Three years ago GN Chan opened Double Chicken Please on New York’s Lower East Side, right in the midst of a pandemic.
Today, in 2023, Chan’s vision and perseverance have truly paid off, as the co-founder of the award-winning bar can add another accolade: He’s been named the winner of the Altos Bartenders’ Bartender Awards 2023, voted on by the bartenders on this year’s list of The World’s 50 Best Bars.
As that organization notes, the award goes to a personality who made a significant impact in the global bar sector over the voting period and recognizes their commitment to the international community in that time frame. It’s the second of two special awards to be announced ahead of the live awards ceremony on October 17 in Singapore (this marks the first time the event has been held outside of Europe since its 2009 inception).
North America’s Best Bar Is an Inventive Food-Inspired Speakeasy
NYC’s Double Chicken Please just earned the top spot at the annual awards“It gives us great pleasure to announce GN Chan as the recipient of this year’s Altos Bartenders’ Bartender Award,” says William Drew, Director of Content for The World’s 50 Best Bars. “With his refreshing approach to crafting cocktails, unwavering dedication to his vision and infectious personal warmth, he has established Double Chicken Please as one of the most exciting bar concepts in the world. It is no surprise that his peers have selected him as the winner of this award, as his spirit and dedication exemplify the fundamentals of what defines the Altos Bartenders’ Bartender.”
An industrial designer by training and a former street magician, Chan embarked on his bartending journey by accident with no prior experience or knowledge. He left his native Taiwan for New York on a mission to master his mixology craft. In 2017, GN and his business partner Faye Chen set off in a modified bright yellow 1977 Volkswagen minibus, hosting unique cocktail and dining experiences across the country, earning accolades for their innovative overlap of cuisine and mixology.
That same concept (and similar tongue-in-cheek cocktail names) was then given a permanent home in NYC’s Lower East Side in 2020 under the guise of Double Chicken Please.
Even given the pandemic obstacles, the venue soon won a loyal following. The bar’s mission, as they explain, is inspired by the “exploration and experimentation of traditional drinks and dishes in the spirit of hacking design.” To that end, you’ll find amazingly inventive craft cocktails that deconstruct and redefine classic food dishes into liquid form such as the Japanese Cold Noodle, Cold Pizza, Key Lime Pie (a personal favorite), NY Beet Salad, Mango Sticky Rice and more.
In 2022, Double Chicken Please debuted on The World’s 50 Best Bars at No. 6, winning the Disaronno Highest New Entry Award. Earlier this year, Double Chicken Please won Best Bar at the second annual North America’s 50 Best Bars Awards. “Double Chicken Please is truly pushing the boundaries of flavor in cocktails and doing so with staggering creativity and precision, not to mention a wonderful sense of humor, humility and always flawless hospitality,” as Mark Sansom, content director for 50 Best, said at the time. “This remarkable achievement did not come overnight. The duo persevered through the very challenging days of the pandemic, never once compromising their original vision for cocktails inspired by food dishes, even though their dream bar’s very viability was at risk. They not only survived but thrived.”
Chan and Chen have certainly built the hippest bar in the city, if the not world. The queue to get in starts early; there’s a more casual no-reservation front room with some of the greatest fried chicken sandwiches in the world, while an expanded and more complex food and drink menu awaits in the back at The Coop, where reservations are limited to eight people per table.
On winning the award, Chan says: “I am extremely humbled and grateful to be named Altos Bartenders’ Bartender. I would like to dedicate this recognition to Team DCP, who I work and hustle with day to day. It is only together that we have achieved many things we never thought we would be able to, daring to dream big and bigger every day. This recognition serves as motivation, driving our determination to continue progressing and fuelling our enthusiasm to share and expand within our beloved community. I have nothing but gratitude from receiving this honor from my peers. Thank you for being the giants, and for letting us stand on your shoulders.”
The Altos Bartenders’ Bartender Award was introduced to The World’s 50 Best Bars in 2017 and the inaugural winner was Iain Griffiths of London’s Dandelyan. Subsequent winners include Joe Schofield, then of Tippling Club in Singapore, in 2018; Monica Berg of Tayēr + Elementary, London, in 2019; Renato ‘Tato’ Giovannoni, of Florería Atlántico, Buenos Aires, in 2020; Lynnette Marrero of Llama Inn, New York, in 2021; and Jean Trinh of Alquímico, Cartagena, Colombia in 2022.
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