3 Seattle cocktail bars named among 100 best bars in North America

Expect long lines at Roquette, The Doctor’s Office and Canon this weekend. Those three Seattle cocktail dens cracked a ranking of the top 100 bars in North America earlier this week.

The ranking is compiled by 50 Best, which launched the World’s 50 Best Restaurants series in 2002. This list is an offshoot of the brand’s World’s 50 Best Bars ranking, which is one of the most prestigious honors in the liquor industry, as it’s judged by bar industry and whiskey experts.

Roquette, in Belltown, ranked No. 72, is a French-inspired cocktail bar with one of the largest collections of cognac, calvados, armagnac and eau de vie in the Northwest. Cocktail fans are also drawn to the bar’s overproof rums and mezcal.

On Capitol Hill, The Doctor’s Office checked in at No. 76. It’s a 12-seat speakeasy-esque nook with Japanese aesthetics and a large collection of rare spirits that’s also home to one of the best Vesper cocktails in Seattle.

Finally, ranked at No. 79 is Canon at the edge of First Hill and Capitol Hill, an ambitious cocktail bar with one of the world’s largest collections of spirits. It tallies 4,000 bottles and counting, including a Mt. Vernon rye from 1895 and a Valley Forge whiskey from 1906.

Elsewhere in the Northwest (but over the border), British Columbia had four entries: Meo (No. 92), Laowai (No. 67) and Prophecy (No. 53) in Vancouver, as well as Humboldt Bar (No. 69) in Victoria.

The list includes bars in Canada (11), throughout the United States and down to Mexico (five). Nine bars in New York made the ranking; Miami had four and Chicago had three; Los Angeles and San Francisco tallied one apiece, while bars from the Southwest to New Orleans and Boston also made the list.

This first list is a bit of a tease: The anonymous 300-member judging panel released bars 100 through 51 this week and will name the top 50 bars in North America on April 29 in Vancouver, B.C.