Best-of list · Rankings
The best bar directors in the world right now — the creative minds running the most ambitious bar programs globally. Detailed editorial notes —
The short answer
8 ranked rooms follow. How we picked is at the end of this guide.
Behind every exceptional bar program is a person or a small group of people who made the decisions that produced it: what the menu philosophy would be, where the spirits are sourced, how new staff are trained, what kind of guest experience the bar is designed to create. The best bar directors in the world are not always the most famous faces — some are better known within the trade than outside it. Here are the names serious drinkers should know before they book a visit.
A handful of bar directors have shaped cocktail culture globally — not just the bars they run, but the entire industry's thinking about menus, hospitality, and the purpose of a bar. Their work has trained a generation of bartenders and produced reference points that every serious new opening is measured against.