You Can't Miss This Tropical Cocktail Bar When in Greek's Vibrant Capital

As you can probably guess from its name, Baba Au Rum specializes in cane spirits like Caribbean rum, agricole, and cachaça. But one of the best bars in the world offers so much more than any one category can deliver. The enduring hot spot in the rowdy Monastiraki neighborhood of Athens serves heaping portions of nautically themed personality, with cocktails to match. Wander in on any given night and you’ll see nothing but smiling faces on either side of the stick.

What’s making everyone so happy? Well, the vibe is tropical, the music is upbeat, and the mixologists crank out their creations with vigor at breakneck speed. It’s all graciously priced, too, at around $11 per cocktail.

Between the dozen or so Avant Garde selections and the dozen additional assemblies within the Rum Society section of the cocktail list, there isn’t a dud to be found. Every drink is meticulously executed, using a bevy of syrups all prepared in-house. Even a handful of liqueurs are crafted here behind the bar, during prep.

The bar starts filling up nightly at around 7 p.m. Athens is a city where people stay out pretty late, so if you settle in at the start of the night, we suggest opting for something low-ABV to shift your evening into gear. The Pearl Fishers is an otherwise straightforward combination of Amaro Montenegro with tonic water, jazzed up thanks to an infusion of spices and cherry blossom.

Basquiat’s Daisy is a drink that exemplifies the bar’s commitment to leveraging bespoke mixers. The botanical blast of Ford’s Gin and the flowery complexity of Lillet Rouge are both enhanced by the tangy punch of housemade fermented raspberry wine. The menu shares that the drink is inspired by the “bold colors and blooming vitality” of its namesake artist’s paintings.

The distilled flavors of local lands are also frequent co-stars among the cast of cocktail characters. In the Anti-Novel Margarita, cardamom-infused tequila is blended with a Greek citrus liqueur. Pomegranate and spearmint are muddled in before the finishing touch — oolong tea distilled in-house.

Upon first glance, you might be tempted to label Baba Au Rum, but the longer you soak in the atmosphere, the richer the tapestry that emerges. As a pioneer of the Athen’s craft cocktail landscape, it stands alongside renowned drink destinations from all over the world. Think of Baba Au Rum as the one stop you must make when visiting the vibrant Greek capital.

Global Tastemakers is a celebration of the best culinary destinations in the U.S. and abroad. We asked more than 180 food and travel journalists to vote on their favorites, including restaurants and bars, cities, hotels, airports, airlines, and cruises. We then entrusted those results to an expert panel of judges to determine each category’s winners. In many categories, we’ve included a Plus One hand-selected by our expert panel, to shout out more culinary destinations we don’t want our readers to miss. See all the winners at foodandwine.com/globaltastemakers.