Is this a Joke? Chicago Barely Makes List For 50 Best Bars in the World

CHICAGO — Some know-it-alls with a website called World’s 50 Best Bars came out with a list of … you guessed it. The the world’s 50 best bars. And only one place in Chicago made the cut.

That place is the Aviary, and it was ranked No. 39. Here’s what the site had to say about the Aviary:

“What happens if a venue takes a fine-dining approach to cocktails? If the drinks are made by liquid chefs in a kitchen, their creations brought like plated courses to tables by hospitable and knowledgeable servers? The Aviary is what happens — and since it opened in 2011 it has redefined the way we view bars. Indeed, this is a member of The World’s 50 Best Bars and it doesn’t even have one.”

That sounds … fun.

Actually, this doesn’t even sound like one of the best bars in Chicago. But it’s the only one World’s 50 Best Bars put on its list, a list in which we think we detect more than a little East Coast (and British) bias. Nine of the top 10 bars are either in New York or London. London had nine in the top 50 and New York had eight. Seriously?

And you want to see which other places had more bars on the list than Chicago? Well, we’ll show you: Sydney, Athens, Edinburgh, Buenos Aires, Singapore, Paris, Hong Kong and San Francisco. Even Beirut had a bar on the list: No. 26, Central Station.

Beirut, 13 spots ahead of Chicago. Is this some kind of joke?

photo by Bob Darin