Sips named World’s Best Bar at the 2023 Spirited Awards
Sips, the Barcelona bar founded by Simone Caporale and Marc Alvarez, was named World’s Best Bar at the 17th annual Spirited Awards at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans.
Sips, which recently launched bar-within-the-bar concept Esencia, also picked up the Best International bar award, beating out competition from London’s A Bar With Shapes for a Name, Montreal’s Atwater Cocktail Club, and Cartagena’s Alquímico which collected the Best International Bar Team award.
Best New International Cocktail Bar went to Line, the new Athens bar from The Clumsies founders Vasilis Kyritsis and Nikos Bakoulis alongside mixer brand Three Cents co-founder Dimitris Dafopoulos.
The evening saw a strong performance from Singapore’s hospitality community with Jigger and Pony winning Best International Hotel Bar, Analogue Initiative, the new bar from Vijay Mudaliar taking Best International Restaurant Bar, and the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel, the birthplace of the Singapore Sling, collecting the Timeless International Award.
The Connaught Bar in London collected two individual awards, director of mixology Ago Perrone won Best International Bar Mentor while assistant director of mixology Giorgio Bargiani won International Bartender of the Year.
Elsewhere, in the US categories, Best US Cocktail Bar was awarded to Century Grand in Phoenix, Arizona, Matiny's in New York was named Best New US Cocktail Bar, Best US Hotel Bar went to Hey Love at The Jupiter in Portland, Oregon, and Best US Restaurant Bar was awarded to Miami’s Café La Trova.
Christine Wiseman picked up the US Bartender of the Year accolade in a year that also saw the Marygold’s Brasserie and Broken Shaker beverage director named Bartender’s Bartender at North America’s 50 Best Bars.