The 25 Best Bars in the U.S.

Avid bar-hoppers would do well to book a flight to New York City posthaste—or, better yet, just move there. The Big Apple boasts 11 of the 25 best bars in the U.S., including four of the top five.

This particular list was pulled from a wider ranking of the 50 best bars in North America, compiled by 50 Best, the self-described “leading authority in global gastronomy and the international drinks scene.” To determine the continent’s top watering holes, 50 Best solicited votes from “260 drinks experts, including bartenders, bar owners, drinks media, and well-traveled cocktail connoisseurs from Canada, USA, Mexico and the Caribbean, with a 50/50 gender balance.” The voters, split into eight regions, each ranked the seven best bars they’d visited in the past 18 months: Five had to be located in the country or U.S. state in which the voter was based, and the two others could be anywhere else.

New York City’s dominance suggests that a lot of non–New York voters used those two slots for New York bars. It’s one of the most popular tourist spots in the country, so it makes sense that a fair number of bar aficionados would’ve visited the city at some point in the year and a half before the vote. The blue ribbon went to the Lower East Side’s Double Chicken Please, which, as Condé Nast Traveler reports, serves up cocktails inspired by foods—from French toast to cold pizza. The only non–New York bar to make the top five is New Orleans’s Jewel of the South, founded by celebrated French Quarter bartender Chris Hannah.

New Orleans was one of four cities with two bars in the top 25: The others were Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles. See that ranking below—and find out which North American spots beyond U.S. borders made 50 Best’s list here.