Editorial
At 20 people and above, the rules of bar selection change entirely. You are no longer looking for the best bar. You are looking for the right venue, which means private hire capacity, a dedicated event manager, a drinks package that works for 20 different preferences, and a space where the group stays together rather than fragmenting across three floors and a smoking area. These are the bars that solve that problem in New York and London. Before you approach any of these venues, read our step-by-step guide on how to book a bar for a group of 20 — it covers deposit terms, minimum spend benchmarks, and how to negotiate so you know what fair terms look like before you receive a proposal.
New York's event bar infrastructure has expanded alongside its hospitality industry. These 5 venues all have experience managing groups of 20 to 60, with dedicated event contacts, structured packages, and the physical capacity to make a group this size feel like a celebration rather than a logistical problem.
London's event bar sector handles large groups well across most neighbourhoods. The 5 venues below all have established private hire operations, event managers with experience running groups of 20 and above, and drinks packages that remove the complexity from managing a large round.
One email per week. The bars our editors are recommending right now, across 72 cities worldwide.
Groups of 20 or more almost always benefit from a minimum spend arrangement rather than individual ordering. A minimum spend of 15 to 20 per head is standard in London; 25 to 35 per head in New York. This gives the venue security and removes the service bottleneck of 20 people ordering individually at a bar counter.
Book at least 3 weeks ahead for any weekend evening. For the group of 10 guide, the booking lead time is shorter, but at 20 and above, the best venues fill their private hire slots well in advance. The flexibility of a Tuesday or Wednesday evening at the same venue is usually worth taking.
James has covered American and European bar culture for over a decade. He has a strongly held view that most large group bar nights fail due to poor venue selection rather than bad company.