The Best Bars Run by Legendary Bartenders

Sam Ross and Michael McIlroy run this no-menu bar on the original Milk and Honey footprint with a focus on made-to-order drinks based on a short conversation with the bartender. Ross invented the Paper Plane. McIlroy created the Naked and Famous. They are not in every night but they are in most nights, and on the occasions when you catch one of them behind the bar, you understand exactly why this place has a two-week wait for reservations.

Order: Tell them what you drank last and what you wish you had ordered instead

Audrey Saunders opened Pegu Club in 2005 and ran it as a training ground for some of the most important bartenders of the next decade. Saunders herself was the standard-bearer for a type of bartending that was simultaneously rooted in history and willing to innovate on the fly. She is no longer behind the bar nightly, but the culture she built still shapes every hire and every drink that leaves the station.

Order: The Gin-Gin Mule, the drink that sold America on fresh ginger in cocktails

Jack McGarry built a bar program at the Dead Rabbit that won World's Best Bar and produced more internationally recognised alumni than any single operation of its generation. McGarry's touch is most visible in the Parlour's cocktail list, a living document that gets revised four times a year with the same rigour that a serious kitchen applies to its tasting menu. The Taproom downstairs serves properly kept Guinness and good whiskey at fair prices, which is harder than it sounds.

Order: Ask the bartender for the current Parlour feature. It changes monthly.

Tony Conigliaro's 22-seat bar in Islington is the most serious drinking room in London. Conigliaro's Drink Factory laboratory produces drinks from research projects that run for months before a single drink reaches the menu. He is present most Thursday and Friday evenings, which are the best nights to visit. The perfume-influenced menu changes twice a year and the current iteration is the most technically accomplished thing on the London bar scene.

Order: Ask for a recommendation from the seasonal menu. The staff know it deeply.

Hidetsugu Ueno operates Bar High Five on the 4th floor of a Ginza office building with 14 seats and a bar counter that functions as a stage for a type of bartending that has no equivalent outside Japan. The hard shake, knife-cut ice, and absolute precision of spirit measurement are not performative: they are the result of a craft tradition that measures quality in increments invisible to most Western drinkers. Reservations are essential and the waiting list runs several weeks out.

Order: A Dry Martini. The version here is the benchmark against which all others are measured.

Igor Hadzismajlovic and Dushan Zaric opened Employees Only in 2004 and built a bar that could sustain itself operationally through high volume without sacrificing the drink quality that earned its reputation. Most speakeasy-era bars could not do both. EO still has some of the original team behind the bar and the psychic reading at the door is still the best bar entry ritual in New York. The kitchen runs until 3:30am, which matters more than you think until you need it.

Order: The Mata Hari, brandy and Bols Genever with chamomile and carrot juice

Leo Robitschek built the NoMad Bar program and it remains one of the best arguments for what a hotel bar can be when the bartender is given serious authority over the experience. The original New York location operates with a drinks list that runs to 30 pages without ever feeling like it is compensating for a lack of focus. Robitschek's thinking about structure and progression in cocktail menus has influenced a generation of program directors across North America.

Order: One of the Cobblers, the most underrated format on the menu

Martin Cate opened Whitechapel in 2016 as the West Coast's most serious gin bar, and the 9 years since have proven the concept correct. The gin selection runs to over 400 labels with a focus on provenance and production method rather than brand recognition. The bar staff know every bottle and the cocktail list is calibrated to show specific gin styles to best advantage. Cate is also the founding genius behind Smuggler's Cove, the benchmark rum bar two miles away.

Order: Ask for a classic gin serve matched to your preferred style. The staff handle this request well.

Naren Young and his partners took a 100-year-old Italian cafe and turned it into the World's Best Bar in 2019 without destroying any of the details that made the original interesting. The aperitivo program, with 11 versions of the Negroni alone, is the most rigorous exploration of the format anywhere in North America. Young himself is present Thursday through Saturday and the difference between those nights and the rest of the week is measurable.

Order: The Garibaldi, fresh blood orange juice and Campari, made to order with a proper foam

The Black Pearl in Collingwood is arguably the most important bar outside the United States and United Kingdom in the history of the craft cocktail movement. Joe Jones and his team built a bar culture in Melbourne that trained half the city's industry professionals and influenced how Australian bartenders think about their work. The bar still operates without reservation, still runs classics with a depth of knowledge that most capital-city venues cannot match, and still charges prices that make you wonder how they do it.

Order: A classic of your choice. The execution is the point.