Imperial Craft

The Seafront Setting That Shapes the Drink

Tel Aviv's bar scene divides along a rough geographic logic: the dense, neighbourhood-rooted bars of Florentin and Rothschild, and the seafront strip where the Mediterranean provides a backdrop that is difficult to ignore. Imperial Craft belongs to the second category, occupying Atarim Square on HaYarkon Street, where the promenade meets the city's hotel corridor. The setting is not incidental. Bars at this latitude of Tel Aviv are expected to work across a wider range of hours and moods than their inland counterparts, pulling from hotel guests, locals who have made the walk, and travellers who found the address in a ranked list. Imperial Craft has been in all of those lists.

The square itself has a complicated reputation among Tel Avivians. Atarim is a 1970s Brutalist commercial complex that the city has spent decades trying to revitalise. What it lacks in architectural warmth it compensates for in position: direct sea views, open air, and proximity to one of the densest concentrations of foot traffic in the city. A bar that can perform well here, year-round, is doing something technically and operationally right. Imperial Craft has done exactly that for long enough to collect international recognition twice over.

Where Imperial Craft Sits on the Global Bar Map

The World's 50 Best Bars rankings function as one of the more rigorous external benchmarks available to the bar industry. Securing a position once can reflect timing, a strong panel vote, or a moment of refined programme. Appearing twice, across different years, with a higher placing on the first entry, is a more reliable signal. Imperial Craft ranked No. 17 in 2015 and returned at No. 50 in 2017, a trajectory that reflects the competitive compression that happens when more serious programmes enter the list from other markets.

For context, the bars sharing that tier in those years included programmes from London, New York, and Singapore that have since become standard references for serious cocktail bars globally. Sitting in that company placed Imperial Craft in a very small group of Middle Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean bars earning recognition at that level. The 2015 position, in particular, placed it ahead of many bars that now appear regularly on international shortlists. That credential carries weight when reading the current Tel Aviv bar scene, where newer venues like Bar 51, Bosser, Brix, and Christoff have developed their own identities and brought the city's overall programme quality upward.

A 4.5 Google rating drawn from close to 2,000 reviews adds a different kind of evidence. Ranked-list recognition can reflect a bar's ceiling; a high aggregated public score reflects its floor. Bars that perform well on both measures are operating consistently across all types of visits, not just peak-night showcases.

Tel Aviv's Cocktail Bar Tradition and Where This Fits

Israel's modern cocktail culture developed later than London or New York, but the gap has narrowed considerably over the past fifteen years. Tel Aviv drove that change. The city's drinking culture was historically oriented around wine and spirits served simply, with bars functioning as social spaces rather than technical programmes. The shift toward craft cocktails, seasonal ingredients, and menu depth came from a generation of bartenders who travelled and trained internationally before returning to a local market that was ready for the change.

Imperial Craft was among the earliest bars in the city to operate at the technical level that 50 Best voters recognise. Its period of peak international recognition, from roughly 2014 to 2017, coincided with the broader emergence of Middle Eastern cities on global hospitality maps. Dubai and Beirut were also developing serious bar programmes during this period, but Tel Aviv's reach into the rankings was more sustained. The imperial cocktail Tel Aviv association that built around this address reflects that specific window, when the bar was operating as both a local reference and an international talking point simultaneously.

The comparison with internationally recognised bars from other cities is instructive for understanding what kind of programme earns 50 Best placement. Jewel of the South in New Orleans works within a deep historical cocktail tradition; Kumiko in Chicago draws on Japanese technique applied to American formats; Bar Leather Apron in Honolulu built its reputation through precision in a market not typically associated with serious cocktail programmes. In each case, the bar is doing something specific to its context, not simply replicating a global template. Imperial Craft's position in Tel Aviv followed a similar logic: its recognition was partly about the quality of the programme and partly about where that programme was operating.

Planning a Visit: Practical Considerations

Atarim Square is on HaYarkon Street at number 169, directly on the promenade between the city's main hotel zone and the beach. The address is accessible by foot from most of the central Tel Aviv accommodation cluster, and from the Dizengoff area it is a manageable walk along the coast. Arriving from the south, from Jaffa or the port area, the promenade route is the most direct. The bar sits within a complex, so confirming the specific entrance point before arrival is worth the few minutes it saves.

No booking data is available in public channels, which suggests walk-in is the operating model, consistent with how most Tel Aviv bars in this tier handle capacity. Peak evenings, particularly Thursday through Saturday, will be busiest. The seafront location also means weather is a factor: the terrace-adjacent position that makes Atarim appealing in spring and autumn is less controlled in the height of summer humidity or on occasional winter evenings with wind off the sea.

For visitors building a broader Tel Aviv bar itinerary, the EP Club Tel Aviv guide maps the city's drinking scene across neighbourhoods and price tiers. Internationally, bars operating in comparably positioned markets include Superbueno in New York, Julep in Houston, The Parlour in Frankfurt, and 1806 in Melbourne, each of which provides a useful reference for understanding the tier Imperial Craft occupied at its peak.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Imperial Craft known for?

Imperial Craft is known as one of the first Tel Aviv bars to earn placement in the World's 50 Best Bars, reaching No. 17 in 2015. That ranking placed it among the leading cocktail programmes globally for that period, and it remains a reference point on the Tel Aviv bar circuit. Its seafront location at Atarim Square distinguishes it physically from the city's inland bar cluster.

What do regulars order at Imperial Craft?

No specific menu data is available in our current records for Imperial Craft, and we do not speculate on dishes or drinks not confirmed by a verified source. The bar's 50 Best recognition across two years points to a programme with technical depth, and the sustained Google rating of 4.5 across nearly 2,000 reviews suggests consistent delivery across a range of orders rather than a narrow signature focus.

What's the leading way to book Imperial Craft?

No advance booking mechanism is listed in current public data for Imperial Craft. Walk-in is the most likely approach, which is standard for Tel Aviv's serious bar tier. Arriving earlier in the evening on weekdays reduces wait times; Thursday to Saturday evenings at the HaYarkon Street location tend to draw the highest volume given the seafront foot traffic.

How does Imperial Craft's 50 Best ranking compare to other bars that have appeared on the same list?

Imperial Craft's No. 17 position in the 2015 World's 50 Best Bars placed it inside the leading quarter of the list in a year when competition included established programmes from London, New York, and Hong Kong. Very few bars from the Middle East or Eastern Mediterranean region have reached that tier, making the 2015 result particularly significant as a marker of where the Tel Aviv programme stood relative to global peers. The 2017 return at No. 50 reflected increased competition from incoming bars rather than a decline in the programme itself.