This Bar Has Just Been Recognized as the Best in North America

For the second consecutive year, a bar in New York City's Lower East Side has claimed the top spot in the annual North America’s 50 Best Bars ranking, a subset of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards.

The winning bar this year, Double Chicken Please, started as a pop-up in 2017 and transitioned to a permanent location on Allen Street off Delancey in 2020. Co-founders GN Chan and Faye Chen led the establishment, which debuted at No. 17 in last year’s inaugural North America list and ranked No. 6 on the World’s 50 Best Bars list that first appeared in fall 2009.

Double Chicken Please features two distinct concepts: The Front Room and The Back Room. The Front Room offers a lively, first-come, first-served experience with an industrial design and hip-hop music, while the Back Room is reservation-only, offering a cozy atmosphere with lounge music and mid-century decor. Each venue's drink menu is tailored to match its unique vibe, with the Front Room serving all drinks on tap, focusing on classic cocktails with seasonal twists, such as an Aperol spritz enhanced with passion fruit.

Regarding the Back Room, Chan shares with Dinogo, “We believe nostalgia enhances taste. Our approach for The Back Room’s drink menu involves ‘hacking design’ to deconstruct a dish and reconstruct its flavors in liquid form.”

Some of the current cocktails in the Back Room feature a creation inspired by Japanese cold noodles (crafted with Bacardi Superior, pineapple, cucumber, coconut, lime, and sesame oil), a Waldorf salad (comprising Dewar’s 15-year, Laphroaig 10-year, apple, celery, ginger ale, and walnut bitters), and a cold pizza (including Don Fulano Blanco, Parmigiano Reggiano, burnt toast, tomato, basil, honey, and egg whites).

This year, New York City bars made a strong impression on the list, including: Katana Kitten (No. 3), a Japanese bar and restaurant in Greenwich Village; Dante (No. 6), with a history exceeding 100 years; Overstory (No. 7), an elegant cocktail bar in FiDi; Attaboy (which previously topped the list, now No. 13); Employees Only (No. 14); Mace (No. 18); Martiny’s (No. 29); Maison Premiere (No. 39); The Dead Rabbit (No. 44); Clover Club (No. 46); and Milady’s (No. 50).

La Factoria, located in Puerto Rico, was the only bar from the Caribbean featured on the list.

Courtesy of JLHR RunningFilms

Alongside 12 bars from New York City, the United States secured a total of 28 spots. Mexico had 14 winners, with eight in Mexico City, including Handshake Speakeasy (No. 2 for the second consecutive year) and Licorería Limantour (No. 4). Canada claimed seven places on the list, with Civil Liberties (No. 13) in Toronto being the highest. La Factoría (No. 24) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was the only Caribbean bar to make the list.

Mark Sansom, the content director at World’s 50 Best, an organization known for ranking the finest restaurants and bars globally, shares with Dinogo that there isn’t one specific characteristic that defines the best bar.

Sansom explains, “Each of our 260 judges has their own criteria for what constitutes a ‘best bar’ experience. For some, it might be the music, the glassware, the drinks, or the overall ambiance. We simply ask them to share their top seven bar experiences from the 18-month judging period. We put considerable effort into ensuring we have the best panel, relying on their expertise to identify the finest.”

He further mentions that the anonymous voters—comprising 50% bartenders and bar owners, 25% drink writers and educators, and 25% consumer cocktail experts—rated Double Chicken Please highly for various reasons, including its design, food-inspired cocktails, and service style.

“What struck me was its creativity. It’s been a long time since I encountered a bar as innovative and genuine as Double Chicken Please,” Sansom remarks.