shane eaton 10/13/26 shane eaton 10/13/26

Lorenzo vs Lorenzo: Bar Leone, Moebius Milano and The 50 Best Bars 2026

Lorenzo Querci (Moebius) and Lorenzo Antinori (Bar Leone) at The 50 Best Bars ceremony in Milano

Two Lorenzos stood at the top of the bar world in Milano on 7 October. At the Palazzo del Ghiaccio, The 50 Best Bars 2026 named Lorenzo Antinori's Bar Leone in Hong Kong The World's Best Bar for the second year running. One place behind, Lorenzo Querci's Moebius Milano finished No.2 and took The Best Bar in Europe in front of a home crowd. Two Italians with opposite ideas of what a great bar should be, separated by a single step on the podium.

The Roman: Lorenzo Antinori and Bar Leone

Antinori was supposed to be a lawyer. Born in Rome in 1987, he enrolled in law school with the idea of becoming a sports agent and took a part-time bar job on the side, where an elderly regular who ordered a Perfect Manhattan every day got him hooked on the craft. He dropped law, started out at the Hotel de Russie in Rome, worked his way through Australia and Mexico, and landed in London in 2010.

London was his finishing school. He spent four years at The Savoy, between the American Bar and the Beaufort Bar, then became head bartender at Dandelyan, the Mondrian bar that leapt to No.3 on the world list in 2016 and went on to be named The World's Best Bar in 2018. One was the grand hotel bar at its most classical, the other the most inventive bar of its moment, and Antinori has always said he needed both.

In 2017 Four Seasons sent him to Seoul to run Charles H., in a market where he arrived to find Angostura only recently legalised. Under him the bar was named the best in Korea in 2019 and made Asia's 50 Best Bars for the first time. Hong Kong came next, as beverage manager of Four Seasons Hong Kong and Asia-Pacific beverage ambassador for the group. There he helped relaunch the bar at Caprice and, in 2021, between lockdowns, opened Argo, which reached No.3 in Asia and No.28 in the world in 2022.

Then he walked away. In June 2023 he left the security of Four Seasons to open a bar of his own, a move many in the industry thought reckless. The bet paid off in spades. After the complex, technical drinks of Argo, Bar Leone is a love letter to the neighbourhood bars of Rome's Trastevere: wood, vintage Italian touches, football memorabilia and a room that feels as if it has been there for decades.

The house philosophy is cocktail popolari, cocktails for the people. There is no theatre and no trend chasing, only classics made with precision and hospitality that turns a stranger into a regular by the second round. The kitchen pulls its weight too: the smoked olives and mortadella sandwich are as much a part of the legend as anything in a glass.

The climb has been relentless. Leone debuted at No.1 on Asia's 50 Best Bars and No.2 in the world in 2024. In 2025 it became the first bar from Asia to top the global list, and that summer Tales of the Cocktail named it Best International Cocktail Bar and Antinori International Bartender of the Year. In Milano it kept the world crown and was also named The Best Bar in Asia.

In an interview just after the ceremony, Antinori gave part of the credit to the city itself.

“In Hong Kong we are very lucky, because it's an extremely diverse bar scene that really reflects the diversity of the city. You can come to Bar Leone, but down the road you have an amazing agave spirits bar, Coa, and amazing hotel bars like Argo or Darkside at the Rosewood. That diversity is what makes the scene exciting, and to a certain extent it helps us to be competitive, to push our limits and to keep improving the experience for our guests. For me personally, it's one of the best bar scenes in the world, and we're very lucky to represent Hong Kong on a global stage.”

The host: Lorenzo Querci and Moebius Milano

Querci came to the bar from the dining room rather than from behind the stick. He is Tuscan, from a family of Sienese restaurateurs, and his father Alberto is still his business partner. Milanese profiles paint him as a tall, charismatic host, humble and sociable in equal measure, with two passions that run through everything he opens: comics first, music a close second.

The comics explain the name. Moebius is not a nod to the mathematician's strip but to Jean Giraud, the French artist who signed his work Moebius and helped define the look of surreal science fiction. Querci opened it in 2019 in a former textile warehouse between Stazione Centrale and Porta Venezia, with a design by Studio Q-Bic that pairs raw iron and warm wood with a 700-year-old Andalusian olive tree rising through two floors.

The kitchen has been a partnership from day one with Enrico Croatti, the Rimini-born chef who had already won Michelin stars at Dolomieu and at Orobianco in Alicante, and the first menus played on the Tuscan and Romagnol roots of the two founders. Today Croatti's Moebius Sperimentale occupies a glass-walled dining room upstairs, above the tapas bistro and the bar. It earned a Michelin star of its own in November 2024, the third of Croatti's career, and kept it in the 2026 guide.

The music explains the rest. Moebius sells vinyl and programmes live sets, and it is widely credited with starting Milano's craze for Japanese-style listening bars. Querci takes identity as seriously as the drinks: a graphic designer gives the menus and events their comic-book look, and guest shifts have brought in bartenders from Singapore, San Francisco and Sri Lanka. More recently he and his father opened a second bar, Lubna, another nod to the comics. Lubna is the girlfriend of Ranxerox, the cult antihero created by Stefano Tamburini and Tanino Liberatore.

Antinori bet on restraint. Querci's bet is the opposite: do everything, and do it at volume. Moebius on Via Cappellini puts cocktails, a serious kitchen, music and bold design under one roof, and runs a big, busy room without letting the sense of occasion slip.

And while Leone leans on the classics, the bar team led by Giovanni Allario plays with Italian food culture in the glass. Its calling card is the Pesto Martini, a drink that sums up both the bar's sense of humour and its ambition.

Few bars have moved faster. In 2025 Moebius jumped 31 places to No.7, its first time in the top ten, and took the Highest Climber award. That summer it was also named Best International Restaurant Bar at the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards in New Orleans. In 2026 it rose five more places to No.2 and was named The Best Bar in Europe. Winning that title on home turf, a few kilometres from the bar, made for the most exciting moment of the night. For Querci, the jump from seventh to second, in Milano of all places, shines a light on the whole city, and on Italy with it.

Head to head

  
        Bar Leone
        Moebius Milano
      
        The Lorenzo
        Lorenzo Antinori
        Lorenzo Querci
      
        Background
        Rome; Savoy and Dandelyan in London, Charles H. in Seoul, Argo in Hong Kong
        Siena; family of restaurateurs, a passion for comics and music
      
        Address
        Central, Hong Kong
        Via Cappellini, Milano
      
        2026
        No.1, The World's Best Bar and The Best Bar in Asia
        No.2, The Best Bar in Europe
      
        2025
        No.1
        No.7, Highest Climber
      
        2024
        No.2
        No.38
      
        The idea
        A Roman neighbourhood bar: classics, cocktail popolari
        Cocktails, kitchen, music and design in one big room
      
        Signature
        Classic aperitivo drinks, smoked olives, mortadella sandwich
        Pesto Martini

The verdict for Milano and Italy

Italian hospitality took the top two places in the world, one exported and one at home. Antinori proved that a Roman bar can conquer Asia. Querci proved that Milano can produce a bar the whole world votes for, and he did it on the night the city hosted the ceremony.

Italy has two bars in the top 50: Moebius at No.2 and Locale Firenze at No.33. For anyone planning a night out in Milano, Via Cappellini is now the address. For anyone heading to Hong Kong, the queue at Leone is not getting any shorter.

Round three goes to Antinori. On current form, round four could go the other way.

shane eaton 9/23/26 shane eaton 9/23/26

The 51 to 100 Bars 2026

With today’s release of the 2026 51-100 list, now in its tenth year, the countdown to 7 October is officially on. This year the ceremony is in Milano, the first time Italy has played host.

Four Italian bars made the cut: two in Rome, one in Florence and one in Milano. No other European country has more on the extended list, with Spain and the UK close behind on three apiece.

No.62: Freni e Frizioni, Rome

Italy’s top entry this year is the Trastevere favourite housed in an old bicycle workshop, which is where the name (“brakes and clutches”) comes from. Riccardo Rossi and Freni e Frizioni did much to shape the modern Roman aperitivo, and on a warm evening the piazza out front is overflowing. It was on the extended list last year too, and No.62 rewards that reliability.

No.91: Gucci Giardino, Florence

Gucci Giardino returns to the extended list from its home inside the Gucci Garden on Piazza della Signoria. The repeat appearance suggests voters look past the fashion-house glamour to a genuinely strong cocktail program. For now, it is Tuscany’s lone entry.

No.92: Drink Kong, Rome

Few Italian bars are as instantly recognizable as Patrick Pistolesi’s neon-washed room in Monti, where Japanese-inspired design meets clean, precise drinks. Having placed 40th on the main list in 2025, No.92 marks a steep fall. Rankings are fickle, though, and I’d still send anyone heading to Rome straight to its door.

No.94: 1930, Milano

Milano’s sole entry is a genuine speakeasy run by “Benjamin” Fabio Cavagna. There is no public address, and getting in depends on who you know or an invitation. Like Drink Kong, it has dropped from the main list, where it sat at No.43 in 2025. Plenty of visiting bartenders will be trying their luck at that door during awards week.

The missing names

Last year Italy had eight bars in the top 100, so four are unaccounted for. Jerry Thomas Speakeasy, L’Antiquario and Milano’s own Moebius, among others, have either climbed into the top 50 or fallen off the list. Moebius heads into October on a strong run with the home crowd behind it, and the city will be watching.

Ceremony night at Palazzo del Ghiaccio

The awards will be held on 7 October at Palazzo del Ghiaccio, the historic ice rink on Via Piranesi dating from the 1920s. This 18th edition is the first to take place in Italy. The evening follows the familiar 50 Best script: a red carpet and drinks reception, then the countdown from No.50 all the way to The World’s Best Bar, sponsored by Perrier.

Not on the exclusive guest list? The countdown streams live on The 50’s YouTube channel from 20:00 Milano time. The ranking itself comes from more than 800 bartenders, drinks writers, educators and specialists in 29 regions, who each cast eight votes based on the last 18 months, with Deloitte checking the results.

Italy’s presence is felt among the sponsors too: Campari, Disaronno, Amaro Lucano, Mancino Vermouth, Polot 1882, Zoppis and, yes, Parmigiano Reggiano as Official Cheese Partner. In Milano, the venue partners are the Bulgari Hotel, Excelsior Hotel Gallia, Casa Brera, The Doping Milano and Ceresio7.

More than one night

The ceremony is a single evening, but the whole city will be buzzing with guest shifts, tastings and parties around it. Planning a drink (or a bed!) anywhere decent between 5 and 8 October? Book now, or prepare for tears.

Italian bartenders have been shaping bars far beyond Italy for years, so bringing the awards here feels long overdue. Come 7 October, we’ll see how many more Italian names made the top 50.