Explaining This Year's 50 Best Bars Ranking

Sleight has worked at 50 Best since 2023

After digesting the 2026 rankings of North America's 50 Best Bars, I still found it hard to believe that two new entries from New York, Bar Snack and Schmuck landed No. 3 and No. 4 respectively. What happened to climbing up the ranks?

I had to ask Emma Sleight, head of content for 50 Best Bars and Hotels at the after party, an afternoon session at The Botanist in the Fairmont Pacific Rim.

Sitting in the private room of the restaurant with three other PR representatives sitting in, Sleight at first said there are always new entries in every list they do.

The awards were held on Wednesday night

But is 15 considered high?

She didn't exactly give a clear answer. 

"It's about the same. It's quite a lot. I would say it's quite high, but it's not outrageously high. It's the nature of the game. The bars industry is so dynamic and it moves so quickly that new openings happen so frequently. And we always encourage people to think about the awards. It's a snapshot of that particular time where people are traveling, what people are identifying with and the way the voting works," Sleight says.

The voting. According to the 50 Best website, 300 voters are "trusted and well-traveled experts" who are bartenders, bar aficionados and drinks media.

"You can never predict the list. It is really just where those people are finding their very best cocktail experiences. Makes it exciting," she says.

But that still doesn't explain Bar Snack and Schmuck's literal meteoric rise out of nowhere.

Circled in red are Vancouver bars

"There's no one thing that we can ever say that would explain why a bar has moved because everyone loves to think that they know who our voters are, and they don't. Voters are completely anonymous," Sleight adds.

Really? The academy chairs are listed on the 50 Best website. If an academy chair walks into a bar with a group of people, surely some of them are voters... and if someone makes a reservation, they will be researched to see who they are. In today's intensive social media landscape and the internet, there are ways to figure out who people are.

However Sleight begs to differ.

"Often if people are saying they're voters, they're not. And I appreciate that sounds like a trite response, but the thing we do is always encourage any bars where anyone has ever said they are a voter. We ask them to tell us, and we check and we do independent investigations, and we frequently contact that voter and we say, 'Hey, you're no longer a voter, and you never will be ever again, because you've reached your anonymity.'" 

She later added that 25 percent of the voting academy are "refreshed", and apparently "historic voters" are changed as well. "It's never a guarantee that you're a voter, which also helps disrupt that people knowing people are voters, we're trying to do everything we can."

At this point I should have asked if bars have ever called out so-called voters, and how about imposing term limits on academy chairs? They seem to keep these positions for years and years.

Sleight is a cocktail aficionado

Nevertheless, there seems to be a pattern of how bars get on the list, or better yet, leapfrog up the rankings, even though Sleight says there's no recipe, and that bars should just focus on giving customers the best experience.

By appearances it looks like a popularity contest, to which she said "possibly". 

Social media is a big way to get exposure, as well as collaborations with other bars in different cities and countries. The Keefer Bar owners Keenan Hood and Amber Bruce hinted this when they said they traveled a lot this year and would do so again this year, and give their staff more opportunities to travel as well. Perhaps that partially explains their massive jump from No. 28 to No. 7 to be Canada's Best Bar?

For the record Sleight went to The Keefer Bar last year and this year.

In 2025 she also went to Laowai, June on Cambie (it had just opened), Botanist Bar and Prophecy.

This year Sleight visited Lala (basement of June on Cambie), Meo, Bao Bei.

She doesn't have a vote, but there are people following her on Instagram, seeing where she's traveling, and what she's eating and drinking...

Celebrating Bars with Alcohol-Free Drinks

Mixing alcohol-free drinks using Noa

At the North America's 50 Best Bar awards I didn't sip cocktails, but mocktails.

I tried drinks mixed with Noa, a Canadian alcohol-free gin using botanicals. The sophisticated flavours reminded me of Seedlip, the first non-alcoholic gin I tried when it was launched in Hong Kong in 2018. 

The founder, Ben Branson explained how he took fresh herbs and vegetables and distilled them in an old fashioned distillery using old recipes he found in a leather-bound book and made them into alcohol-free gin.

It's the perfect solution for me when I find myself in a bar and want something other than sparkling water.

Seedlip is meant to be mixed with soda water and other ingredients to create a mocktail, and in some cases with Noa, depending on the "spirit".

According to its website, Noa started in 2014 in Quebec with founder Patrice Plante making non-alcoholic drinks, but it was really around 2019 that he came up with alcohol-free gin, and a line of other "spirits".

We sampled the Italian Aperitif, and Sweet Vermouth. The Italian Aperitif was mixed with some juice and lots of ice cubes, making it refreshing and extremely easy to drink thanks to the aperitif's mandarin juice, rhubarb and caramelised barley sugar flavour.

On the other hand the Sweet Vermouth was served on the rocks (a lot of rocks), with an orange peel rubbed on the rim of the glass before being placed inside the drink. There are notes of caramel, grapes, black currant, and cinnamon with a touch of bitterness.

While Seedlip leaves it up to the mixologist on how they want to use the product, Noa has a line of different "spirits", such as amaretto, dry gin, Italian bitter and Jamaican spiced rum.

Cheers!

North America's 50 Best Bars 2026

The best North American bars under one roof in Vancouver

New York's Sip & Guzzle was crowned The Best Bar in North America and The Best Bar in Northeast USA in tonight's North America's 50 Best Bars awards ceremony held in Vancouver.

The bar is actually split into different sections, one for sips and one for guzzles; sips are refined, creative cocktails, while guzzles are favourite comfort drinks. 

NYC's Sip & Guzzle took top spot

The No. 2 bar was Mexico City's Bar Mauro, and making its first entry on the list at a stunning No. 3 was New York's Bar Snack, and following close behind was Schmuck at No. 4, another new bar on the list.

How is this possible, two New York bars that were not on the list last year suddenly in the top four?

Meanwhile The Keefer Bar located in Vancouver's Chinatown jumped 21 spots to No. 7, quite remarkable considering owners Keenan Hood and Amber Bruce said later that they were just continuing to do what they have been doing for the past 16 years.

The bar is best known for using ingredients from Chinese herbalist stores in Chinatown and working them into a narrative of an apothecary featuring drinks with intriguing flavours and stories.

Other Vancouver bars on the list were The Keefer Bar's sister June on Cambie at No. 17 -- another new entry, Prophecy in the Hotel Georgia at No. 32, and Botanist Bar at No. 38.

Toronto's Library Bar was another new entry at No. 19, serving drinks inspired by author Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of The Lion, which describes how "Hog Town" became modern.

On the list there were 28 bars from the United States, 11 from Mexico, eight from Canada, and three from the Caribbean. There were a whopping 15 new entries on the list. 

The Keefer Bar impressed at No. 7

Right after the event, owners of The Keefer Bar and Sip & Guzzle were invited to speak to the media; the hosts asked what their strategy was going forward now that they were No. 7 and No. 1 respectively. 

Bruce of The Keefer Bar explained that the news was still sinking in, while Schneider of Sip & Guzzle said they would just continue to give the best drinks to their customers. What more can they say?  

It was awkward having the hosts asking all the questions instead of just leaving it to the media to ask... 

Nevertheless, it was a pretty decent awards ceremony with a lot of energy in the room. The event gives the bars an opportunity to gather, celebrate each other and the industry, which for them is their calling, or passion that they enjoy doing, whether it be concocting new drinks, or executing them with finesse, or sating guests' appetites for drinks to imbibe.

North America's 50 Best Bars Unveiled in Vancouver

Best Canadian showing was Bar Pompette No. 7

Mexico City's Handshake Speakeasy took top spot in the North America 50 Best Bars this evening, and 13 other bars in the South American country did well in the rankings.

The awards, held at JW Marriott Parq Vancouver, was held for the first time in Canada, much to the excitement of the crowd.

It is the strategy of Destination Vancouver to bring events like 50 Best Bars and Michelin to the city to present it as a culinary and cocktail destination.

New Orleans hospitality at Jewel

Botanist Bar at the Fairmont Pacific Rim got the highest ranking of Vancouver bars at No. 26, while The Keefer Bar in Chinatown wasn't far behind at 28. 

Bar Pompette from Toronto had the highest Canadian showing at No. 7, and Civil Liberties at No. 21, also from Hogtown.

The ballroom was packed with people, the members of the Best 50 wearing the signature red scarves. There was a lot of energy and love in the room, as the winners were called out there were lots of shouts and chanting of names.

Earlier in the day I attended the "Meet the Bartenders" event. Five bars were chosen to speak to media, bloggers, and probably judges(?) in a kind of speed-dating approach with the bar representatives spending 12 minutes at each station.

Jewel of the South from New Orleans landed No. 4 on the list this evening! Chris Hannah is the bartender and co-owner. The bar is located in an 1830s house in the French Quarter which gives it its southern charm. The concept here is to find drink recipes from the 1800s and adapt them to the modern era.

Hannah explained back then the cocktails were much smaller, and the first cocktails were actually served from punchbowls that later evolved into individual drinks.

Keefer Bar inspired by Chinatown

In Vancouver's Chinatown is The Keefer Bar, which opened 15 years ago and keeps some 35 cocktails on its menu that changes every three months. They get inspiration from Chinatown and check out the herbalist stores for funky ingredients like sea dragon and cordyceps. 

"We think of it as alcohol as medicine," said Amber Bruce, the beverage director at The Keefer Bar. "Elixirs made you feel better."

They have created interesting combinations like hojicha goes well with whisky and maple syrup with uji mushrooms gives it an earthy taste. 

They also support other Chinatown businesses like Kam Wai Dim Sum that makes dumplings and baos for them since they started 15 years ago.

Claudia Cabrera is the co-founder of Kaito del Valle in Mexico City that was ranked No. 40 tonight. The basic concept of the bar is Japanese meets Mexico, using a lot of sake in their drinks. Kaito is also staffed by all women.

The bar is located above a Japanese restaurant, and the landlord originally asked Cabrera to open an izakaya and she was not comfortable doing that -- she just wanted to open a bar and thankfully that's what she did.

"I wanted to open a bar and take the best of Japan," Cabrera explained. "I want people to have fun, have easy to drink cocktails." Bar patrons can also eat ramen there. 

Interesting ingredients they use at Kaito include wasabi syrup, sesame fat wash, sushi rice balls, soy sauce and MSG.

Flavours of Asia at PCH

Pacific Cocktail Haven in San Francisco was No. 16 on the list. Owned by Kevin Diedrich, the bar is located near Union Square and he says it's a love letter to Asia Pacific Islanders, as he himself is Filipino-American and his wife is Hawaiian-Japanese.

However, his bartending career has been in New York (including PDT), Washington DC and San Francisco, where he has made classic cocktails. But these days it's about Asian flavours like one drink called Kungfu Pandan, using rice whisky with pandan syrup, that reminds people of steamed rice with pandan.

"They say, 'This tastes like my childhood,'" he says, adding for him, hospitality is you remembering how you felt at that place, not necessarily the drink.

Diedrich says he has one patron who comes to PCH everyday -- six days a week -- and doesn't necessarily drink the same drink.

To make him feel extra special, PCH has a dedicated embossed leather coaster  with his initials monogrammed on it.

The staff also keep detailed lists of regular guests and their preferences in a binder, harking back to Diedrich's days working in The Ritz-Carlton.

In the Grand Cayman, Library by the Sea was listed No. 30 on the Best 50 Bars tonight. Max Wolff, the head bartender was excited to tell us about the bar, where they take books and create drinks around them. They are also illustrated in their bar menus.

While that's creative, even more interesting is that the bar finds vintage spirits dating back decades for people to try.

Imagine drinking pre-revolutionary Bacardi rum made in 1932 while reading Ernest Hemingway's story that became the novel The Man and the Sea? And looking out into the ocean, the same view he had?

They explained this rum became so popular they finished the first bottle in six days. It also cost US$500 per bottle, but now it's no less than $2,500!

They have a person helping them source these vintage bottles, but they have also since made connections with private collectors, willing to sell their stash for a good price...