Democracy in action

File under: awards, drink, nightlife, Wellington

At the risk of pimping the Wellingtonista awards ad nauseum, I thought I'd just point out that you have only two hours before voting closes. In case you need an incentive to vote (as if T-shirts and salads weren't enough!), I'll be throwing one more prize into the pool: a (very very) limited edition booklet called Wellingtini: a guide for the thirsty. This gathers together all my Martini reviews into one handy dead-tree format, adds some never-before-seen recipes, and garnishes it all with some surprisingly sober reflections and a scholarly bibli(ous)ography.

To be eligible, all you need to do is:

a) vote; and
b) turn up to the awards ceremony tomorrow evening.

As an aside, while compiling the reviews, I had to decide upon whether to include defunct bars. To do so would not be much help for the Martini tourist, but it may offer some insight into the reasons why those bars are no longer with us. A case in point is Boss in Dixon St, which is being replaced by Santa Fe from around the corner in Taranaki St (does anyone know what's to become of that location?). Boss was never exactly as classy as it wanted to be, and there were even hints that it was heading in this direction (we once saw a stripper being ushered into the back room by the staff), but some might say that this marks a new low for what has long been the Bermuda Triangle of Wellington bars (Dixon, Manners, Cuba). When Hope Bros is the most stylish and upmarket bar in the vicinity, you know you're in trouble.