Is This The Best Bartender In The World?

Is Giorgio Bargiani the best bartender in the world? 

The assistant director of mixology at the Connaught Bar has just won the Altos Bartenders’ Bartender Award for Europe’s 50 Best Bars 2026. 

Bargiani is the first winner of this award as part of the new Europe’s 50 Best Bars programme. The wider list will be revealed in Amsterdam on 30 June.

Bartenders voting for a bartender

You can list his career steps easily enough. Born in Pisa. Early experience around hospitality. Time in high-end hotels. Joined The Connaught Bar in 2014 as a bar-back. Rose through the ranks under Agostino Perrone. Became head mixologist, then assistant director of mixology. 

So he’s not a surprise winner. But it’s a reminder a career like this is built shift by shift over time. It’s also worth noting that the name of this award is no typo. The Bartenders’ Bartender Award comes from peers. Not guests or critics. Bartenders voting for a bartender. You, dear reader, may have even swayed this one yourself.

The prize makes a point of recognising that bartenders operate beyond the obvious purview to become hosts, mentors, creative directors, brand ambassadors, collaborators, and everyday therapists. 

Bargiani’s reputation is obviously tied to The Connaught’s status, but he was up against some of the finest and biggest names in the industry. You’ve met bartenders. You might be one. Status alone doesn’t sway much. Bargiani has won because he has an ability to not just make a fine drink, but to make high-end hospitality feel warm. 

Not “just” the drinks maker

For the wider trade, the Bartenders’ Bartender Award is an opportunity for a good headline. Positive press right now is a bit of a tonic.

You’ve probably noticed that bars are not short of pressure. Staffing is tough, costs are ugly, but the expectation has never been higher. Guests have options and they know it. They’re selective and demanding. If you’re even hinting at offering an experience, you have little time to justify it.

In that environment, the bartender as a charismatic lone genius feels out of date. We don’t need Han Solos. The more valuable figure is the bartender who can read and raise the room around them. 

Someone who mentors the junior team, protects standards, builds systems, keeps regulars feeling remembered, makes visiting bartenders feel welcome, and still serves a drink that makes people shut up for a second and drink.

Putting the “peer” in “peerless”

Bartenders know who gives back. They know who has time for others when the cameras are not on. They know who helps shape the next generation rather than simply polishing their own myth. The trade has the best nose for fraud. Not perfect, obviously, this is still hospitality and who hasn’t fallen for the odd shiny jacket? Just me then?

There is also a broader European angle here. The launch of Europe’s 50 Best Bars gives the continent its own dedicated stage within the 50 Best structure, which will sharpen attention on cities, teams, and styles that can sometimes get flattened into a global ranking narrative. 

Europe’s bar scene is not one thing. London, Barcelona, Athens, Rome, Paris, Oslo, Berlin, Amsterdam, and beyond all have distinct pressures and personalities. Peer-voted awards recognise the people who connect those scenes, not just the venues that place on a list.

Connaught Bar since ‘14, son

Working at The Connaught Bar doesn’t hurt, obviously. Its Martini trolley has probably done more for tableside theatre than half the world’s luxury hotel groups combined. Bargiani has earned his place, but he’s contributing to one of London’s defining cocktail programmes. 

The bar’s reputation rests on precision, polish, and the kind of service choreography that can look effortless only because it has been drilled within an inch of its life. The Connaught model has always been exacting. Its power comes from making ritual feel personal. The Martini service works because it makes you feel like nobody has ever had this Martini before. You’re not James Bond.  This is your story. 

The guest chooses, the bartender guides. The line is tricky, you don’t want to be patronising. You want theatre, not pantomime. Precision, but not sterility.

This is not to say every bar should copy the Connaught. Most venues do not have Mayfair hotel resources. A neighbourhood bar, high-volume cocktail den, hotel lounge, and late-night basement all have different jobs. But every bar can learn from the same principle: the serve is bigger than the serve. Know what I mean?

What we value

The drink must be good. That is the entry fee. But the best bars understand where pacing, memory, and restraint play their part. Hospitality, like most things, lives in small details.

Bargiani winning the Bartenders’ Bartender Award is a big achievement, of course it is. But there is obviously no such thing as a “best bartender in the world”. And this is not just another trophy for a famous London bar. It is a signal from the trade about what it values. Not just reputation or technical ability. Warmth, generosity, consistency, leadership. The unglamorous business of making everyone around you better.

That is the bit every bar, at every level, can learn from.

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