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The Star
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Star
4 Malaysian bars on Asia's 50 Best Bars 2025 list, Penang bar wins best menu
Malaysia's cocktail scene enjoyed one of its best showings on the annual Asia's 50 Best Bars list, as four bars made it into the Top 50, with one bar in the Top 10. — Photos: 50 Best Bars Malaysia's cocktail scene enjoyed one of its best showings on the annual Asia's 50 Best Bars list, as four bars made it into the Top 50, with one bar in the Top 10. Petaling Street cocktail bar Penrose retained its title as the Best Bar In Malaysia, ranking No.10 this year, dropping just two spots from its No.8 placing in last year's list. Bangsar bar Three X Co made a stunning return into the Top 50 at No.15, its best placing on the list since making its debut at No.47 in 2021. Two other Kuala Lumpur bars were also listed – Bar Trigona (No.39) and Reka:Bar (No.47). The tenth edition of Asia's 50 Best Bars, was announced at a live awards ceremony in Macau on July 15, in collaboration with destination partners Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace. Penang's Backdoor Bodega won the Best Cocktail Menu Award at the Asia's 50 Best Bars 2025. Penang bar Backdoor Bodega pulled off a surprise when it won the Best Cocktail Menu Award 2025 for its 'The Backdoor Bodega Guide to Penang' menu, which "surpasses the traditional drinks list idea to create an all-singing celebration of its unique locality". While it didn't make it into the Top 50, Backdoor Bodega did place No.64 on the extended 51-100 list which was announced last week, together with Bangsar favourite Coley at No.92. Hong Kong's Bar Leone topped the list for the second year running. This year's list featured bars from 20 cities across Asia, including 20 new entries. Hong Kong's Bar Leone was crowned The Best Bar in Asia for the second year running, with Seoul's Zest at No.2 and Singapore's Jigger And Pony at No.3, an exact repeat of last year's Top 3. Chinese bartender Andrew Ho of Guangzhou's Hope & Sesame won the Altos Bartenders' Bartender Award 2024 for his role in elevating Mainland China's drinks scene to new heights. The Asia's 50 Best Bars list is voted upon by a region-wide Academy comprising a gender-balanced group of bartenders, bar owners, drinks writers and cocktail aficionados, all of whom place independent and anonymous votes for what they believe constitutes a 'best bar experience'. Penrose By maintaining its Top 10 position, Penrose continues to fly the flag for Malaysian hospitality, with its on functionalism and simplicity, while providing an intimate atmosphere that allows for engaging conversations between bartender and customer. Founder Jon Lee and his team recently opened a new outlet called Lavantha, also located around the city centre. Three X Co The big Malaysian story of this year's list is the reentry of Three X Co at its highest ever position, at No.15. Located in Bangsar Shopping Centre, the bar been one of mainstays in the KL bar scene since it was founded in 2017. It made its debut at No. 47 on the Asia's 50 Best Bars list in 2021, and this year, it stormed back into the Top 50 on the back of a strong cocktail programme by Head Bartender Amanda Wan, and a reputation of being one of the most hospitable bars in town. Bar Trigona At No.39, Bar Trigona continued its strong presence on the list for the sixth year running. Located at the Four Seasons Hotel Kuala Lumpur, the bar was the first Malaysian bar to make it on the World's 50 Best Bars list in 2020. With head bartender Darwin Ng at the helm, the bar sets the standard for sustainable bar practices by focusing on Malaysian produce. The bar is currently celebrating its seventh anniversary with a look back at some of the best cocktails it has created over the last seven year. Reka:Bar Reka Bar, which had broken into the Top 50 last year the first time at No. 41, placed at No.47 this time around. A self-styled 'post-modern flavour lab' located at Damansara Heights, the bar is like a cross between a chill out lounge club and a space-age laboratory. Led by head bartender Joel Poon, the bar team creates unique and complex, yet clean and flavourful drinks through a myriad of techniques, including infusion, clarification, distillation and more.
Time Out
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Asia's 50 Best Bars 2025: Bar Leone named Best Bar in Asia for second year in a row
Asia's 50 Best Bars has just wrapped up its 10th annual award ceremony, and this year, the prestigious event took place for the first time ever in Macau and was held at Wynn Place on July 15. 2025's list comprises bars from 23 different Asian destinations, with 20 brand-new entries. Hong Kong was represented by a total of six venues on the list, which include Gokan (No. 33), The Savory Project (No. 32), Penicillin (No. 27), Coa (No. 17), Argo (No.11), and most notably, Bar Leone, which retained its title at No. 1. In addition to the prestigious list, the ceremony also appointed venues such as Hanoi's Workshop14 with the Campari One to Watch award, Andrew Ho from Guangzhou's Hope & Sesame with the Altos Bartender's Bartender award, and Kathmandu's Barc for the Michter's Art of Hospitality award. Penang's Back Door Bodega nabbed the Siete Misterios Best Cocktail Menu award, followed by Jakarta's Modernhaus taking home the Three Cents Best New Opening award, Phnom Penh's Sora secured the Ketel One Sustainable Bar award, and Jay Khan from our city's very own Coa was honoured with the Roku Industry Icon Award. The annual 50 Best Bars list is curated by over 300 industry experts, including esteemed consultants, influential writers, and talented bartenders from across the region. See the complete list of Asia's 50 Best Bars for 2025: 1 Bar Leone, Hong Kong (Best Bar in Hong Kong) 2 Zest, Seoul (Best Bar in Seoul) 3 Jigger & Pony, Singapore (Best Bar in Singapore) 4 Bar Us, Bangkok (Best Bar in thailand) 5 Dry Wave Cocktail Studio, Bangkok (new entry, Highest New Entry) 6 Bar Cham, Seoul 7 Hope & Sesame, Guangzhou (Best Bar in mainland China) 8 Lair, New Delhi (Best Bar in India, new entry) 9 Bar Benfiddich, Tokyo (Best Bar in Japan) 10 Penrose, Kuala Lumpur (Best Bar in Malaysia) 11 Argo, Hong Kong 12 Modernhaus, Jakarta (new entry, Best Bar in Indonesia) 13 Alice, Seoul (Highest Climber Award) 14 Smoke & Bitters, Hiriketiya (Best Bar in Sri Lanka) 15 Three x Co, Kuala Lumpur (re-entry) 16 CMYK, Changsha 17 Coa, Hong Kong 18 Virtù, Tokyo 19 BKK Social Club, Bangkok 20 Vender, Taichung (Best Bar in Taiwan) 21 Mo Bar, Shenzhen (new entry) 22 The St. Regis Bar, Jakarta (new entry) 23 Offtrack, Singapore 24 Nutmeg & Clove, Singapore 25 Yakoboku, Kumamoto (new entry) 26 G.O.D, Bangkok (new entry) 27 Penicillin, Hong Kong 28 Soka, Bengaluru (new entry) 29 Vesper, Bangkok 30 Boilermaker, Goa (new entry) 31 ZLB23, Bengaluru 32 The Savory Project, Hong Kong 33 Gokan, Hong Kong (new entry) 34 Carrots Bar, Jakarta (new entry) 35 Barc, Kathmandu (Best Bar in Nepal) 36 Punch Room Tokyo, Tokyo (new entry) 37 Bar Spirit Forward, Bengaluru (new entry) 38 Cosmo Pony, Jakarta (new entry) 39 Bar Trigona, Kuala Lumpur 40 The Public House, Taipei 41 To Infinity & Beyond, Taipei (new entry) 42 Moonrock, Tainan (new entry) 43 Opium, Bangkok (new entry) 44 Cat Bite Club, Singapore (new entry) 45 Native, Singapore 46 Lamp Bar, Nara (re-entry) 47 Reka, Kuala Lumpur 48 Bar Sathorn, Bangkok (new entry) 49 Bar Libre, Tokyo (new entry) 50 Le Chamber, Seoul Before you begin to feel bittersweet after the big night's over, there are still plenty of exhilarating bar shifts to catch in Hong Kong and Macau to wrap up the week of celebrations. Rewatch the Asia's 50 Best Bars 2025 ceremony on their YouTube channel and Facebook page.
South China Morning Post
25-06-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Hongkonger wins Asia's 50 Best Bars 2025 Bartenders' Bartender Award. We catch up with him
When Hong Kong native and bartender Andrew Ho co-founded the speakeasy Hope & Sesame in Guangzhou, in China's Guangdong province, in 2016, he saw the bar landscape in mainland China as more focused on trying to catch up with global trends than on honing hospitality and service. He sought to break that mould. Break it he did. And after nine years of perseverance, his efforts have resulted in him receiving the 2025 Bartenders' Bartender Award, the only category in the Asia's 50 Best Bars awards voted for by bartenders from respected establishments. 'As a bartender, you always think [winning the award] is going to happen to someone else,' he says. 'You really never think about it. I'm super surprised but also very happy that all the work we've done in the past 10 years has come to fruition. 'It's important to be recognised by your peers, who are at the top of their game. I'm very honoured.' Ho works a guest shift at The St Regis Bar in Macau in November 2023, which marked the hotel bar's third anniversary. Photo: Andrew Ho
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
After Declaring NAEP Off-Limits, Education Department Cancels Upcoming Test
The U.S. Department of Education has abruptly canceled a national test of 17-year-olds after saying just last week that its recent round of cuts would not impact the National Assessment of Educational Progress. One of three long-term studies that has measured student performance in math and reading since the 1970s, the assessment was set to begin in March and run through May. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter But Westat, a research organization handling the assessment for the National Center for Education Statistics, notified state officials Wednesday that the department had canceled the test. 'The U.S. Department of Education has decided not to fund the NAEP 2024-2025 Long-Term Trend Age 17 assessment,' Marcie Hickman, project director of the NAEP Support and Service Center, said in the email, which was shared with The 74. 'All field operations and activities will end today, February 19, 2025.' A long-term trend assessment of 13 year olds was conducted last fall. The age 9 administration is currently underway through March 14 and will continue. Age 17 data, however, hasn't been collected since 2012, creating a significant gap in understanding older students' academic performance. The tests, which are mandated by law, were set to be administered during the 2019-20 school year, but were canceled due to the COVID outbtreak. This year's data would have set a new baseline for understanding how older students are recovering 'from pandemic-era learning losses,' said Andrew Ho, an assessment expert at Harvard University and former member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policy for NAEP. The cancellation, he said, could undermine the nation's trust in the assessment program. 'This is just the first direct evidence that executive actions have weakened NAEP and its 'gold standard' infrastructure for monitoring educational progress.' Related Every two years, NAEP tests fourth and eighth graders in math and reading. While results from 12th graders, collected last year, are expected this summer, they won't be tested again until 2028. 'NAEP's biggest gaps already are at the end of high school, telling us what kids do [or] don't know and can [or] can't do as they prepare to enter the real world,' said Chester Finn, president emeritus of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute and former chair of the board. The long-term trend study has 'helped fill the gap.' The move contradicts what department officials said last week when they canceled nearly $900 million in contracts for the Institute of Education Sciences, which includes NCES and NAEP. Madison Biedermann, a spokeswoman for the department, said at the time that work related to NAEP would not be canceled. But Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency continues to cancel contracts it deems either wasteful or contrary to President Donald Trump's executive order related to diversity, equity and inclusion. The fact that the test was not administered in 2016 or 2020 'does not make it a very effective longitudinal study,' Biedermann told The 74 Thursday. She did not indicate whether it would be rescheduled. The department has also canceled a contract for conducting background checks on field staff who administer NAEP tests in schools. Biedermann did not provide details on the vendor or the amount of the contract. 'We're going to try to re-scope and re-evaluate these contracts,' she said. If they are 'absolutely necessary,' they will be re-bid, she said. 'A lot of these contracts, in our evaluation, are not cost effective and not meeting the standards.' Biedermann maintained that the core NAEP program in fourth and eighth grade reading and math 'is not being touched.' Results released last month showed that students continue to lose ground in reading. Eighth grade results in math were flat, and while fourth graders saw gains in math, those results were driven by the highest-performing students. Related The long-term trend program is different from the primary NAEP assessment because it has tested students on essentially the same items for over 50 years. 'It's important that we have the long-term trend because of the consistency of the test,' said Dan Goldhaber, director of the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research at the American Institutes for Research. Measuring performance on the same test items allows officials to monitor changes across generations. He added that at least the results from 12th graders, collected last year, will provide 'information about how kids are doing at the end of high school.' The 74's Senior Writer Greg Toppo contributed to this report.
