Tel Aviv’s Imperial Craft cocktail bar won a spot on the World’s 50 Best Bars 2017 list organized by William Reed Business Media, and took home the Best Bar in the Middle East & Africa Award sponsored by Asahi.
The Imperial, founded in 2013, won the Best Bar in the Middle East & Asia Award twice before and placed at No. 17 on the top 50 list for 2015. This year it placed at No. 50.
“The consistency in which the bar is being recognized in the global and local scene reflects more than anything on the amazing crew of bartenders, hosts, kitchen, and management that puts in the long days and late nights in order to guarantee that our guests’ experience will always matter most, will always excite and innovate, and that you’ll always have a home to return to,” the management posted on Facebook on October 8.
The World’s Best Bars list, now in its ninth year, is compiled by votes from The World’s 50 Best Bars Academy, comprised of more than 500 drinks experts, including renowned bartenders and consultants, drinks writers and cocktail specialists in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and Australasia.
Each voter casts seven votes, based on their best bar experiences of the previous 18 months, of which at least three must be for bars located outside the voter’s country of residence.
The judges had this to say about the Imperial:
“Should you be in Tel Aviv any time soon, be thankful for the team behind Imperial Craft. Bar Shira, Dror Alterovich and Gilad Livnat are a large part of why the Israeli city boasts one of the world’s most exciting cocktail scenes right now.
“Hidden inside the relatively nondescript Imperial Hotel – owned by the family of Livnat – the bar is not at all what guests might expect… unless, that is, they are expecting an Asian colonial-style bar serving super-inventive cocktails. This is a small but perfectly formed space, with impeccable table service and mixes from some of the city’s most decorated drinksmiths. … Try the unaptly named Bullet to the Head: a heady mix of Woodford Reserve and St-Germain, beet and chipotle syrup, lemon and egg white.”
Click here for a recipe for the Imperial’s Sabra Cadabra cocktail.
Click here to see a full list of The World’s 50 Best Bars 2017. x
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