Every new menu at Baba au Rum is an event in itself — not only for Athens, but for anyone who follows the evolution of contemporary bar culture. The city’s most legendary bar, and one of the world’s most acclaimed, returns this year with its 11th cocktail list since first opening its doors on Kleitiou Street in 2009. Sixteen years of dedication to fine drinking and creative expression through cocktails are distilled into a menu that is both retrospective and experimental — a dialogue between past and future, experience and reinvention.
When Baba au Rum opened in 2009, it had a clear vision: to change the way Athenians drink. And it succeeded — emphatically. It didn’t just become one of the best bars in Athens; it became a benchmark for the transformation that turned the Greek capital into a true fine-drinking metropolis. Thanos Prunarus and his team studied the classic cocktail canon in depth — tracing recipes and influences back to New Orleans and the pre-Prohibition era of the 1920s — and reintroduced them with care, personality, and precision, adapting each to the rhythm and context of the modern bar world.
The public embraced it, Klitiou Street came alive, and Baba au Rum quickly established itself in the minds of locals and visitors alike as a true destination bar. This year, once again, it earned a place on The World’s 50 Best Bars list — but it also achieved something more. Baba au Rum was honoured with the title of “Legend of the List,” an award reserved for bars that have maintained a long-standing and consistent presence at the top of the global bartending scene.
The 11th menu of Baba au Rum was released only a few days ago, just ahead of the Athens Bar Show — when the Greek capital becomes the epicentre of the global fine-drinking scene — and we had the chance to experience it first-hand. The new list opens with a beautiful message on its cover: “Love Letters to Future Selves.”It is divided into two sections. The first, titled “The Baba au Rum’s Classics,” revisits eleven cocktails that have defined the bar’s creative journey through its previous menus: from the fiery Baba’s Zombie and Star-5-Zombie, to the Mai Tai made to Trader Vic’s original 1944 recipe, and the more recent Delicious Sour, Anti-Novel Margarita, and Glass Tears. It’s a flavourful return to Baba’s DNA — an ode to consistency, craftsmanship, and enduring quality.
The second section, “The Experimentals,” is, as its name suggests, bold and exploratory. Here, the team of Thanos Prunarus, Nikos Psarianos, Lefteris Lisgaras, Panos Fatouros, and Sotiris Damianos let imagination take the lead. The Kind of Green — with strawberry, pandan, black pepper and gin — captivated me with its remarkable balance. Looking for a Kiss, made with peach, yoghurt, lavender and white tea, is low-ABV yet offers a lingering yoghurt finish so lush that I immediately wanted another. The Street Jazz Highball combines apple, whisky and blue cheese — an unexpected contrast that works beautifully, dissolving any hesitation from the first sip as the cheese adds a subtle, savoury depth. Unapologetic Skyline starts with pisco, pear and grape, but the real star is the slice of feta served alongside it. I tasted the drink before and after the feta — the change in flavour was astonishing. Finally, the Wai Daiquiri is a glorious meeting of the Caribbean and Thailand, blending jasmine, lemongrass, kaffir lime and aged rums into a cocktail that feels both exotic and effortlessly refined.
The menu also includes two alcohol-free options: the elegant, peach-toned Bellino, and the refreshing, feel-good Zero Cal Mojito — both proving that, today, pleasure at the bar doesn’t have to come with alcohol.
The 11th menu of Baba au Rum is more than just the continuation of a tradition; it’s an experiment. It shows that a great bar never rests on its laurels — it evolves, it experiments, and it creates new memories without ever forgetting the old ones. And Baba au Rum continues to do just that — which is precisely why, after all these years, it still stands among the world’s very best bars.
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