The Pinnacle Guide: New List Highlights Bars’ Eco-Minded Practices

From The World’s 50 Best Bars to the National Pub and Bar Awards, there are already a number of prestigious lists celebrating top drinking spots. But the latest aims to honour great bars in a new way, focusing on their commitment to green practices and innovative techniques. After applications opened in November 2023, the inaugural list has just dropped – here are all the ‘pinned’ bars for 2024.

What Is The Pinnacle Guide?

Created by Hannah Sharman-Cox, Siobhan Payne and Dan Dove, the masterminds behind London Cocktail Week, The Pinnacle Guide is a new recognition system for bars. It’s designed to celebrate excellence in drinks and service, but with a focus on philanthropy, sustainability and diversity, highlighting the spots who are approaching their craft responsibly.

Last year, bars from all over the globe were invited to enter themselves into the intensive submission process, which involves sharing information on six modules including staff management, drinks menus and venue look. A small number of venues made it through to the next stage, which saw a group of anonymous reviewers (made up of industry experts, mixologists and bar enthusiasts) visiting the bars in person, focusing in particular on how the venues made them feel.

Nightjar

Following this, winning bars were awarded using the one, two and three pin recognition system. An eclectic selection of spots from around the world were listed, from a plant shop serving biodynamic cocktails in Kentucky to a cocktail lounge in rural Scotland. All names on the list demonstrate impressive environmental principles, whether that’s utilising indoor gardening systems for ingredients or developing a zero waste cocktail program. 

A total of 12 London bars made the list, including esteemed Mayfair spot Kwãnt, Shoreditch speakeasy Nightjar, and Soho institution Swift. However, no bars have yet qualified for 3 Pin status.

The Pinnacle Guide 2024: Which Bars Made The List?

2 Pin Bars

• ATLAS, Singapore
• Bitter & Twisted Cocktail Parlour, Phoenix, USA
• Nipperkin, London, UK
• Origin Bar, Shangri-La Singapore, Singapore
• Panda & Sons, Edinburgh, UK
• Paradiso, Barcelona, Spain
• Pretty Decent, Louisville, USA
• Selva, Oaxaca, Mexico
• The American Bar at Gleneagles, Auchterarder, UK
• The Spy Bar at Raffles London, UK
• Thunderbolt, Los Angeles, USA
• True Laurel, San Francisco, USA

Sexy Fish, photo by Johnny Stephens

1 Pin Bars

• Artesian, London, UK
• Ballroom by Barbary Coast, Singapore 
• Blue Bar at The Berkeley, London, UK
• Couch, Birmingham, UK
• Cure, New Orleans, USA
• El Primo Sanchez, Sydney, Australia
• Kiki Lounge, Isle of Man, UK
• KOL Mezcaleria, London, UK
• Kwant Mayfair, London, UK
• Little Rituals, Phoenix, USA
• Magnus on Water, Maine, USA
• Maybe Sammy, Sydney, Australia
• Meteor, Minneapolis, USA
• Milady’s, New York City, USA
• Nightjar Shoreditch, London, UK
• Passing Fancies, Birmingham, UK
• Rattlebag, Belfast, UK
• Roka Dubai, UAE
• Sexy Fish, London, UK
• Sexy Fish, Manchester UK
• Side Hustle, London, UK
• Swift Soho, London, UK
• The Dead Rabbit, New York City, USA
• The Guards Bar & Lounge at Raffles, London, UK
• Velvet by Salvatore Calabrese, London, UK

Find out more at thepinnacleguide.com