2022 North America's 50 Best Bars: Complete Rankings

Attaboy NYC is a New York City cocktail bar with no printed menu, a bespoke drinking format, a long awards trail that runs through World's 50 Best Bars and Top 500 Bars. Its lineage from the former Milk & Honey space gives it rare historical weight, while the 2025 expansion changed access without abandoning the bar's tightly controlled style.

Handshake Speakeasy places Mexico City's cocktail scene in the global conversation through technical drinks, theatrical rooms, major awards momentum. Its 2024 World's 50 Best Bars No. 1 ranking, North America's 50 Best Bars No. 1 placements in 2024 and 2025, Tales Spirited Awards 2026 Top 10 Nominee status make it a serious reference point for modern agave-led barcraft.

Licorería Limantour helped define Mexico City’s modern cocktail culture from its Roma Norte address, with recognition across World’s 50 Best Bars, North America’s 50 Best Bars, Top 500 Bars, Pearl Recommended Bar in 2025. Expect a high-volume room with serious technical control, Mexican-rooted drinks, a playful approach to back-bar nostalgia.

Katana Kitten on Hudson Street has held a place in the World's 50 Best Bars global rankings every year since 2019, reaching #10 in 2021 and maintaining a North America top-15 position through 2024. The West Village bar occupies a specific niche in New York's cocktail scene: Japanese-American technique applied with enough precision to attract a loyal repeat clientele alongside the global bar crowd. Reservations are advised, particularly on weekends.

Café La Trova puts Miami’s Cuban cocktail tradition at the center of the room, with cantinero technique, live Son Cubano, a bar program tied to Julio Cabrera’s long public role in rum culture. Its awards record, including a 2025 James Beard Award semifinalist nod for Outstanding Bar and repeated World’s 50 Best Bars recognition, places it in Miami’s serious cocktail conversation rather than the city’s generic nightlife lane.

Ranked #20 in North America and #78 globally by World's 50 Best Bars in 2025, Baltra Bar in Condesa has built a consistent presence at the top of Mexico City's cocktail scene over five consecutive years of recognition. Positioned on a quiet residential street in one of the city's most walkable neighbourhoods, it draws a crowd that takes its drinking seriously without the theatrics that define some of its peers.

Dante NYC is a West Village aperitivo address with serious bar-world credentials: The World's Best Bar in 2019 and a long run across World's 50 Best Bars and North America's Best Bars lists. Its pull is not secrecy or spectacle, but the modern New York version of an Italian café-bar, built around negronis, garibaldis, vermouths, spritzes, classic cocktails and all-day food.

A technique-driven cocktail bar on West Temple Street, Thunderbolt has held a place in the World's 50 Best Bars global list four consecutive years running, most recently ranking #64 globally in 2024. The format is deliberately low-key: a neighbourhood-bar atmosphere that sits in sharp contrast to the precision of what arrives in the glass. R&D is the engine here, with original ingredients driving a program that consistently earns global recognition.

Civil Liberties is Toronto’s no-menu cocktail reference point: a neighbourhood bar with serious technique, custom drinks, enough international recognition to place it beyond local cult status. Its 2026 Tales Spirited Awards Regional Top 10 Honoree nod for Best International Bar Team – Canada, plus multiple North America’s 50 Best Bars rankings, put the room in a competitive tier where hospitality matters as much as drink construction.

Ranked #11 in North America's Best Bars for three consecutive years (2022 to 2024) and holding, Zapote Bar is one of the most consistently recognised cocktail programs on the Riviera Maya. The bar draws on Mexican botanical and agricultural traditions to build a drinks program that sits well outside the resort-corridor norm, making it a reference point for serious bar culture in the Yucatán Peninsula.

La Factoría has held a position in the World's 50 Best Bars global rankings every year since 2015, reaching #12 in North America in 2022. Located on Calle San José in Old San Juan, it operates Tuesday through Saturday on daytime and early-afternoon hours, making visit timing a genuine planning consideration. It occupies the upper tier of Puerto Rico's bar scene.

Kaito del Valle is an all-women-run bar in Mexico City's Juárez neighbourhood that blends Japanese izakaya culture with kawaii aesthetics. Ranked #40 in North America's Best Bars 2025 and holding a spot in the World's 50 Best Top 500, it has built a sustained presence on the international bar circuit. The bar recently moved to a new location on Hamburgo, keeping its place in one of the city's most concentrated drinking corridors.

Sweet Liberty Drinks & Supply Company has held a place on the World's 50 Best Bars list since 2017, reaching as high as #21 globally in 2018. Located on 20th Street in Miami Beach, it operates as one of the most credentialed cocktail bars in Florida, drawing both local regulars and visiting drinkers who track the North America rankings closely. reinforces its sustained standing.

Café de Nadie has ranked inside the World's 50 Best North America's Best Bars every year from 2022 to 2025, peaking at #15 in 2022. Located in Roma Norte on Chihuahua 135, the bar operates in one of Mexico City's most competitive cocktail corridors. Its sustained award presence over four consecutive years positions it among the most consistently recognised bars on the continent.

Hanky Panky belongs to Mexico City's serious cocktail tier: a speakeasy-format bar with repeated 50 Best recognition, including No. 35 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2025 and No. 62 on Top 500 Bars 2026. Its identity sits between international cocktail technique and Mexican ingredient culture, making it useful for travelers comparing the city's bar scene beyond restaurant-led nightlife.

On U Street NW, Service Bar has held a consistent position among North America's most recognised cocktail programs, appearing in the World's 50 Best North America's Best Bars list every year from 2022 to 2025. The format is deliberately unpretentious: serious drinks inside a neighbourhood joint atmosphere, where the bar's technical ambition doesn't announce itself with ceremony.

Raised by Wolves holds a spot among North America's most recognized cocktail programs, ranked #19 on World's 50 Best North America's Best Bars in 2022 and #442 in the global Top 500 Bars 2025 list. Set inside UTC's Westfield mall in University City, the bar operates in a format that deliberately contradicts its retail surroundings, running a technically serious drinks program that has drawn sustained critical attention.

Sabina Sabe has climbed from a regional curiosity to one of the most-ranked bars in North America, appearing in the World's 50 Best North America's Best Bars list four consecutive years and holding. Set in Centro Histórico, it channels Oaxacan ingredients, mezcal culture, technical bartending into a programme that has no real equivalent in the city.

El Gallo Altanero has ranked on the World's 50 Best Bars list every year since 2022, reaching #48 globally in 2024 and placing eighth in North America in 2025. Located in Guadalajara's Colonia Americana, it represents the leading edge of Mexico's agave-driven cocktail movement and draws serious bar travellers well beyond the city's own circuit.

Selva reads Oaxaca through the glass: agave, market produce, regional botanicals and a design language that keeps the city’s biodiversity in view. Its North America’s Best Bars run from 2022 to 2025, plus a Top 500 Bars rank of 72 for 2026, places it in Oaxaca’s serious cocktail tier rather than the casual mezcal-stop circuit.

Ranked #23 on North America's 50 Best Bars in both 2022 and 2024, Amor y Amargo is the East Village's dedicated bitters and amaro bar, with a back bar that functions more like a reference library than a drinks menu. Holding a Pearl Recommended Bar designation for 2025 and, it occupies a specific and largely unchallenged niche in New York's cocktail scene.

Rooted in Vancouver's Chinatown, The Keefer Bar translates traditional Chinese medicine into a cocktail format, bitter-forward, ingredient-precise, warm enough to feel like a neighbourhood institution. Ranked #28 in North America's 50 Best Bars (2025) and #225 globally, it pairs Asian-accented drinks with dim sum sourced from next-door suppliers, all in a dark, backlit room where live DJs set the tone.

Ranked #26 on North America's 50 Best Bars in 2022, Dear Irving occupies a particular corner of New York's cocktail scene where period-room theatrics meet a program that rewards return visits. Located at 310 W 40th St in Midtown, it, placing it among the most consistently rated cocktail bars in the city.

Overstory brings New York’s high-altitude bar format into serious cocktail territory, pairing a 64th-floor perch with a spirits-led program recognized by World’s 50 Best Bars, North America’s 50 Best Bars, Top 500 Bars, the Tales Spirited Awards. The draw is not only the skyline; it is the way agave, whiskey, clarified builds, local ingredients, a deep back-bar sensibility turn a view bar into a technical drinking room.

Herbs & Rye has held a position among North America's 50 Best Bars every year from 2022 through 2025, making it the most consistently recognised cocktail bar in Las Vegas. Located away from the Strip on West Sahara Avenue, it operates where serious drink programs and food pairings matter more than spectacle. The suggests that reputation holds in practice.

Ranked 29th in North America's Best Bars 2022, El Pequeño Bar occupies a compact address in Old Montreal's Saint-Vincent corridor and draws a crowd that keeps returning without much prompting. signals something more durable than hype. This is the kind of bar that regulars treat as a standing appointment rather than a destination to tick off.

<strong>Employees Only NYC</strong> remains a defining West <strong>Village cocktail</strong> room because it treats classic drinking as theatre without letting the room swallow the drinks. Its long run on the World's <strong>50 Best Bars</strong> list, including #95 globally and #18 in <strong>North America</strong> for 2025, places it in a rare category: a 2004-era <strong>New York</strong> bar that continues to compete with younger technical programs.

The Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog sits in New York City's Irish-bar lineage with a more serious cocktail pedigree than the category usually suggests. Its two-floor format, Irish produce and hospitality brief, long run on World's 50 Best Bars lists make it a useful reference point for how tavern energy and awards-level drinks can share the same room.

One of the most decorated bars in North America, Broken Shaker operates from a Miami Beach hostel courtyard and has held a top-25 position on the World's 50 Best Bars list across multiple consecutive years. The program leans into produce-driven cocktails with seasonal sourcing, placing it in a comparable set defined by technique and ingredient philosophy rather than nightlife spectacle. Rated Pearl Recommended by EP Club in 2025.

Friends and Family on Monterey Boulevard earned a spot at #33 on North America's Best Bars 2022, placing it inside San Francisco's most recognized cocktail tier. The bar, which points to consistent execution rather than novelty. For those mapping the city's serious drinking scene, it belongs on the same itinerary as ABV and Pacific Cocktail Haven.

Death & Co's Los Angeles outpost on East 3rd Street carries the technical credibility of the New York original into the Arts District's after-dark scene. Ranked #30 on North America's Best Bars in 2023 and Pearl Recommended in 2025, it sits in a narrow tier of LA bars where programme depth and cocktail precision matter as much as atmosphere. The room delivers both.

Mace has held a position inside the World's 50 Best Bars rankings since 2015, making it one of New York City's most consistently recognised spice-driven cocktail bars. Located at 35 West 8th Street in Greenwich Village, it operates in a tier of technically serious, ingredient-led programs that have shaped how the city thinks about flavour.

Death & Co's Denver outpost, ranked 36th on North America's Best Bars 2022, operates inside RiNo's Ramble Hotel with a program built on technical precision and a drinks list deep enough to reward repeat visits. Open daily from 7:30am through 2:00am, it covers more hours than most dedicated cocktail bars in the city. signals consistent execution across the full service window.

On Queen Street West, Mother has ranked among North America's top bars three consecutive years on the World's 50 Best list, reaching #37 in 2023. The program is built around fermentation, with bar lead Massimo Zitti, 2022 World Class Canada Bartender of the Year, drawing on ingredients like bee pollen and black garlic. The food earns its own attention, particularly the garlic-and-Parmesan fries and house-made sourdough with miso butter.

ABV on 16th Street has been one of San Francisco's most consistently recognized bars since the mid-2010s, appearing on the World's 50 Best Bars list in both 2016 and 2017 and earning a Pearl Recommended Bar distinction in 2025. The Mission District address places it inside a neighborhood that runs serious on food and drink, its sustained presence across multiple award cycles marks it as a reference point for the city's cocktail program.

Few bars carry the weight of Floridita on Calle Obispo in Havana. Ranked #31 in the World's 50 Best Bars in 2011 and #40 in North America's 50 Best Bars in 2022, it remains the reference address for the daiquiri in its city of origin — a gathering place for locals, tourists, anyone with a serious interest in where Cuban cocktail culture began.

Bar Leather Apron holds a James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar (2023) and a position on North America's 50 Best Bars list, making it the most decorated cocktail program in Hawaii. Located in downtown Honolulu on Fort Street, it operates in a city where serious bar culture has historically been overshadowed by resort hospitality, consistently punches above that context.

One of Brooklyn's most decorated cocktail bars, Clover Club at 210 Smith St has held a place in the World's 50 Best Bars rankings since 2009, reaching as high as #18 globally in 2012. It occupies a particular position in New York's bar scene: technically serious, historically grounded, deliberately unglamorous in the way only confident institutions can afford to be.

Ranked #44 on World's 50 Best North America's Best Bars in 2022, Bitter & Twisted operates from a historically charged address at 1 W Jefferson St in downtown Phoenix, running an extensive program of classic-styled, sustainability-conscious cocktails.

Bar Mordecai sits in Toronto's modern cocktail conversation as a high-energy room with a serious drinks program beneath the theatre. Its North America's 50 Best Bars placements from 2022 through 2025, plus a Top 500 Bars rank in 2026, put it beyond neighbourhood novelty and into the city's recognised bar tier.

Teardrop Lounge has held a place in Portland's serious cocktail conversation since well before the city's bar scene attracted national attention. Ranked 48th on North America's Best Bars in 2022 and carrying a Pearl District Recommended designation for 2025, it operates Tuesday through Saturday from 4pm in the Pearl District, where the program sits closer to the technical end of the city's cocktail spectrum.

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.