Pippa Guy, Anna Sebastian Monica Berg and Mia Johansson were among the recipients of some of the most high anticipated awards of the bar industry calendar. Here are the results in full:
Swift in Soho, London, was the choice of the CLASS collective (around 70 expert judges that voted), winning Bar of the Year ahead of new London venues Kwānt and Tayēr + Elementary. Swift has become an industry favourite, with wife-and-husband team Mia Johansson and Bobby Hiddleston guaranteeing a warm-welcome.
Kwānt, which prevailed in New Bar of the Year, is the debut London bar of Erik Lorincz, the former head bartender of the American Bar at the Savoy. Nestled under Momo Restaurant on Heddon Street, the bar has a tropical, yet lux feel with its back-lit bamboo ceiling, handed painted walls and leather clad furniture. Kwānt combines Lorincz’s fine cocktails with five-star service, white waistcoats but without any fuss or formality.
The American Bar at The Savoy once again took home the prize for Hotel Bar of the Year. Known as the oldest surviving cocktail bar in London, The American Bar manages to be classic and innovative simultaneously. Lead by head bartender Maximum Schulte and director of bars Declan McGurk.
The bar’s former charge Pippa Guy won Bartender of the Year. Guy heightened her reputation in 2019, establishing herself as one of the leading drinksmiths of the UK bar industry. Having been made the first female senior bartender for 100 years, Guy hit the headlines again with a product collaboration with Coca Cola.
Drinks Menu of the Year was won by Artesian at the Langham, for its Minimalist Menu. The work of Bar Manager of the Year Anna Sebastian, the now-departed head bartender Remy Savage and team, the menu saw 22 cocktails, each made solely with two elements, managing to be simple yet complex.
Anna Sebastian also took the title of Bar Manager of the Year for her impressive revival of the Langham bar. Growth and development of her staff are her forte and running a tight ship - the bar’s sales have increased in double digits. In her support of women in the bar business, Sebastian has become a leader of the industry too.
Hacha in Dalston, London took the gong for Cocktail of the Year with its Mirror Margarita cocktail, beating off competition from the Connaught Martini and Strawberries and Cream by Coupette, who had won Cocktail of the Year in the previous two years. An ingenious clear spin on the Margarita, this has been the most talked about cocktail in the UK since the bar opened in the spring of last year.
Specialist Bar of the Year went to whisky venue Black Rock for the fourth year in a row. Owned by Tom Aske and Tristan Stephenson, the contemporary basement bar with a collection of over 350 whiskies beat Japanese whisky bar Sexy Fish and agave-led Cocktail of the Year winner Hacha.
