The Sustainable Restaurant Association, 50 Best's partner on all things sustainable, highlights five stand-out bars across the globe that are finding innovative ways to serve, support and celebrate their local communities.
Paradiso, Barcelona
@paradiso_barcelona
Paradiso hosts an annual sustainability summit in Barcelona, inviting bars across the world to share knowledge
Named The World's Best Bar in 2022, Giacomo Giannotti's Paradiso has been a mainstay of the Barcelona bar scene since it first opened in 2015. To ensure Paradiso can be enjoyed by everyone, staff members are trained on how to support people with disabilities, and the bar is designed to accommodate a variety of different needs: for example, including quieter spaces which makes communication easier for customers who are hard of hearing. Tables, counters, self-service items, hooks and handles are all easy to reach and clearly visible to people in wheelchairs or who are short of stature. Dining areas include accessible seating, and there is always enough clear space for wheelchair and scooter users to move around.
This attention to accessibility doesn't end with the customer, it's a core value for the team. Paradiso is breaking stereotypes of what bartending looks like for one of the world's leading bars by employing a team member with an intellectual disability to help with daily prep, making a meaningful contribution to keeping operations running smoothly.
Looking beyond its customers and team, Paradiso is also deeply committed to giving back to the industry. Since its launch in 2022, Paradiso's annual Sustainability Summit has been helping to amplify its impact, recognising the social side of sustainability and including discussions on diversity, inclusivity, accessibility and how the hospitality sector can better support the communities it serves.
The Bombay Canteen, Mumbai
@thebombaycanteen
Over the last decade, The Bombay Canteen has raised more than $154,000 USD for Indian charities
The Bombay Canteen is a vibrant neighbourhood bar-meets-restaurant, dishing up the best of Indian cuisine accompanied by flavour-packed cocktails. The Canteen's annual Independence Day Daawat – hosted every August since 2015 – sees a hearty, regional meal served on traditional banana leaves. Not only does this provide a fantastic and much-loved opportunity for the community to come together, but it's also an extremely effective fundraiser: guests are invited to pay whatever they choose for their meal, with 100 per cent of the proceeds going to charity. Over the last decade, this event has raised more than 1.34 crore (US$154,000) for causes like Teach for India, Miracle Foundation and Naandi Foundation.
This community support isn't limited to one day of the year; The Bombay Canteen is also active in making sure Mumbai incorporates vibrant green spaces through its mission to Make Bombay Green Again. In 2024, working in partnership with environmental non-profit Nature:re, the team contributed to the transformation of the nearby Captain Namdev Lotankar Park, now a lush and thriving green space nestled within the city. The Canteen also worked with Nature:re to build The Nest in Malabar Hill, a 1.2-acre urban forest that now provides locals with a deeply peaceful escape from their busy surroundings.
Thunderbolt, Los Angeles
@thunderboltla
Thunderbolt gives back to the local community through its partnership with the Echo Park Trash Club
Uniquely situated between Historic Filipinotown, Echo Park and downtown LA, Thunderbolt is a cocktail bar that defines itself by how it interacts with each of these neighbourhoods. As the website declares: "More than anything, we want to be your local, your regular, the place you come again and again." This strong focus on community was a deciding factor in Thunderbolt winning the Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award as part of North America's 50 Best Bars 2025.
The bar takes care of its surrounding neighbourhoods through initiatives like the Echo Park Trash Can #2, a full-time fundraiser cocktail. Enjoy the refreshing combination of mezcal, Aperol, watermelon, lime and psylla chilli, and know that $2 from your drink will go directly to support the Echo Park Trash Club. This group of volunteers works to pick up excess trash and city debris from the encampments used by unhoused people in the area, keeping neighbourhoods clean while treating unhoused locals with the respect they deserve.
Recognising that the drinks industry is another one of the communities it serves, the bar hosts educational events for bartenders at no cost (including training on sustainable methods and techniques) and sustainable agave production events. It also collaborates regularly with chefs and bartenders, celebrating varied cultural traditions through food and drink pop-ups.
The Cambridge Public House, Paris
@thecambridge_paris
The Cambridge Public House shares sustainable learnings through its Shaken Leaf online platform
Located in the Marais district of Paris, The Cambridge Public House aims to bring the service and sophisticated mixology of a high-end cocktail bar into the relaxed, friendly atmosphere of a neighbourhood pub.
The bar's Cambridge Community Plan finds ways to give back in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. For example, this includes partnerships with local NGOs to organise trash collections. The bar also participates in community-focused events, regularly raising awareness and supporting important social causes.
Recognising that knowledge sharing is a way to strengthen communities, The Cambridge Public House runs educational workshops in local schools, where students can learn about sustainability and practical waste reduction techniques. To support the bar industry, it offers insights on seasonal and local products, modern bartending and environmental issues through its Shaken Leaf website – a free, open-source collection of industry tips, advice, recipes and interviews designed to help other hospitality businesses on their own sustainability journeys, driving wider change across the sector.
Tres Monos, Buenos Aires
@3monosbar
Proceeds from Tres Monos' cocktails have helped open a school for underprivileged communities
Since it opened its doors in 2019, Tres Monos has operated as more than a bar: it's also a bartending school designed to educate both industry workers and customers. The goal is for the team to share its experience with the community, supporting the hospitality industry in the locality as it grows. This helps to provide jobs and keep money in the local economy.
In late 2021, in partnership with Asian-South American fusion restaurant Niño Gordo, Tres Monos founded La Escuelita (the little school) in Barrio Múgica. Also known as Villa 31, this former shantytown is one of Buenos Aires' biggest underserved communities. La Escuelita is an educational project providing culinary classes as well as month-long cocktail and beverage courses taught by Tres Monos bartenders; this forms part of a development and job induction programme designed to equip people from this neighbourhood to find employment. With focused groups of just 10 students per class, courses have a high completion rate. To date, more than 400 students have graduated, and at least 78 alumni have gone on to find work in hospitality – including some in Tres Monos itself.
Together with The Sustainable Restaurant Association, 50 Best is proud to highlight bars that are playing their part to build a better future for people as well as our planet.
Discover more about the restaurants, bars and hotels that have won special awards through our ongoing partnership with The Sustainable Restaurant Association.
