The European Bar Guide, an independent website publishing reviews of pubs and bars across the continent, has released its annual ranking of Europe's 100 best bars. The guide rates venues "simply on how well they do what they're trying to do", emphasizing "spectacle, atmosphere, social scene, intriguing customs, local culture and yes, the quality and choice of drinks", according to its website.
Szimpla Kert, Budapest's original ruin bar, topped the list. Located inside an abandoned factory, the venue is a maze of graffiti-covered rooms, mismatched furniture, fairy lights and random objects arranged around a leafy courtyard. Visitors can drink pálinka, a traditional fruit spirit, or smoke shisha while sitting in a converted car or a bathtub cut in half.
On Sundays, local producers fill the space with cheese, bread, honey and Hungarian treats, often accompanied by live films and music. Belgium appears five times in the top 10, with Retsins Lucifernum in Bruges ranking second. That venue is the home of a local figure named Don "Willy" Retsin, who introduces himself at the door as the "butler" and claims to be a vampire.
Other highly ranked bars include La Fleur en Papier Doré in Brussels, a traditional brown café once a meeting place for surrealist painter René Magritte; Zlatna Ribica in Sarajevo, described as eccentric and crammed with antiques; and Papa Joe's in Germany, described by the guide as "one of the ultimate jazz bars on the globe". Bar Marsella in Barcelona, where Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso are said to have drunk, ranks among the top spots.
