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T H E B E ST B A R S N A M E R I CA , 2 0 2 0
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Twenty-seven drinking experiences to be had when we’ll really need them

“WHAT MAKES A BAR AN ESQUIRE BEST BAR?”
It’s a question I get asked a lot, and I tend to dodge it, mainly because it’s so hard to answer
in a satisfying and meaningful way. My canned reply is something like: a place that you love
so much you can’t wait to experience it all over again.
If I’m being honest, I found that answer cliché—like a Yelp review presented by the Hall-
mark Channel. I masked a cringe every time I said it. But fuck if this pandemic hasn’t made
that sentiment so true.
A trade secret: While we spend most of the year going to bars to compile this list, a flurry
of reporting happens in the spring, right before our deadline, because (a) it’s a great time to
travel and drink and (b) writers never turn in stories early.
But this March, as the trees began to bloom and the country started to hibernate, I squeezed
in one last reporting trip to Los Angeles and had one final drink at a bar before the Great Quar-
antine. It was at the Prince in L. A.’s Koreatown, a place that made this year’s list not only
because of its horseshoe bar, red banquettes, and cocktails and Korean fried chicken—what

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER GRIFFITH 31