World’s hottest bar openings from autumn 2025
From boisterous basements to cosy caves, autumn’s hottest new bar openings were often found hiding in subterranean spaces.
As we edge closer towards Christmas, we’re still thinking about some of the bars that opened over autumn. From Seed Library in New York to Bar Leone in Shanghai, there were more than a few we’ve had to add to next year’s bucket list. Early New Year’s Resolution: save up for bar trips.
Autumn also took on a subterranean theme, with many new bars from the season requiring access down a flight of stairs, such as Bar de Vie’s Parisian location and Slowpour’s intimate basement spot in Liverpool.
For the full list of where’s new and where you need to drink from, read on.
And, for more new bar roundups, see what arrived over summer and spring.
Slowpour, Liverpool
Founded by the two-woman team of Carey Hanlon and Caitlin Waugh is Slowpour, a cocktail bar on Liverpool’s Bold Street in the basement of speciality wine and coffee shop Ropes & Twines.
Hanlon is a Super Lyan alum, so she’s more than a safe pair of hands when it comes to creating top-class cocktails. The menu is split into two sides with light and dark options, each based around an ingredient. Take Tomato, which has a light serve containing Belvedere, tomato liqueur and bay leaf tincture, while its dark side combines The Lost Explorer mezcal with passata, spice mix and Estrella.
Hanlon and Waugh say the story behind the name is that they’re not rushing anything, “not the drinks, not the service, not the experience,” as every moment matters. That said, you best believe you’ll be rushing back.
Address: Basement, Ropes and Twines, 70 Bold St, Liverpool L1 4HR
Kamara, London
The co-founders of London restaurant chain Brother Marcus, Tasos Gaitanos and Alex Large, deviated from their dining empire in October to open Kamara, an Eastern Mediterranean cocktail bar in Soho.
And they came prepared, bringing in the expertise of Angelos Bafos (formerly of Nipperkin) to tackle the cocktails. In his hallmark style, he has developed a menu high in locally sourced and seasonal ingredients, macerated spirits and house ferments. A Coffee and Honey Old Fashioned, for instance, is made with Exmoor honey and British burnt butter, while the Tuvunu Hot Toddy blends the bar’s fig brandy with Metaxa 12* Greek mountain tea.
The 83-cover space, designed by Finch Studio, houses custom pottery sourced from Cretan artisans behind the bar, which beyond their aesthetic purpose, are being used to age ingredients.
Address: 58 Poland St, London W1F 7NR
Three Horses, Melbourne
Caretaker’s Cottage is a teeny-tiny 100-year-old brick cottage in Melbourne’s CBD, which also happens to be one of the best bars in the world. Three Horses is the hotly anticipated sequel.
For the follow-up, co-founders Rob Libecans, Ryan Noreiks and Matt Stirling have sorted a bigger space just down the road (you can move around now) with the concept spurred on by a trip the trio took to Madrid and visits to the city’s Sherry bars. Sherry reigns supreme with fino, PX, oloroso and more finding their way into a menu of 16 seasonally rotating cocktails.
Saddle up by the bar, appropriately before the painting of three roaming horses, and sample everything from the Margarita Slushie whipped together with Tequila, sorbet and Mandarin Sherry, to the House Martini – a favourite from Caretaker’s, but here given a dash of fino.
Address: 106 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
Seed Library, New York
If New York’s bar scene has lacked one thing over the years, it’s a Ryan Chetiyawardana venue. The cocktail supremo corrected this oversight with his Big Apple debut in early November.
The bartender – who also goes by Mr Lyan – has brought over his Seed Library concept, which won over London by way of crazy-good cocktails (see the Orkney Breezer). Here, though, Chetiyawardana has given the bar a distinctly New York feel in a stripped-back space in the basement of Hotel Park Ave.
The menu continues Chetiyawardana’s never-ending quest to find new flavour profiles. Expect intriguing, scientific cocktails with ingredients that sound a little offbeat when reading, but make perfect sense after drinking. An Americano-style serve called the Mexicano features toasted hay-infused Campari, while enzyme-concord grape factors in a cocktail called the Shepherd’s Delight.
Address: 51 E 30th St, New York, NY 10016, United States
San Patricios, New Jersey
New in Jersey City… San Patricios lands halfway between a Mexican cantina and an Irish pub, which is a very good place to be – considering both establishments are two of the best places to have a drink in.
From Jack McGarry and the team behind The Dead Rabbit, the venue takes from the best of both worlds with Tequila, mezcal and Irish whiskey sitting in tandem on the back bar. Irish Coffees (here made with a combination of Patrón and Teeling) and Margaritas (made with Altos Plata Tequila, Shortcross Poítin, sour orange, lime and honeyed agave) headline the cocktail menu.
The Mexico-Ireland bond carries over for entertainment too, with live Irish sessions and Mexican folk bands.
Address: 8 Erie St A, Jersey City, NJ 07302, United States
Bar de Vie, Paris
Oui oui, or should we say vie vie (excuse our French). Paris has a new drinking hotspot in Bar de Vie – from Alex Francis and Barney O’Kane, a pair with experience at Paris’ Little Red Door.
Tucked away in a limestone cave beneath sister restaurant Comptoir de Vie, the game here is some seriously high-level sustainability. The team pulls from their network of local farms, growers and producers for ingredients where every core, skin and stem has a purpose. They then turn all this into an ever-evolving menu that highlights natural flavours and some of the best seasonal produce you’ll find in France.
For the sustainably curious, the venue also houses a library, which archives every trial and test from their experimentations with reducing waste, plus the Pantry, where you can buy some of the homemade herbs, spices, ferments and preserved byproducts to take home.
The bar has a full ban on ice, with all drinks prebatched and prediluted. “The transportation and packaging involved in clear ice meant that was out, and a machine was out of the question – so, why not no ice at all?” Francis told us about the policy.
Address: 22-24 Rue Saint-Sauveur, 75002 Paris, France
Beef & Liberty, Chicago
The questions of ‘should we’ and ‘where’ for one more drink after a meal at Hawksmoor Chicago have been emphatically answered with the arrival of Beef & Liberty upstairs.
The new cocktail bar on the steakhouse’s second floor can seat 40 and is styled around a moody London cocktail den (Hawksmoor is a London transplant after all) with exposed brick and original timber joists alongside glossy painted panelling.
Katie Renshaw, who will be opening her own bar next year, is behind the menu, borrowing from London’s ‘naughty aughties’ era when supermodels and geezers mingled and shared drinks. Therefore, you’ll see many a Martini, from Salvatore Calabrese’s Breakfast classic to a Pink Gibson, a Vesper and the one from Duke’s, served at -2°F in insulated flasks and with a limit of two per guest.
Address: 500 N La Salle Dr, Chicago, IL 60654
Amazónico, Miami
Swinging into Miami over autumn with its glamorous brand of jungle-inspired drinks and decor was the first US outpost of Amazónico.
Magic City’s version of the Latin American-inspired restaurant, bar and lounge – which has locations in London, Madrid, Monte Carlo and Dubai – is set across three floors that flit between open-air spaces and exotic interiors dressed in the brand’s signature shades of deep green. A nightclub called Selva was also added to the space in December for those up for exploring ‘the dark side of the jungle’.
Cocktails are made with the customary Amazónico flair, and that goes for the playful presentation, too. Order the Monkey Business (made with Bulleit Bourbon, lemon, banana, ginger, honey and fennel pollen) and you’ll sip it from a chimpanzee’s head.
Address: 800 Brickell Ave, Miami, FL 33131, United States
Netsu, Dubai
Netsu in Dubai’s Mandarin Oriental Jumeirah hotel specialises in our favourite form of theatre: the cocktail kind.
Its concept is inspired by Kabuki, a traditional Japanese play that blends drama, movement and striking performance. The show here though is a menu carefully put together with rare Japanese spirits and seasonal ingredients, where flavour intensifies as guests progress through its four acts, each of which features four cocktails.
The first act kicks things off with delicate flavours found in serves like a floral Spritz, while the second act is where flavours deepen with a Sour made with umeshu and lapsang souchong. The third stage sees the menu reach a ‘dramatic crescendo’ with the flavours bold and the presentation dramatic, and the fourth and final act is where flavours soften and the curtain closes.
The fifth act? You could always reflect on the performance over a few more cocktails.
Address: Mandarin Oriental Jumeirah, Jumeirah Beach Road, Jumeirah 1, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Bar Leone, Shanghai
Justin Shun Wah and Lorenzo Antinori celebrated the success of their Hong Kong venue Bar Leone – recently given that little honour of the World’s Best Bar – with a second site in autumn.
Now in Shanghai’s Huangpu neighbourhood, the pair haven’t veered too far off script, dishing out their ‘cocktail popolari’ philosophy across two floors. Downstairs, guests can try lighter drinks with aperitifs and low-ABV serves, such as a Bar di Passo, and Spritzes from a dedicated Spritz bar. Meanwhile, the ‘moodier’ upstairs is a homage to the Hong Kong original with its signature cocktails safely intact, like the Filthy Martini. Stay calm, Shanghai: the smoked olives and mortadella focaccia are both here, too.
Other additions include the Leone Vermouth Service, which is available on the ground floor and described as a ‘house blend of vermouths served on ice, topped with orange foam and accompanied by taralli and Parmigiano’. Meanwhile, upstairs, guests feeling flush can explore a section of the menu titled Vecchi & Rari (old and rare). This offers aged cocktails and vintage spirits as long as stocks last – say a 28-month Aged Dry Martini, or a Black Truffle Godfather infused with 25 grams of Yunnan black truffle.
Address: 527 Fuxing Middle Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai.
Vivien, Edinburgh
Chef and restaurateur Stuart Ralston has made the decision on where to go for your next romantic outing in Edinburgh very easy with the launch of Vivien, in tandem with his new restaurant Vinette.
Located under Vinette, the bar is named after Renée Vivien, a poet who lived during La Belle Époque in Paris. Ralston hopes to embody her ‘rebellious and inquisitive spirit, as well as aesthetic principles of decadence’ at the site. Rebekah George heads up the drinks programme, covering classic cocktails like a house Freezer Martini while throwing in a few of her own. The Strawberry Thief is made with white rum, Campari, strawberry, tropical rooibos, lime and soda.
Dinner upstairs, followed by cosy drinks in the speakeasy downstairs? Sounds like date night done right to us.
Address: 1 Barony St, Edinburgh EH3 6NY
Yume, Hong Kong
Yume has big boots to fill, taking over the basement spot in Central that once housed Drop and Quality Goods Club, two iconic Hong Kong venues.
The Japanese-influenced cocktail lounge’s debut menu was titled Dream is Destiny and featured an interactive origami ‘fortune teller’ that guides guests to cocktails such as It Was All a Dream, made with dark rum, rye whisky, pineapple and coconut, or the Kiss of a Geisha, which combines Bourbon fat-washed with shiitake mushroom against coffee liqueur and bitters.
Unlike its predecessors, the bar is making a point starting the night early, opening from 6pm, to address a shift in the city’s drinking habits from today’s generation. It notes guests now prefer to ease in early ‘with a good drink, a great playlist and a seat you can actually talk from’, rather than starting them at 11pm. A move that also suits some of us oldies, to be honest.
Address: B/F, On Lok House, 39-43 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong
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