Oct 03 2025.
views 23Hiriketiya’s beloved Smoke & Bitters has once again put Sri Lanka on the global map, named No. 67 on the World’s 50 Best Bars extended list 2025 announced today. Climbing an impressive 19 places from last year, the bar remains the only Sri Lankan-owned bar ever to feature — and one of just two from South Asia — cementing its place among the world’s most influential drinking destinations alongside icons like Attaboy (New York), The SG Club (Tokyo), Wax On (Berlin), A Bar with Shapes for a Name (London) and Eximia (São Paulo).
The story of Smoke & Bitters is one of grit, heart, and perseverance. Co-founders Don Ranasinghe and Lahiru (Lalla) Perera, best friends who began their journeys clearing glasses, waiting tables, and running events, opened the bar just five years ago with one goal: to create a distinctly Sri Lankan cocktail and dining experience. With no shortcuts or gimmicks, their rise is built on a commitment to craft, authentic hospitality, and real relationships.
This announcement follows Smoke & Bitters’ meteoric rise in the region—from debuting at No.42 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars in 2022 to climbing to No.14 this year, earning the title of Best Bar in Sri Lanka for four consecutive years. Don and Lalla are also behind the newly launched Raa, an arrack and toddy- focused bar in Hiriketiya, which remarkably debuted on the Asia’s 50 Best Bars extended list at No.84 in its very first year.
What makes the achievement even more powerful is the team behind it—nearly 50 strong, made up of bartenders and cooks recruited from nearby villages. Affectionately called the “village bartenders,” many of them had never left the district until Don and Lalla mentored, trained, and put them out there. Today, bartenders like Sameera and Amila represent Sri Lanka on international stages, traveling for guest shifts in Singapore, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, India, Kazakhstan and beyond. Smoke & Bitters’ reach extends well past its palm-fringed home in Pehembiya. The bar has built an impressive global network through its “Sunset Shifts” guest series, hosting acclaimed names such as
Native, Sago House, Cantina OK!, EKAA, Kotuwa, Lair, Jigger & Pony, Masque, Elephant Room, Hideaway Goa, Bombay Canteen, Bees Knees, Soka, House on Sathorn, Nico de Soto and Pankaj Balachandran. In turn, Don, Lalla, and their team have represented Sri Lanka abroad with high-profile bar takeovers at Honky Tonks (Hong Kong), ZLB23 (Bengaluru), Pantja (Jakarta), Hope & Sesame (Guangzhou), Sugarhall (Singapore), Bees Knees (Tokyo), Danico (Paris), and Moebius (Milan). These exchanges have positioned Smoke & Bitters as a true ambassador of Sri Lankan food and drink culture.
At its core, however, the bar remains true to its origins: a low-key beachside venue serving locally inspired, artisanal cocktails and smoked dishes under the glow of Hiriketiya’s sunsets. For Don and Lalla, success has always meant elevating their team and their community. Their recent “Smoke & Bitters Loves Local” series has placed Sri Lankan bartenders on the same platform as international stars, challenging the perception of bartending as a low-prestige profession and championing fair recognition for the craft locally.
The World’s 50 Best Bars, first published in 2009, is the most respected global ranking of drinking destinations, voted on by a gender-balanced Academy of 700 bartenders, consultants, writers and cocktail experts worldwide, and independently adjudicated by Deloitte. This year’s annual awards ceremony takes place in Hong Kong this October, where Don and Lalla will join their peers from around the world.
IG: https://www.instagram.com/smoke.bitters/
Announcement: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DO-c-xTDJcT/?
utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
New venture: Raa https://www.instagram.com/raa.hiriketiya/
For more information please contact Leah Marikkar (+94777383807 or [email protected])
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Located on the stunning Pehembiya beach in Hiriketiya, in the southern tip of Sri Lanka, Smoke & Bitters has attracted both tourists and locals with its authentically Sri Lankan offerings. All its dishes are cooked using
wood fire, either smoked or chargrilled, as signified by the ‘Smoke’ in its name. ‘Bitters’ conveys the co- founders’ passion for creating their own bitters from locally sourced ingredients, which dominate the cocktail menu.
The drinks programme is influenced by ‘Tiki’ bar pioneers of the 1930s, Don The Beachcomber and Trader Vic. Smoke & Bitters serves cocktails and dishes which draw inspiration from a myriad cultures around the world using indigenous Sri Lankan herbs and spices. The menus are wildly inventive with cocktails like Cherry Cherry Cola: a cherry flavoured bomb, breaking all the rules of classic cocktail recipe ratios, being head bartender Sameera’s own concoction. A unique take on the Rum & Coke, this drink tastes like cherry without the cherry! Reminiscent of a Soda Sundae topped with coconut foam including white rum, butterfly pea, hibiscus, pineapple, house cola and angostura bitters. Dishes like the Smoked Lankan Burrata with house cured anchovies, chargrilled mangoes and pandan oil are a guest favourite, combined with a new delightful dessert menu featuring Chocolate Cremeux, Arrack Semifreddo and Sea Almond Crumble.
The Old & Smoked is an old fashioned that draws inspiration from all things Sri Lankan, using a freeze distilled arrack blend of arracks and cinnamon coupled with a house smoked orange bitter and finished off with Halmilla smoke. This drinks embodies the elements that make up the drinks program at S&B. Smoke & Bitters has also been mentioned glowingly in esteemed publications and media outlets such as Delicious Australia, Vogue India, Conde Nast Traveller, Financial Times UK, CNA Luxury, The Rake Japan and CNN Travel, which have noted the venue’s authenticity and world class standards.
In addition to being a co-owner Don Ranasinghe is Head of the Drinks Programme at Smoke & Bitters and started his adventure in the world of nightclubs and live music venues at the age of 18 as a bar-back at the iconic London venue KOKO. He later went on to manage this 1,800 capacity 7-bar venue. Using the experience gained in London, he and Lahiru set up this idyllic venue on the beaches of Sri Lanka in early 2020.
Co-founder Lahiru Perera is the Head of Food Programme at Smoke & Bitters. In 2014, he created and founded what went on to become a successful chain of bars and restaurants called Zephyr in Sri Lanka. Thereafter, in early 2020, he partnered up with his friend to set up Smoke & Bitters. An alumni of the famous Ballymaloe Cookery School, Perera is ambitiously pursuing the inclusion of ancient cooking techniques in his modern programme delivery.
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The World’s 50 Best Bars awards ceremony is the drinks industry’s most anticipated night of the year and it is an evening of international celebration. It brings together the best bartending talent from around the globe, with a live countdown of the list, culminating in the announcement of The World’s Best Bar, sponsored by Perrier.
Incorporating grand hotel bars, secretive speakeasies, quirky salons and classic drinking dens, The World’s 50
Best Bars list is a celebration of the diversity and universality of drinks culture and a reflection of new bar scenes developing all over the world. The most-respected global bars ranking heads to the Spanish capital, Madrid, as it continues to showcase the greatest cocktail destinations around the world 50 Best will gather the very best of the international drinks community in Madrid – a city renowned for its vibrant food and drink culture and sensational nightlife – for the 16th edition of its awards this year. Launched in 2009, The World’s 50 Best Bars event programme has travelled from London to Barcelona and Singapore, celebrating some 364 individual bars along the way.
After the success of the 2023 events in Singapore, which saw more than 100 satellite parties, guest shifts and
activations take place across the week, festivities for 2024 will bring bartenders, cocktail aficionados and drinks media in their thousands to the Spanish capital. The World’s 50 Best Bars list is compiled from the votes of The World’s 50 Best Bars Academy, which includes renowned bartenders and consultants, drinks writers and cocktail specialists. Since 2017, the names of the voters on the panel are confidential to prevent lobbying. To further ensure fair representation across the board, the Academy is gender-balanced and has 28 Academy Chairs heading up its geographic regions.
https://www.theworlds50best.com/bars/
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