Here's how some of the world's best designed bars masterfully blend beautiful style with formidable functionality.
How a bar feels is just as important as it looks. Visual splendour often makes a strong impression, but as guests order multiple rounds of cocktails, they desire comfort, too. Bartenders are also a demanding bunch when it comes to smooth workflow and practical design to allow them to shake up all night long.
Aesthetically pleasing, innovative design needs to be balanced with straightforward functionality, considerate ergonomics and a forward-thinking sustainable mindset to leave a lasting, emotional imprint, otherwise the result is merely decorative.
Ahead of the Best Bar Design Award 2026 opening for submissions on Monday 26 January, peek at these eight venues from the accolade's 2025 shortlist, each of which brilliantly juxtapose eye-catching aesthetics with behind-the-scenes efficiency.
Messenger Service, Bangkok
Exquisite cocktails are born from ordinary ingredients found at the supermarket, a philosophy reinforced at Messenger Service. Located on the third floor of a heritage building, Messenger Service snagged the Best Bar Design Award at Asia's 50 Best Bars 2025 for its thoughtful interventions. The layout of communal seating areas reimagines a grocery store's various departments, for example, and drinks are whipped up at a station resembling a check-out counter. Open from all angles, it encourages interaction between the guests – who sit in full view of active prep zone – and the bartenders, barbacks and floor staff working collectively as a team. Built-in under-table storage housing refrigerators, freezers and spirits cabinets also boosts efficiency. Set at an approachable kitchen island height, the bar, complemented by soft lighting and cherry wood, wouldn't be out of a place in a homey living room.
Artifact, Hong Kong
At the bottom of Basehall 02, a luxe food court in Hong Kong's porthole window-clad Jardine House, Artifact woos imbibers with a space seemingly lifted from the set of a sci-fi film. Arches enveloping the ceiling, travertine plaster-painted walls and leather-upholstered seating reference underground cisterns, bolstered by wave-shaped forms that recall the notion of rippling water. But it's the mirrored reflections, artificial lighting and sculpted curves of fibreglass that imbue them with the surreal air of a spaceship. In the entrance area, three-dimensional acoustic tiles reminiscent of speakers block out the noise of chatty Basehall 02 diners, inviting visitors to step into this futuristic portal.
Clemente Bar, New York
On the floor above the dining room of chef Daniel Humm's famed Eleven Madison Park restaurant awaits Clemente, a nod to the venerated art-laden restaurant and bar Kronenhalle in Zurich. A fresco from the bar's namesake, Francesco Clemente, crowns the stairwell, hinting at the Italian artist's large-scale murals inside. They are the stars of the moody salon-like lounge, deftly fusing with an array of vintage and custom furniture and soothing shades of burgundy, brown and gold. One of these monumental paintings even stands in for the backbar behind the intimate, well-organised solid hinoki wood chef's counter dubbed The Studio. Energy-conserving LED lighting glows against the walnut panels hand-carved with 'jewels' in American workshops, each one a striking art piece befitting of the room.
Abstract, Lyon
Abstract's past life as a 1980s tobacco shop, captured in the word tabac still faintly visible on the corner façade, infuses the bar with retro soul. Natural light streams through large windows, lending the front bistro a golden aura. Taking cues from American artist Edward Hopper's 1942 painting Nighthawks, it melds diner-style seating with flea market finds from the 1960s and '70s and a geometric bar anchored beneath a suspended ceiling. But the retro vibe fast turns industrial in the distillery on the other side of the bespoke glass partition. Home to the advanced technical equipment producing house-made spirits, the laboratory features raw stainless steel and grey tones heavily influenced by Brutalism and Futurism.
Carry On, Phoenix
Winner of the Best Bar Design Award as part of North America's 50 Best Bars 2025, Carry On evokes the golden age of aviation. Once 'passengers' cross the gap between jetway and aircraft, they are immediately plunged into a glamorous, retro ambience of walnut, brass and leather. Geometric print carpeting blends in with vintage airline upholstery while servers decked out in 1970s flight attendant uniforms bring drinks listed in the boarding pass-style menu to guests ensconced in the commodious booths, lounge chairs and two-top tables that are the antithesis of confining modern-day cabins. A sense of escapism is heightened by aerial views of landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge filling LED windows.
Galaxy Bar, Dubai
Originally, the storeroom at Athenian-inspired restaurant Avli by Tashas was meant to become a private dining room. Then, founder Natasha Sideris fortunately had a change of heart, ultimately transforming the underutilised space into Galaxy Bar. Awash in velvet, curves and metallic accents, buzzy Galaxy stands out with a stone bar and a vaulted celestial canopy flaunting hypnotic ever-shifting digital projections that conjure the night sky. Swaths of midnight blue fittingly call to mind Greece, and an optimally placed DJ booth ensures that an evening of laidback lounging organically morphs into a full-blown party.
Minus One, Prague
Subterranean Minus One, inside the W Prague hotel, comprises two distinct spaces. Occulto, decked out with hand-carved wood, stained glass and stucco ceilings, amplified by warm, diffused lighting, is an ode to the building's past as the Art Nouveau Grand Hotel Evropa. High-energy Poppy, with its riffs on classic libations, is decidedly more contemporary, showcasing flashy hues of red, blue, pink and gold accented with LEDs. Both bars are buoyed by brushed stainless steel surfaces and a mix of stools and upholstered lounge chairs, whilst a bespoke cocktail trolley and glassware from Czech artisans, including a punch bowl dreamed up by designer Wanda Valihrachová, celebrate local craftsmanship.
Above Board, Melbourne
Despite its gritty setting in a graffiti-drenched alleyway upstairs from the pub Beermash, Above Board exudes minimalist elegance. Here, the action revolves around the central island, which incorporates a workhorse Formica console hidden underneath the American black walnut countertop. Tools and ingredients are tucked away in soft-touch drawers, and the dishwasher, sink and freezers are out of sight to guests, but always within reach of bartenders. Planted on sound-absorbing cork tiles, the bar station is backdropped by a sleek rectangular mirror. Instead of reaching towards the backbar, liquors are poured from re-used Japanese whiskey bottles. The best perch to witness Above Board's streamlined approach to drink-making is from one of the two banquettes, complete with pull-out tables, boldly placed behind the bar.
The Best Bar Design Award 2026 will open for entries on Monday 26 January. Follow 50 Best on Facebook and Instagram for updates and announcements.
