Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2020 will be revealed on 14th May in the form of a digital announcement. 50 Best’s Content Editor gives some insight into the decision to release the list in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic
In times such as these, no matter how oppressively difficult, it is important to keep sight of the future. Likewise, it’s equally vital to draw on the past. Personally, the last time I was in a bar before London went into lockdown – at Artesian for the launch of International Women’s Day initiative Celebrate Her – I recall looking around the room and thinking that if this is the last time I’m going to be in friends’ company with a decent drink in my hand for a while, I am going to make the most of it. I’m sure that we’ve all had moments like these in the past weeks and months, in all corners of the globe. It is by remembering these good times and looking forward to a happier future that we will keep going in this period of upheaval and uncertainty.
50 Best will not be staging the on-the-ground ceremony of Asia’s 50 Best Bars, originally planned to take place in Singapore on 14th May. To be honest, with the current pandemic and so many people’s lives affected, it wasn’t a difficult decision to take. However, the decision as to whether we should announce the 2020 list at all has come with a lot more contemplation.
Many of you may have seen that 50 Best this week announced Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2020 in the form of a virtual ceremony, partly filmed in a studio setting. The feedback that we received from the chefs and restaurateurs chimed with our reasoning for airing it: that even for just a short while, it offered some rays of positivity in otherwise gloomy times.
We understand that bars’ businesses are currently in turmoil and realise that some of these bars might not even make it to the point where they are able to reopen. But announcing the 2020 list in Asia may go a small way to easing that pain and recognising the years of hard work behind the bars that their teams have put in to take them to this globally recognised level.
In the second week of May, we will announce Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2020 in digital form. The detail of the virtual event is being worked on, but we aim to provide a fresh format to recognise the bars on this year’s list. For the first time, we will also be announcing some special award winners in advance: this year’s Campari One To Watch on 16th April; the Ketel One Sustainable Bar on 23rd April; the Michter’s Art of Hospitality on 30th April; and the Altos Bartenders’ Bartender on 7th May, just a week before the list itself is revealed.
The bars on this year’s list will also receive an event pack on 24th April. This will include their red scarves from Matusalem, the ceremonial shaker from Mancino and the official plaque for the wall. If the bars are in a position to do so – local restrictions dependent – we hope they will be able to tune into the announcement with their teams and savour the moment together.
For this year’s event programme we had also planned the #50BestTalks: Sustainability Summit, where eight of the region’s top bartenders were preparing to discuss how we can all pull together and make bars an opinion-driver in this field. We still plan to run this event in Singapore later in the year, if international circumstances permit.
Even though the ongoing situation has, and will continue to, impart unprecedented hardship upon us all, it will also serve to remind us what is possible when we pull together. We hope that this year’s list of Asia’s 50 Best Bars will be received in the spirit that it is intended, and we very much look forward to seeing you all for the party to end all parties when we are able to be together again.
