The co-founder and beverage director of Martiny's in New York has received an award decided by fellow bartenders appearing on The 50 Best Bars 2026 list.
There is one detail in Takuma Watanabe's latest award that deserves attention before the trophy, the rankings or even the name of the Manhattan bar he helped create. The votes came from other bartenders.
The Tokyo-born co-founder and beverage director of Martiny's in New York has been named the 2026 winner of the Altos Bartenders' Bartender Award. The result was announced on 10 September, ahead of The 50 Best Bars ceremony in Milan on 7 October.
Bartenders whose venues appear on this year's list were asked to nominate the colleague they believed best embodied excellence and continued to redefine the craft. That is the part that gives this award its weight. The people voting understand the pressure of service, the discipline behind consistency and the small decisions a guest may never notice.
In the statement released with the announcement, Watanabe shared the honour with his team, customers, peers and mentors. He also said he hoped to lead by example for the next generation. After 20 years in the industry, he did not speak as though the achievement belonged to him alone.
From Tokyo to New York
Watanabe began bartending in Tokyo at the age of 20. The account supplied by The 50 Best Bars identifies mixologist Shuzo Nagumo as his first mentor and says Nagumo helped him develop his craft.
A standout performance at Diageo World Class in 2012 brought Watanabe to wider international attention. The following year, Shingo Gokan, founder of SG Group, encouraged him to move to New York and join Angel's Share. Watanabe remained there until 2021, learning and refining his approach under Gokan's guidance.
Then came Martiny's. Watanabe opened his first venture in Manhattan in 2022, bringing with him an approach shaped by Japanese cocktail hospitality.
The organisers describe that approach through the principle of omotenashi: anticipating a guest's needs and caring for them throughout the visit. They credit Watanabe with translating Japanese bartending traditions for an American audience, with close attention to cocktails, service, food and the room itself.
Those are the organisers' descriptions. The supplied material does not include a first-hand account of an evening at Martiny's or the preparation of a particular drink, so there is no reason to invent one. What the record does show is the speed with which the bar entered this organisation's rankings.
Martiny's placed No. 75 on the extended list of The World's 50 Best Bars 2025 and No. 23 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2026. Rankings never explain everything happening across a bar, particularly the quieter work of hospitality, but these results provide useful context for a venue that opened only in 2022.
Recognition from behind the bar
Emma Sleight, director of content and creative for The 50 Best Bars, credited Watanabe with technical skill, commitment to hospitality and generosity towards his peers. She said the bartender vote made the recognition especially meaningful.
Danny Gil, the United States brand ambassador for award sponsor Altos Tequila, described Watanabe as an attentive host who makes people feel welcome and at home. Watanabe's own response returned to the same human centre: the people around him and those who helped him reach this point.
The award was introduced in 2017, when Iain Griffiths of Dandelyan in London became its first recipient. Bartenders working in Singapore, Buenos Aires, New York, Cartagena and Edinburgh have since received it. Uno Jang of Jigger & Pony in Singapore won in 2025.
Watanabe is now part of that line. This is the second of two special awards announced before the 2026 ceremony, with the full countdown due to be broadcast through The 50's YouTube channel on 7 October.
For now, the clearest measure of this result is also the simplest. Bartenders were asked which bartender they respected. Their vote returned to Takuma Watanabe.
Source: Media release issued by The 50 Best Bars on 10 September 2026.
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