The Top 500 Bars awards ceremony will be held in Athens as part of Athens Bar Week 2026

The Top 500 Bars awards ceremony, supported by the Athens Bar Show, will take place in Athens on November 1, 2026, as part of Athens Bar Week and just a few days before the Athens Bar Show.

For the second time in its history, the initiative will take place outside its home country, with Athens being selected at a time when the city remains firmly at the center of the international bar community and some of the industry’s most important events.

Top 500 Bars is an international ranking platform dedicated to highlighting the bars shaping contemporary cocktail culture worldwide. Behind the project is Anthony Poncier, founder of Top 500 Bars and Le Cocktail Connoisseur, who in recent years has been regularly visiting Greece and the Athens Bar Show, closely following the evolution of the Greek bar scene and the international recognition it has gained.

At the same time, eight Greek bars are currently included in the Top 500 Bars list, confirming Greece’s strong and consistent presence on the global map of modern bartending.

The ceremony’s presence during Athens Bar Week further enhances a week in which Athens brings together bartenders, bar owners, brands, and hospitality professionals from around the world through guest shifts, collaborations, educational initiatives, and events developed around the Athens Bar Show and the city’s wider bar scene.

The selection of Athens as the host city reflects the momentum the Greek bar scene has built in recent years, as well as the position the city now holds on the international map of contemporary hospitality and bartending.

This year’s ceremony will focus on the announcement of the Top 100 bars in the ranking, while further information regarding the program and the event’s additional activities is expected to be announced in the coming months.