Bar 1661 becomes Ireland's first World's 50 Best Bars entry
The Dublin bar built around poitín ranks 98th on this year's extended World's 50 Best Bars list, ahead of the top 50 reveal in Milan.
Bar 1661 in Dublin has become the first bar in the Republic of Ireland to rank on the World's 50 Best Bars list, taking number 98 on this year's extended 51-100 ranking. The list, revealed on 23 September, is the build-up to the top 50 announcement in Milan on 7 October.
The Smithfield bar takes its name from 1661, the year Irish poitín was outlawed. It stayed illegal until 1997. Owner Dave Mulligan built the bar's cocktail list around the spirit, working with small distillers to bring it back into circulation after three centuries.
Judges singled out the Belfast Coffee, a drink built on cold brew, poitín and cream with a dusting of nutmeg, as a signature pour. Mulligan also runs Bán, a poitín brand launched to supply bars like his own with a spirit that had barely existed commercially before this decade.
A spirit that was illegal for over three centuries is now the reason a Dublin bar made a world ranking.
Ireland's first entry
The 51-100 extension, now in its second year, is designed to widen the World's 50 Best Bars Academy's reach beyond the same handful of cities. This year's list added first-time entries from Dublin, Athens, Bangkok, Accra, Istanbul, San José and Shenzhen alongside more established names.
More than 800 bartenders, writers and drinks specialists vote to compile the ranking. For a single-city, single-bar market like Dublin's cocktail scene, a place on the list functions less as a prize than as a marker that the city's bars are now being tasted by the same panel judging London, Mexico City and Tokyo.
What Milan will decide
The top 50 list, due on 7 October at the World's 50 Best Bars ceremony in Milan, will not include Bar 1661: bars ranked 51-100 are shown as a group, without the ceremony reserved for the main list. Mulligan's bar will instead watch from outside as the industry's bigger names take the stage.
Whether Bar 1661 climbs into the top 50 next year depends on a spirit category that barely had a commercial identity a decade ago. Dublin's fine-dining scene has had its own comeback story this year, with chef Adam Nevin reopening Glovers Alley. For now, being the first Irish name on the bars list is the story.
