2 Montreal Bars Ranked Among The 50 Best In North America

A ranking of the 50 best bars in North America was released in early June and two Montreal bars made the cut. El Pequeño Bar on rue Saint-Vincent in Old Montreal — which claims the title of "Canada's smallest bar" — came in at number 29. Cloakroom Bar on rue de la Montagne downtown nabbed 45th place.

The ranking is the latest from the publishing company William Reed. It compiled the list using input from what it described as 220 "bar industry experts" across the continent. The experts each ranked a maximum of seven bars they had visited in the previous 18 months.

The aggregate results were announced in a ceremony on June 7.

Only one Canadian bar, Civil Liberties in Toronto (10th place), cracked a top 10 otherwise dominated by bars in New York and Mexico City.

The top spot went to Manhattan bar Attaboy. New York also claimed fourth (Katana Kitten) and eighth place (Dante). Handshake Speakeasy and Licorería Limantour, both of Mexico City, got silver and bronze, respectively. The Mexican capital also claimed seventh place with Baltra Bar.

Kumiko of Chicago, Café La Trova of Miami and Thunderbolt of Los Angeles rounded out the top 10.

Other Canadian bars to make the ranking were The Keefer Bar of Vancouver (25), Toronto's Mother (38) and Bar Raval (41), and Bar Kismet in Halifax (49).

The U.S. was the clear champion, with a total of 29 bars in the ranking. Mexico followed with 11. Canada had eight entries and the Caribbean had two.