“I want to leave a legacy in the bar industry. Not because I want the recognition, but because it’s something I love very much, with my heart and soul.” And with his Baba au Rum last month ranked number 27 in The World’s 50 Best Bars and receiving the Remy Martin Legend of the List Award, Thanos Prunarus is certainly making a mark. With 11 appearances in the top 50 over the years, his Athenian rum bar is second only to The Connaught Bar on 16.

Prunarus began bartending in London in 1999 before moving back to Athens and opening Baba au Rum in 2009. Over the subsequent 16 years he spent more than a decade behind the bar full time and still gets his hands dirty in 2025.

Prunarus adds: “We were actually short a team member after The World’s 50 Best Bars ceremony in Hong Kong, so I went straight from the airport to wash glasses. But I love it. I love being part of the bar, its energy.

“At Baba au Rum we’ve always made sure there’s a reason behind what we do. And if we don’t do it for the love of the people in our bar, then we aren’t doing hospitality. Detail is also important, regardless of whether it’s the first drink of the night or 2am on a Saturday morning, detail makes everything.”

Across the years Prunarus has seen his bar change with the city. The same year Baba au Rum opened a financial crisis was declared in Greece, which makes its enduring legacy even more impressive. “The bar has changed a lot with the world. Of course we’ve had tough times, but back then I would say the city was a lot more local, it felt more real. Now the city centre is full of tourists and so for the locals Baba au Rum remains a place for everyone. I’d say every local in Athens who goes out in the evenings has been to Baba au Rum at least once.”

Baba au Rum is also on the verge of launching its 11th new menu in line with Athens Bar Show: Love Letters to Future Selves is divided into Baba’s Classics, a selection of bestsellers from years gone by and New Experimentals.

Creative team
“The team is feeling very creative,” adds Prunarus. “We want to start launching new menus every three or four months, but not to be seasonal. We don’t want to follow trends and just have transparent drinks which are called sustainable – we want to have substance. For me, in the bar industry, sustainability is a joke. We do our best, we recycle and reduce waste. But there are major players spending big on luxury while also talking about being sustainable, which makes no sense.”

Athens Bar Show, taking place on 4-5 November, launched in the same year as Baba au Rum and has become one of the industry’s most influential.

“We’ve grown up with Athens Bar Show together. I remember helping out at the first edition when there were 600 visitors and we’ve helped each other a lot over the years. We aren’t doing anything specific for this show other than having the full bar team here and ready to go.”

True veterans are becoming rarer and rarer in the bar trade. Promising talent is often lost to other industries or swapped to brand work, but there’s no debating the legacy of Prunarus and his beloved Baba au Rum.