Top Shelf Malt Liquidity, 2022 Edition, Part 2

The best bars in the world

Part 1 is here if you haven't already read it

To repeat the criteria I’m using for this list:

I will be adding between 0 and 3 stars, which indicate how encouraged you should be to close down the place. Bars were weighted on whether I could actually remember drinking at them, whether or not they were already on existing lists (if avoidable), drink quality, uniqueness of aesthetic, and ability to enjoy solo. I mention food if it’s noteworthy, but it’s generally an afterthought in these places and doesn’t play an official role in the rankings.

Without further ado, here we go!

16. L’Anima del Vi — Barcelona, ES

My time in Barcelona converted me to the natural wine cult, and peppered throughout this list are my favorite ones. While sounding hipster, the result of the natural wine trend pretty much just results in a lot of quality wine being outputted at affordable prices. The shop owner is quite knowledgeable and friendly to chat with, and will help you find what you’re looking for. I recommend sticking with the reds here. Furthermore, the compact, charming, old-world environment with numerous bottles of wine decorating the walls is very aesthetically pleasing.

15. New York Bar — Tokyo, JP 🌟

Yeah yeah Lost in Translation yeah yeah get over it and get a fantastic drink with one of the best views of the Tokyo skyline you’ll find. Light, sultry jazz reflecting the love affair Japan has with the genre permeates through the bar as you coolly wonder if it gets any better than this. Just barely, it does.

14. George’s on the Cove — San Diego, CA

George’s on the Cove features two bars that overlook the beautiful waters of the Pacific Ocean in La Jolla — one is an open-air deck overlooking the water, and below that is a cocktail bar that I frequent whenever I want to show someone what drinking with a view should be like. The bartenders are the preachers to parishioners of alcohol consumption — they wouldn’t be doing the job if they didn’t love concocting cocktails so much. As such, this is another one of my favorite locations to play “dealer’s choice” by handing a laundry list of flavors over to the bartender for them to work with. A particular favorite is to ask for something “mezcal and chocolatey”.

13. Cafe Dante — New York, NY

Before the explosion of patio dining and drinking post-pandemic, Cafe Dante was the best place to sit outside and observe the passerby while drinking a Negroni. While other establishments have built patios themselves, Dante still remains the king of the sidewalk. Of course, they have other cocktails on the menu, but why deviate from what they’re known for? Dante is peak New York drinking kino — a good outfit, a picturesque drink, and the satisfaction of knowing this is what you look for when you think “New York.”

12. Lala’s Little Nugget — Austin, TX 🌟🌟

In the age of “happy holidays” instead of “merry Christmas” and controversies over red Starbucks cups, Lala’s is unapologetically a year-round Christmas-themed bash. A slice of the “old” Austin, Lala’s is situated in a small “shack” packed to the brim with decor (and a stone’s throw away from another favorite dive, Barfly’s.) While I’m not really an observer of Christmas, even I get caught up in the theme and the countdown clock to Christmas, and they also have one of the best remaining happy hour deals in existence. (Seriously, $3 for a beer? In 2022??) There’s nothing like a little holiday cheer, no matter the time of the year.

11. DLF Golf and Country Club — Gurgaon, IN

As any golfer knows, “swing like nobody’s watching” is a lot harder than it sounds, because at any golf course with a perfectly situated clubhouse, everyone is watching. And what a view this bar has! Though you need to go through a member, the golf course here is one of the most beautifully constructed courses I’ve ever seen. The property itself is like an Oakmont nestled in to the buzzsaw that is any large-scale Indian city. If you ever have the fortune of meeting someone with access, by all means, take the opportunity to travel to this part of India for this bar.

10. Hong Kong Centurion Lounge — Hong Kong

Bet you didn’t expect to see an airport bar on here, did you? The Centurion has generally become more and more cluttered over time as Platinum cards were handed out like Halloween candy, but the Hong Kong edition maintains its incredible cocktail list and is large enough to handle a high volume. Plus, it opens at 5:30 in the morning. Sit at the bar and work your way through the entire list over a multiple hour layover in transit. This bar is ingrained into my mind — while waiting for a flight to Thailand, I happened to catch the Diggs! Sideline! Touchdown! Unbelievable! moment while there. While I freaked out, the bartender turned to the TV, gave me a bemused glance, and got back to work.

9. ABV — San Francisco, CA 🌟🌟

Good bars require good clientele, and ABV is one of the few places on the West Coast that retains the intellectual heft of a Tolstoy combined with the concoctions able to sedate a Hemingway. Apart from the burger, the cocktail menu, somewhat organized by the effect it will have on your blood stream, shines in serving potent provisions in an unfussed, upscale setting where you might forget about the potential of your catalytic converter being stolen out of your car. Come for the cocktails, stay for the discussion of how Sundar Pichai saved Google.

8. R&J Supper Club — Oklahoma City, OK 🌟🌟🌟

You can tell a lot about a person based on their opinion of Russell Westbrook. The king of Bricktown, he also embodied bricktown. If you want a place to ignore the catastrophe of the lack of re-signing James Harden, I recommend you hang out at R&J’s. Reasonably priced drinks proliferate throughout the menu, and you will meet “real” America, a convoluted place where there are no hard partisan lines, but rather eccentric acquaintances who are solely united in their hatred of Dallas. Personally, I ended up closing down the bar after happening upon a corner seat and overhearing a conversation about the merits of Bukowski.

7. Bar Brutal/Can Cisa — Barcelona, ES 🌟

Six words — orange wine, fresh oysters, oiled anchovies. As part of the natural wine “trifecta” of Barcelona, Bar Brutal delivers delectable natural wines in a candid, forthcoming environment. The hi-beat wine connoisseurs deliver glasses and bottles at an up-tempo pace that the Spanish economy could never match. Luckily, the Spanish economy also does not require you to leave your table within 90 minutes, so you can spend your entire afternoon hanging out here. Perhaps the most efficient wine bar on the planet, you will never feel rushed as you explore the various bottles offered to you. Bar Brutal oozes cool, buoyed by the music and the fantastic bartenders facilitating your visit.

6. Atlas — Singapore, SG

In a place sin-taxed and regulated to all hell, Atlas sticks out as an environment fit for a Napoleon before he was exiled. A cavernous, artistic decor reminds us of our liberal arts gen-ed courses as you imbibe cocktails. One imagines themselves as a young Lee Kuan Yew philosophizing over the mechanics of an enlightened authoritarian state, and maybe it happens to work out over the course of a potion or two.

5 (tie) Sake Bar Decibel — New York, NY 🌟

Off a random stairwell on St. Marks, the habitual spot for extensive sake, wasabi shumai, sashimi, and funky beats exists, though much more crowded nowadays than the “before-times.” Effervescently cool, Sake Bar Decibel projects an undertaking that whisks you away from Manhattan into the cool, smooth Tokyo vice. Ain’t a Manhattan basement cooler than an Iowa basement?

5 (tie) Milk Bar — Osaka, JP 🌟🌟

Oh girl… I’d be in trouble if you left me now. Japan has an incredible culture of music bars — bars where the owner has collected tracks for decades to hang out, turning a marginal profit with a kick-ass sound system. Milk Bar embodies the Japanese obsession with jazz, and over a glass of whiskey much nicer than Murakami’s Cutty Sark, you can inquest upon the bartender to play the vinyl of your choice as you sit and relax (I recommend some Masayoshi Takanaka). Unlike record bars in the States, your seating time isn’t limited, and you are left alone to consume how you wish.

4. Clocktower — New York, NY

While the restaurant is forgettable, the Clocktower bar is an old haunt with a fantastic pool table and cocktail list, and I will always credit this place with introducing me to Monkey 47 before it proliferated. Situated comfortably in Madison Square Park, cogent concoctions abound, and you can always amuse yourself by running in to a Credit Suisse banker and asking what exactly happened when XIV knocked out. Oh wait, isn’t it called First Boston nowadays?

3. Bar del Pla — Barcelona, ES

Rounding out the trio of natural wine bars worth a damn around the world is Bar del Pla, perhaps the highest signal recommendation of any bar I’ve been to around the world. Fantastic food, fantastic wine, and a fantastic playlist lies steps from the Picasso museum. Emboldened by their provocative t-shirts, the staff will whisk you away into a tavern filled with quality wine with just a tinge of hedonism as you subsist in an environment that oozes cool.

2. L’Escamoteur — Kyoto, JP 🌟🌟🌟

I don’t think I’ve ever been as smitten with a bar as I was with L’Escamoteur, which happened to have the only music pumping as I wandered the Kyoto streets looking for a drink. I broke my rule about returning to bars within a month and went back the very next day. A French respite amidst the Japanese landscape, you’ll be surrounded by attractive, forthcoming people as you ensconce yourself in a second-floor walk-up, pounding absinthe cocktails to driving beats. The bartender deserves the title of auteur for his flaire authentique, whisking up clandestine magic on demand. If you have to pick one bar in Japan to go to, make it this one.

1. Ozone — Kowloon, HK 🌟🌟

Hushed tones arise in conversations between NYU undergrads about “rooftop bars”, evoking the kind of exclusivity Soho House could only wish to have. The most coveted view on the planet, however, belongs to Ozone, arising from one of the nicest buildings in the world. Much like Jersey has the best view of the Manhattan skyline, Kowloon retains the best viewpoint for the Hong Kong purview. The view, fit for a master of the universe, is accompanied by a cocktail list deserving of a true connoisseur. As you gaze off the terrace (and idly wonder what it would be like to jump off) and contemplate over your swill, you may realize that while the true MBPs (most-baller-players) have the same view while escalating in a private jet, you’re pretty fucking close. And isn’t that all you want at the end of the day? The masters of the universe don’t wear a watch, because they dictate time. And when you’re on the balcony of Ozone, you can freeze time yourself and take in the surroundings, making this the best bar on the planet.

I hope everyone enjoyed this list! At the end of the day, drinking is about how you satisfy yourself, more than any sort of aesthetic, conscience, and self-control. The shared experience is the key. Perhaps these communes can provide a satisfactory imbibing situation.