Bar wars

File under: drink, nightlife, Wellington

The Capital Times has begun its 2006 Best of Wellington survey (which is now online), inviting readers to vote for their favourite things under dozens of categories. However, one category is glaringly absent: best bar. They have best barman, barmaid, music venue and nightclub, but no bar (or best Martini, for that matter).

Maybe the inaugural NZ Bar Awards will settle that debate. The ceremony was held last night in Auckland, but as far as I can tell the results are yet to be released (at least as far as the Interweb's concerned). I was afraid that it would be very Auckland-centric, but as the nominations (880kB PDF) were concerned, Wellington came out quite well. We had 10 bars up for 19 nominations, which compares favourably on a per-capita basis with Auckland's 21 bars and 30 nominations. The difference in bars-to-nominations ratio probably hints that while we don't have a huge number of top bars, those we have do a lot of things very well (especially cocktail lists).

Here's a list of the Wellington bars, and what they were nominated for (update: I've highlighted the winners):

Matterhorn (bar, bar team, drinks selection, cocktail list)
Motel (bar team, cocktail bar, drinks selection, cocktail list)
Good Luck (bar, bar team, cocktail list)
Boulôt (new bar, cocktail list)
Havana (bar)
Arbitrageur (wine bar)
Vivo (wine bar)
Boogie Wonderland (nightclub)
Sandwiches (nightclub)
Hope Bros (pub)

So, it's mostly the usual suspects, but with a couple of surprises. I'm sure there are plenty of you with strong objections (I'd have picked Leuven well ahead of Hope Bros, and a poke in the eye with a sharp stick ahead of Boogie Wonderland), so let's hear them.