Upscale Bars Have a Hospitality Problem

When I visited New York from Los Angeles in January, I dropped by a buzzy new bar in Midtown Manhattan with great anticipation. The place looks stunning in photos and is featured on all the best new bars list.

However, its sizzle devolved to fizzle the moment I sat down. Some of the details that make or break a good experience were missing.

The barstool’s floor-length metal side panels made it impossible to move the chairs forward without hopping up. Bouncing acoustics made it difficult to engage in conversation with the other three members of my party. The space, designed by an architecture firm specializing in museums and elite offices, felt serious despite being filled to near capacity. I never felt comfortable.

Still, I can’t say it was a crummy place. The delicious $24 (and up) drinks featured complex, unorthodox ingredients like pretzel miso and fermented carrot—fitting for a space co-owned by a celebrity chef.

And it was easy on the eyes. The space’s dark woods and vintage furniture made the space feel opulent and the earth-toned fresco behind the bar was more beautiful to look at than a sea of bottles.

Despite these pluses, the place left me cold because it felt less like a bar and more like a destination serving drinks—a critical distinction, in my mind. The former is a place with good drinks and warm hospitality; the latter is a spectacle and as the cocktail scene moves forward, I know these types of venues will likely launch with greater frequency. Their visually distinct atmospheres and elaborate drinks will cajole the Instagram and TikTok crowds to eagerly book 90-minute reservation weeks in advance.

But where exactly do these upscale places mean for the future of the bar landscape?

Photography by Igor Aldomar for Bar Mordecai

Is an Upscale Bar Even a Bar?

The line separating a classic bar and a high-end destination bar points to the cocktail scene’s evolution. Classic cocktails on the menu were a mark of distinction years ago. Not anymore. To stand out, and stay competitive in a crowded landscape, an establishment may feel the need to lean into elements that make space a destination, where near $30 drinks can be justified.

This mindset is not unlike restaurants. The three-Michelin star spot and the mom-and-pop greasy spoon technically fit under the same restaurant umbrella, but they’re viewed through different filters. It feels like the time is right to apply those filters to the bar industry.

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Some already feel comfortable doing so, particularly since awards like World’s 50 Best Bars are an increasingly coveted prize within the bar community. “If you’re chasing after stars, you’ll do something different to stand out,” says Christina Viera, co-owner of Bar Mordecai in Toronto. “It worked in the restaurant world, why wouldn’t it work in the bar world?”

If these high-end bars are demonstrably different from traditional bars, should they be called a different name, like a “fine drinking establishment”?

“I’m not one for categorization, so I still think it’s fine to call them bars,” says Nick Amado-Dolan, director of operations for The Bon Vivants, the restaurant group behind the award-winning San Francisco bar Trick Dog. “After all, they’re still serving alcohol.”

Photography by Tyler Storm for Liquid Diet

A Matter of Vibe

While alcohol service technically made the high-end establishment I visited a bar, it never felt like one. This raises the obvious question: What makes a bar a bar?

“The first word that comes to mind is comfort,” explains Amado-Dolan. “A bar caters one single experience for every customer. This means being ready to adapt to any situation—a birthday, a break-up, a girl’s night out, you name it. If a customer wants something off-menu or a classic, we need to be ready to handle that, too.”

Creating comfort gradually infuses a bar with a community-driven character that converts guests into regulars.

This can be done without staying true to familiar bar design tropes.

At Liquid Diet in Las Vegas, there is no bottle display, and the drinks are pre-batched. The bar also exists in a converted garage in an alleyway, and its intent on building a casual atmosphere despite the post-modern approach to drinks puts guests at ease just like a traditional neighborhood joint.

“We make fancy drinks without the snobbery,” explains Liquid Diet co-owner Bret Pfister. “We want this bar to feel comfortable, where you can kick your feet on the table, and it wouldn’t be weird.”

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A destination bar approaches their experience differently. Their chic environments require the guest to stretch up to their level to properly indulge. It’s never about the venue connecting with the customer from where they sit. This fosters a sense of exclusivity rather than community, and it creates a fundamentally different vibe.

“I’ll walk into a place like this and immediately think, ‘there’s no way this place has regulars,’” says Viera. “You can also usually tell if their staff doesn’t expect to see any regulars unless it’s someone in the industry or a [liquor] brand rep.”

I didn’t sense any regulars during my visit to the Midtown bar, but it didn’t matter. The place was packed and people were enjoying the venue’s carefully crafted world.

The exclusive bar-as-destination model appeared successful, and Pfister notes it can succeed in the proper context.

“Community-building doesn’t need to be the focus of a bar’s business plan,” he states. “If they’re looking to build an experience for special occasion celebrations or the see-and-be-seen crowd, it can work if the experience remains focused on the guest.”

Not Bad, But Different

I have mixed feelings about this Midtown Manhattan space. I’m not sure I’ll ever re-visit due to its chilly vibe (and its uncomfortable barstools), but I also know several folks that would devour the high-end atmosphere whole.

I could see myself occasionally recommending the place. Whether I do or not may depend on how many cocktail photos a person has on their social media feed.

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