The bar was listed for the tenth year in a row in “The World’s 50 Best Bars” for 2024.
Baba au Rum took 17th place this year, 8 places higher than last year’s list. This, combined with its decoration, music, atmosphere, and, of course, its creator, Thanos Prounaros, makes it a unique institute of the high art of mixing alcoholic beverages.
Why Baba au Rum is awarded every year in the world’s top bars
Thanos Prunarous was a keyboardist in the band Sound Device. After staying in London for a year, he created Baba Au Rum on Kleitiou Street in the historic commercial triangle of Athens.
His bar received the distinction of the 25th best bar in the world in October last year.
– Tell us about the institution of the best bars in the world
The list of The World’s 50 Best Bars, as well as restaurants and hotels, comes from a global body based in London and is created in a very specific way. There is the so-called “academy” made up of professionals in the field.
In our category are bartenders, bar owners, brand ambassadors and taste journalists from all over the world who travel and choose their seven favourite bars. I’ve been one of them since 2013.
After the results are out, they email you, “Congratulations, you’re in the top 50 bars”.
This whole awards show is getting bigger and it’s going mainstream. It starts at 50 and goes to 1, saying two little things for each bar.
– How did you accept the distinction?
We’ve been waiting to find out our position, knowing that we’re good as long as we’re in the Top 50.
It depends on one’s expectations. If you expect to be first and come third, you’re obviously going to be disappointed. If you expect to be in the top 20 and come out No. 40, you will be disappointed again.
Not so for me. Clearly, the higher, the better, but something else is also true for Baba au Rum. This year, we were on the list of the 50 best bars in the world for the 10th consecutive year. There are only two other bars in the world that have this length.
– Are these distinctions the reason why you are invited to bars all over the planet?
These invitations and exchanges of bars and bartenders around the world started before The World 50 Best Bars. But with our establishment in the list of the world’s best bars, the invitations abroad also came.
– What are the conditions for such a thing?
I will speak for myself. What I do is build teams that are professional, serious and consistent in what we do.
We serve a specific philosophy, which has to do with the whole society around us since we believe that bars are a very important part of society – they existed in other forms in the past.
If there was a disaster, the bars would have to close last because people would have a chance to communicate, to exchange news, and opinions there.
So it’s not just about going for a beer, a cocktail, dancing or flirting – although it’s also all of that. So, I was looking to have teams that renew themselves and offer high-level services in a very simple way and consistently.
– What are the trends in fine-drinking worldwide?
For me, “fine-drinking” is a term that begins to fade. It does not exist in the sense that it existed pre-pandemic.
Now, in theory, you can drink good drinks wherever you go around the world. Even in an isolated village! I recently came back from Malaysia, from an island called Penang, where the first Penang cocktail week was held, and we were invited.
Penang is a place 20-30 years in the past, so great that it still has a lot of backpackers. And that’s because it’s still cheap, it has very good food. It has three or four other bars that try to make a difference in what we drink.
The younger generations of bartenders have also “forgotten” what fine drinking means. I think we’re going back to the older “darker” days of the bar in terms of how we have fun but with better drinks.
What do you mean by “darker times”?
The drinks might be better, but at the same time, we might start sitting upside down and downing whole bottles. After the pandemic, there was an appeal for excessive fun.
Sometimes, there is fun, beauty, and soul; other times, it becomes cheap, I would say. It does not serve the purpose of the work we do.
– How do you see “Baba au Rum” in the next five years?
I see it as a classic bar, an “entertainment” that will always serve the avant-garde and good quality.
Now, what will happen to the rest of the bars worldwide?
I don’t know. What has happened is that new markets have entered from countries such as India, China, Latin America and Africa. And this brings many new trends which we, living in Europe, cannot easily understand.
After all, the centre of the world has shifted to Asia, at least for our “industry”. Asia goes more towards hotel lounge bars, some of which have enough soul to stand out as good bars.
Latin America clearly has more fun, something that people always love.
– Is it possible to capitalise on such a distinction whilst maintaining quality?
You speak in terms of capitalism. And business isn’t always like that. Clearly, a bar that I would call an “institute” does not stand up to its reproduction in a franchise. Although it has been suggested to me many times.
Baba au Rum is a personal bar. Such a place, even if it is a restaurant or a club, must remain as it is, alive and real for the public.
Baba au Rum, Kleitiou 6, Athens / /
Photo: @baba_au_rum/Instagram
Thanas Diamantopoulou is a columnist for New Money. Translated by Paul Antonopoulos.
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