THE WORLD’S BEST BARS? HERE’S MY TIPS

‘Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine,’ says Humphrey Bogart’s Rick, referring to Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa, in one of the most famous films of all time – Casablanca. Well, I don’t know how Rick’s bar in that Moroccan city would have fared compared to others in its day, but the recent World’s Best Bars list for 2018 got me thinking about a few of the more memorable ones that I have frequented over the years. There’s only one that I am familiar with in the first ten on the 2018 list (the American Bar in the Savoy Hotel in London, at number two) but, funnily enough, it’s largely hotel bars that have also left their mark on me. So which three or four would I recommend? Well, the bar in the Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor would definitely be one. All dark fabrics and old-world glamour, it’s a lovely place to while away some time or simply have an aperitif before dinner. In contrast, I also loved the lobby bar in the Gran Hotel Domine in Bilbao, all open-plan and modern chic, and directly across the road from the Guggenheim Museum. Then there’s the tiny bar in Hotel Flora in Venice, the ‘clubby’ atmosphere of the Astoria’s bar in St Petersburg, and, outside of the hotel category, La Tartine, near the St Paul metro stop in Paris. Once a bit of a dive, it has smartened itself up (slightly) in recent years but still retains its local atmosphere – and what a choice of wine by the glass!