Pinnacle Guide: Seven bars from Birmingham to Belfast gain two Pins
The Pinnacle Guide – the recognition system that awards the globe’s top cocktail bars – has unveiled that seven venues have moved up from one Pin to two Pins as part of the guide’s first ever renewal process.
Launched in 2024, this year marks the first reappraisal process for the initial batch of awardee venues which saw all 33 bars retain their Pin status. Twenty-six retained one Pin while seven upgraded their ranking.
The bars that were bestowed the two Pin honour included Belfast’s Rattlebag; Couch Bar and Passing Fancies from Birmingham; three in the UK capital (Artesian, Nightjar and Sexy Fish); while Maine, USA’s Magnus on Water succeeded too.
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According to The Pinnacle Guide, each bar undertakes an “in-depth application process” while also receiving “anonymous visits from trained reviewers”.
“Every one of the 33 bars that came forward for reappraisal held their standard or pushed it further, which is a real achievement two years on,” said co-founder of the Guide, Dan Dove.
“The strength of the UK results, and the fact that Magnus on Water in Maine shows the same progress on the other side of the Atlantic, tells us the framework is doing what we built it to do: giving bars a genuine, assessable route to improve their operations and guest experience, verified through the same in-depth applications and anonymous reviewer visits every bar goes through, whether it is their first assessment or their second,” he added.
The Pinnacle Guide was founded by Dove, Hannah Sharman-Cox and Siobhan Payne. Dove also spearheads the Global Bartending agency, while Sharman-Cox and Payne are the founders and organisers of London Cocktail Week, as well as running their own consultancy – Hands London.
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