Top 500 Bars names Sydney’s Maybe Sammy as the most influential bar in its list for 2023; seven Singapore bars get into the top 100.
Top 500 Bars released its latest top 100 rankings for 2023 earlier this week, naming bars from across the world rated for their online influence. Roaring Fifties-inspired cocktail Sydney cocktail bar Maybe Sammy emerged with the title of the most influential bar according to its data, dethroning last year’s winner Barcelona speakeasy Paradiso which slipped to No.3.
The best performing Singapore bar on Top 500 Bars 2023 was Jigger & Pony; the pioneering classic cocktail bar leading a pack of seven Singapore bars in the top 100 at the No.5 position (it was No.3 last year).
The Singapore bars that entered the top 100 of the Top 500 Bars 2022 list are:
- Jigger & Pony (No.5)
- ATLAS (No.18)
- Manhattan (No.29)
- 28 HongKong Street (No.57)
- Analogue Initiative (No.65)
- Nutmeg & Clove (No.66)
- Tippling Club (No.75)
Top 500 Bars earlier also released the bars that were ranked 101st to 500th. The rest of the Singapore bars that made it to Top 500 are:
- Smoke & Mirrors (No.103)
- Sago House (No.123)
- Republic Bar (No.125)
- Native (No.133)
- Live Twice (No.135)
- Stay Gold Flamingo (No.156)
- Origin Bar (No.158)
- Night Hawk (No.162)
- Employees Only Singapore (No.163)
- Junior The Pocket Bar (No.200)
- Last Word (No.221)
- MO Bar (No.222)
- Papa Doble *closed* (No.240)
- The Bar at 15 Stamford (No.258)
- CE LA VI (No.313)
- Gibson (No.319)
- Caffe Fernet (No.412)
- Barbary Coast (No.429)
In total, bars from 122 different cities across 53 countries featured in Top 500 Bars.
Note that, unlike other award competitions that cover the bar industry like 50 Best, Top 500 Bars by Le Cocktail Connoisseur is a pure numbers game. “To create this ranking, we have aggregated thousands of data about cocktail bars on the web, from hundreds of sources, in over 20 languages,” says Anthony Poncier, one of the founders of Top 500 Bars. “We not only gather the opinion of experts, journalists and influencers, but also rankings, platforms and search engines that aggregate reviews from everyone to complete the set,” he explains.
That’s right. The rankings are based on, if we dare say it, online buzz.
Anecdotally, the rankings this year seem pretty accurate. Maybe Sammy has been expanding its group of bars in the past year and it also ranked highly on World’s 50 Best Bars this year. New York’s Double Chicken Please, No.2 on this list, was No.1 on North America’s 50 Best Bars 2023 and No.2 on World’s 50 Best Bars 2023. No.3 Paradiso was, of course, World’s 50 Best Bars 2022 winner, while No.5 Jigger & Pony consistently gets into the upper echelons of World’s 50 Best Bars and Asia’s 50 Best Bars. The resulting online press from these wins is certain to help skyrocket them up this list.
So there you have it. Top 500 Bars is less of a guide to the best cocktail bars around the world than an online popularity contest. Follow these rankings with a pinch of salt. If you’re a marketer or bar owner and you’re either not on the list or not as high as you’d like to be, you might want to take this as a sign that few people are talking about you online. Ranked high here? Time to give your marketing person a raise!
See you on the list next year?
You can find the full Top 500 Bars 2023 rankings at www.top500bars.com.
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