Throughout London alone there are reckoned to be around 7,000 pubs and bars. In the UK at large there are more than 54,000. Worldwide, the figure is pretty much incalculable.
So the good news is that when it comes to quantity, the world supply of bars is in good order. But then there is another measurement, and that one is slightly harder to pin down. Where do you find the best bars in the world, and how do you know when you’ve found one?
Pune apparently has the highest concentration of them in Asia; Krakow in Poland claims the European crown; Cincinnati and Pittsburgh top the lists in the US; and in Australia, New South Wales is home to almost a third of all the bars in the country. Those might be good places to go hunting. But where do you find the best?
Around the world in 80 bars
There are some bars that are so slick, shiny and swanky that they regularly make the list of the world’s best bars. In fact, that collection is all about shine and swank. It’s a subjective matter but the establishments on the list tend not to be the sort of place you’d go for a game of darts and a bag of pork scratchings. The Artisan bar in London may look spectacular, but if ‘best’ means ‘relaxing,’ that ain’t it.
The Lonely Planet reckons that Jamaica’s Pelican Bar – an open palm-thatched bar on a sand bar set in the clear blue water of the Caribbean – is the pick of the crop. But a bar that you can’t walk home from has a built-in limitation that we can’t overlook. Like The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, there has to be more to a good bar than the view.
We reckon there are some elements that all bars simply must have if they’re to make the grade. Good beer, a great atmosphere, food, live music and the license to play a few games are all on our tick list. It doesn’t matter what the food is, or what the games are – and there are some weird and whacky bar games out there – as long as the place is conducive to letting your hair down, it’s well on the way to hitting the mark. Different cultures shake this cocktail in a different way but a bar should be a place for all around entertainment and refreshment – mind, body and spirits, you could say. And being able to get home without any hassle is also part of the deal.
As good as it gets
Irish bars are never the same as they are on the Emerald Isle itself, but they’ll always be good for the craic. McSorley’s Old Ale House in New York City is about as good as it gets. Scruffy Murphy’s in Sydney also hits the low-stress vibe bang on. They may not all hit the heights that these two achieve, but there’s an Irish bar in just about every city on the planet – and there is a reason for that! Of course, Dublin is full of them (666 at the last count), but be warned, there are plenty of travelers who have gone looking for the craic in Dublin and never been seen travelling again.
The home of the pub
We started talking about pubs in England, and there’s a reason for that. Whatever else you may say, there is nowhere in the world where the simple pleasures of a pint, a good bite to eat and the easy leisure of a game of one sort or another are put together quite as well as in a traditional English country pub. It’s no surprise that familiar, global games such as darts and dominoes originated in the UK.
A personal taste
Everyone will have their own idea of what makes the perfect bar. The world is full of venues, and one size most certainly does not fit all tastes. Charting each and every one of them would be a lifetime’s work – enjoyable as that might be. I have my own personal favorite, and I bet you have yours too. Mine has a dart board, a bar-billiards table and a generous selection of beers. There is often a dog by the fire. But one of the things I like most about it is that it’s so peaceful; not many people know about it. So I’m not going to tell you where to find it, as I like it just the way it is. As you might have guessed though, it is somewhere in England.
There is a whole world of great bars out there. If you find one you like tell as many people as you can. If you find one you really love, my advice would be to keep it to yourself.