How the Best Bars Create Their Seasonal Menus

How bars create seasonal menus: the creative process from first idea to final serve across the world's best cocktail bars — New York, London and beyond.

James Harlow

Updated 2025-12-21 9 ranked bars

The short answer

Our editors' №1 is Lyaness — London.

9 ranked rooms follow. How we picked is at the end of this guide.

Best overallLyaness — London

Runner-upLittle Red Door — Paris

Third pickDeath & Co — New York

The process of how bars create seasonal menus is rarely as romantic as it looks from the guest side. The finished menu — twelve cocktails, elegant descriptions, a coherent concept — is typically the product of months of research, dozens of rejected ideas, and at least one catastrophic testing session that set the timeline back three weeks. We spoke with bar directors across New York, London, and Paris about how their seasonal menu development actually works.

The Seasonal Menu Creation Process

Every bar has its own version of the process. Some start with an ingredient, some with a narrative theme, some with a season's produce. What they share is a structured testing protocol that filters dozens of ideas down to the handful of cocktails that survive to print. These are the bars whose development processes are most worth understanding.

Editor's №1

Lyaness — London

Little Red Door — Paris

Death & Co — New York

Existing Conditions — New York

Dante — New York

Nightjar — London

Himkok — Oslo

Salmon Guru — Madrid

Full listing & hours →

Connaught Bar — London

How we picked

The best seasonal menus share a quality that is difficult to articulate but immediately recognisable: they feel considered. Not designed, not constructed — considered. Every drink occupies a clear position within the menu's logic, and there is nothing on the list that exists only because somebody in the kitchen thought it was clever. The bars that consistently produce menus like this treat the process as seriously as the product.

When you next sit at one of the bars on this list and order from a menu that seems effortless, remember that the effortlessness is the result of months of early mornings, failed experiments, and arguments about flavour. That is what a truly seasonal menu actually costs.

James has covered cocktail culture in New York and London since 2012 and has spent more than his fair share of time sitting through menu development sessions. He always orders the most recently developed cocktail on any menu.

Last reviewed 2025-12-21 · The editors recheck hours and closures against current local coverage.