Asia’s 50 Best Bars announced its 2020 list yesterday with two Philippine bars making it on the list: The Curator and The Back Room.
Although down from 37th to 42nd, “third-wave coffee by day and kick-ass cocktails by night” The Curator remains as the best bar in the Philippines for the fourth straight year. They recently launched their own YouTube series “Best Serve” where team talks about their origin stories, classic cocktails, and recipes featuring local ingredients. The Curator’s first Facebook Live Sessions with leaders (and friends) from the beverage industry, such as Hong Kong’s The Old Man (#2) and Coa (#3), will start on May 17 to discuss the pandemic’s impact on their businesses.
Meanwhile, speakeasy bar The Back Room climbed to number 45 after last year’s maiden appearance at 50—after only opening less than a year. Aside from their house-made gin brand Bee’s Knees, The Back Room prides itself on their own gin laboratory where they hold gin and cocktail classes for guests as well as concoct their own “moonshine,” (a term for spirits produced illegally during the early 19th century), which stays true to their Prohibition era concept.
Last year’s 47th best bar Oto completely fell off from the list. Emerging as Asia’s best bar is Singapore’s Jigger & Pony, which entered the list for the first time in 2018 and became the highest climber in 2019 after moving up 33 places to number nine. Jigger & Pony managed to overtake last year’s best bar, Hong Kong’s The Old Man, which had to settle for second best. Coming in at third is another entry from Hong Kong, Coa.
The initial announcement of Asia’s 50 Best Bars was supposed to be held at the Capitol Theatre in Singapore but was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization behind Asia’s and World’s 50 Best Bars also launched the program, “50 Best for Recovery: Standing with the global bar community in partnership with Perrier” as a way to provide financial relief to the bar industry during the global health crisis.