's 50 Best Bars list in 2022. The address on West 40th Street puts it close to the Theater District, but the bar's following runs well beyond pre-show crowds. A 4.5 Google rating across more than 1,300 reviews points to consistent execution over time.

On the 64th floor of 70 Pine Street, Overstory has built a serious case for high-rise drinking in New York. Ranked #6 in North America and #15 globally by World's 50 Best Bars in 2024, it pairs a wrap-around open-air terrace with a technically disciplined cocktail program built around agave spirits, whiskey, and locally foraged ingredients — including salt harvested directly from the Rockaway Peninsula by the bar team itself.

Herbs & Rye has held a consecutive position on the World's 50 Best North America's Best Bars list since 2022, making it one of the most consistently recognised cocktail programs in the American West. Located off the Strip on West Sahara Avenue, it operates in a different register from Las Vegas's casino bar circuit, with a program built around technique and depth rather than spectacle.

Ranked 29th in North America's 50 Best Bars in 2022, El Pequeño Bar occupies a compact address in Old Montreal's Saint-Vincent corridor. The 4.8 Google rating across 373 reviews signals consistent execution rather than novelty buzz. For bar-goers tracing Montreal's serious cocktail scene, it belongs on the same conversation as Atwater Cocktail Club and Cloakroom.

Employees Only has held a place in the World's 50 Best Bars rankings every year since 2009, peaking at #4 globally in 2015. The West Village address on Hudson Street operates as one of New York's most consistently recognised cocktail programs, drawing on a European apéritif and spirits tradition that sits apart from the speakeasy-revival bars that followed in its wake. In 2025, it holds #18 in North America and #95 globally.

Positioned at the serious end of New York's cocktail hierarchy, The Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog at 30 Water St has held a place in the World's 50 Best Bars rankings every year since 2013, including the #1 spot in 2016. The Financial District address shapes the experience as much as the program itself: a two-floor Irish-American bar where the drinking is taken seriously and the historical framing runs deep.

Broken Shaker has held a position inside the World's 50 Best Bars rankings continuously since 2014, peaking at #14 in 2015 and earning a 2025 Pearl Recommended Bar designation. Operating from Miami Beach's Indian Creek Drive, the bar built its reputation on a back bar with genuine depth and a cocktail program that has outlasted most of its South Florida contemporaries. Google reviewers rate it 4.5 across nearly 2,400 reviews.

Ranked #33 on World's 50 Best North America's Best Bars in 2022, Friends and Family occupies a residential stretch of Monterey Boulevard in Glen Park — a deliberate distance from San Francisco's more trafficked cocktail corridors. The Google rating of 4.8 across 70 reviews signals a bar that earns repeat visits rather than one-time curiosity.

Death & Co's Los Angeles outpost, at 818 E 3rd St in the Arts District, carries the technical credibility of the original New York bar into Southern California. Ranked among North America's 50 Best Bars in both 2022 and 2023, and Pearl Recommended in 2025, it operates in the upper tier of the city's serious cocktail scene — deliberate, precise, and worth the planning.

Mace at 35 W 8th St in Greenwich Village has held a position in the World's 50 Best Bars list across multiple years, including a #28 ranking in 2016 and a #18 North America ranking in 2023. The bar built its reputation on spice-driven cocktail concepts and a back bar assembled with uncommon depth. A Google rating of 4.4 across nearly 1,000 reviews reflects durable standing in one of New York's most competitive drinking scenes.

Death & Co Denver ranks #36 on North America's 50 Best Bars list and holds a 4.6 Google rating across more than 1,500 reviews, positioning it among the most credentialed cocktail programs in the Mountain West. Open daily from 7:30am through 2am, the RiNo address runs longer hours than almost any peer bar in the city, making it as viable for a morning coffee as a late-night Negroni variation.

Arca has appeared on the World's 50 Best Bars list every year since 2022, reaching #55 globally in 2024 and #77 in 2025 — a consistent ranking that places it among a small group of bars outside major metropolitan centres to hold sustained international recognition. Set along the Tulum beach road, it operates at the intersection of jungle-coastal atmosphere and technically grounded cocktail work, drawing a crowd that comes specifically for the programme rather than the setting alone.

On Queen Street West, Mother has ranked among North America's 50 Best Bars three consecutive years, landing at #44 in 2025. The bar's fermentation-focused program, led by 2022 World Class Canada Bartender of the Year Massimo Zitti, builds cocktails around ingredients like bee pollen and black garlic, backed by some of Toronto's more serious cocktail-adjacent food.

ABV on 16th Street in the Mission has earned back-to-back placements on the World's 50 Best Bars list and a 2025 Pearl Recommended Bar nod, making it one of San Francisco's most consistently recognised cocktail programs. Open daily from 4pm until 2am, it sits at the serious end of the Mission's bar scene without sacrificing neighbourhood accessibility. Google reviewers rate it 4.5 across more than 1,000 responses.

Floridita is Havana's most globally recognised bar, appearing at #40 in the World's 50 Best North America's Best Bars in 2022 and previously ranked #31 globally in 2011. Its Daiquiri programme anchors the Old Havana experience, drawing a crowd that ranges from serious cocktail travellers to first-time visitors arriving on Obispo Street. Few bars in the Caribbean carry this weight of competitive recognition.

Bar Raval on College Street has earned back-to-back placement on the World's 50 Best Bars lists — North America's Best Bars in 2022 and a global ranking in 2025 — while keeping its focus on vermouth, sherry, amaro, and a modern cocktail program anchored by local produce. The sinuous mahogany interior and all-day format, from midday pintxos through late-night tapas, make it one of Toronto's most consistently serious drinking destinations.

Bar Leather Apron holds a rare position in American cocktail culture: a James Beard Award-winning bar operating out of downtown Honolulu, ranked among North America's 50 Best Bars in three consecutive years. The programme favours technical precision over theatrics, drawing a crowd that knows what it's looking for and books accordingly.

Clover Club has held a place in the global cocktail conversation since 2008, with consistent World's 50 Best recognition and a 4.6 Google rating across more than a thousand reviews. Located on Smith Street in Brooklyn's Carroll Gardens, it operates at the intersection of pre-Prohibition technique and contemporary bar craft — a reference point for serious drinking in New York City.

Ranked #44 on North America's 50 Best Bars list in 2022, Bitter & Twisted has put Phoenix on the serious cocktail map. Set in the ground floor of a historic downtown building on West Jefferson Street, the bar runs a technically ambitious programme that positions it well above the city's standard drinks scene. With a 4.5 Google rating across nearly 1,800 reviews, it holds its ground consistently.

Concealed behind a made-to-measure menswear shop on Montreal's Golden Mile, Cloakroom is a 25-seat bar that has appeared on the World's 50 Best North America's Best Bars list every year since 2022, ranking #31 in 2025. The bar operates without a printed menu, instead building bespoke cocktails for each guest from a library of house-made amari, liqueurs, and around 30 tinctures, plus a vintage spirits collection assembled over nearly a decade.

Julep is a James Beard Award-winning bar on Washington Avenue that has helped define Houston's serious cocktail identity. Ranked No. 237 in the 2025 Top 500 Bars and No. 46 in North America's Best Bars in 2022, it opens daily from 4 p.m. and runs until 2 a.m. on weekdays and 26:00 on weekends, making it one of the city's most credentialed late-night destinations.

Ranked #37 on World's 50 Best North America's Best Bars in 2025 and #154 globally by Top 500 Bars, Bar Mordecai on Dundas Street West runs one of Toronto's most programmatically ambitious cocktail operations. The main floor delivers hotel-lobby polish while the Green Room downstairs shifts into karaoke-and-highballs territory, and the drink list moves between guava-chocolate-ale combinations and boozy soft-serves.

Teardrop Lounge has held a place in Portland's serious cocktail conversation since well before the city's bar scene drew national attention. Ranked 48th on North America's Best Bars 2022 and carrying a 2025 Pearl District recommendation, it operates Monday through Saturday from 4pm in the NW Everett corridor. A 4.6 Google rating across more than 1,100 reviews reflects consistent execution over time.

Bar Kismet on Agricola Street earned a place at #49 on World's 50 Best North America's Best Bars in 2022, positioning Halifax firmly on the international cocktail circuit. The bar operates within a neighbourhood known more for community than spectacle, which shapes both its atmosphere and its approach to the drink. A 4.6 Google rating across more than 800 reviews suggests the recognition holds up night to night.

Genever Los Angeles revolutionized luxury cocktail culture through three Filipina entrepreneurs who created North America's most celebrated gin-focused bar in Historic Filipinotown. This award-winning establishment elevated premium mixology with Filipino ingredients like calamansi and pandan, served in an intimate Art Deco setting that became a community landmark.