While other newspapers and media outlets are busy this month tracking what political party nominees will garner more influential endorsements before turning their full attention to the national election coming up, we’ve got wetter wins on our mind.
These are the awards that can really impact on our bars’ day-to-day business, staff and bottom lines. There are a number of them out there, offering plenty of opportunity to get noticed.
Beyond awarding bodies like Tales the Cocktails Spirited Awards, The Pinnacle Guide, and The World’s 50 Best Bars offer a spotlight for bars that want to herald their prowess beyond the number of guests they can accommodate in any given year.
Other entities are also weighing in regularly, like the Esquire Magazine’s best bars annual list and the latest from USA Today directing readers to a watering hole they are sure to love.
That’s not even an exhaustive list; it seems there’s an opportunity to be crowned a winner everywhere you turn. But should you compete? Is it worth the time and effort and expense your bar might have to undertake to get noticed?
While plenty of bar veterans and newbies alike answer with a resounding “yes!” some are convinced it is not actually necessary for every bar. Jacob Briars, the Global Advocacy Director for Bacardi Global Brands has his focus on the on-premise consumer and trade education and activations his company’s brands bring to life.
In this role he sees all sides of the awards and their impact on guests and bars and shares some perspective as a longtime hospitality industry professional.
“When we talk about awards and rankings we know they bring attention to the industry, elevate the professionalism of our industry, and put us on par with top restaurants,” Briars said. “Twenty to 30 years ago everyone became okay with the idea restaurants and chefs should be celebrated. These awards do the same for the bar industry.”
He continues, “There are lots of benefits, from a higher level of professional engagement with brands, to staff which is more engaged, which is great. And these awards are really helpful for the general public. It helps them feel like they’ve got an inside track.”
That inside track for consumers results in a boon for bars who welcome these guests looking for a great drink seven nights a week. The lists serve to nurture the blooming interest in cocktail culture and keep bars busier on what were traditionally slower nights.
They also serve to introduce guests to something new and create destination drinking experiences.
Like at Library by the Sea, the new bar that opened in 2022 in the Kimpton Seafire Resort + Spa on Grand Cayman. Jim Wrigley, the resort’s Beverage Manager, is pleased to have garnered some impressive awards right out of the gate having landed on both the Spirited Awards and North America’s 50 Best lists just after opening.
Library was noted on the best new bars list for Tales and landed at number 35 on the North America’s 50 Best Bars the first year they were eligible to be noticed. He chalks this up to a lot of hard work, and years of dedication he and all the members of his team have put into building a vibrant bar culture on the island.
He says, “We’re the latest in the line of venues trying to drive forward the scene for people in the Cayman Islands. For Cayman to even be mentioned in same breath as mainland bars, well, it benefits everyone. It’s that community thing.”
The community is well aware of these lists and which bars are on them.
Yet, Wrigley finds a nice balance of applauding the awards while acknowledging where attention truly needs to be as he remarks, “You definitely see a lot of conversation around when those lists come out. Any recognition, whether you get name checked in a local newspaper or whether or not you’ve got a tv spot or won an award; anything that brings attention and recognition to your venue is important. But you shouldn’t be using it to define you. You’re not a 50 Best Bar, you’re a bar that has won a spot on this list.”
There’s a difference. But, no matter how you slice it, it’s driving guest demand and attention.
Wrigley continues, “What we found was – cocktail tourism is an actual thing. People going to New York – using NYC as an example – they’ll go to Dead Rabbit. They (Dead Rabbit) are always mentioned in the list of ten bars you need to go to in New York. When people go to these places they build their experiences around that destination. Here we already had a full hotel of people paying a not insignificant amount of money per night. And now when they’re Googling things to do this bar pops up as one of the 50 best. That has brought people in. The uptick in the number of people referencing or saying they were told about us landing on the North America’s 50 Best Bars list and say they’ve come because they’ve heard about the bar has been massive. Many of them are people who would have come anyway, but we see the word-of-mouth reference is much, much higher. They come in, and then they come back.”
That buzz has an undeniable positive impact on revenue, both for a bar in the middle of the Caribbean or one nestled among the crisscrossing streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Nacho Jimenez, Partner at Superbueno, New York’s high end Mexican cocktail bar which landed on the list for the first time is pleased to report they’ve seen a 20% increase in business since winning. Proving hard work pays off.
“We set our sights on North America’s 50 Best Bars from the beginning, and we are deeply honored to have achieved this recognition just one year after opening in April 2023,” Jimenez said. “Since receiving the award, our business has grown by over 20%. Our team’s commitment to excellence is evident every day, and they are incredibly proud to be part of this global bar community.”
The global bar community is stretching to include places that were often overlooked before. In the earlier days of the awards many bars felt summarily overlooked if they did business outside of London, New York, or San Francisco. That seems to be changing. Oron Lerner, the Tel Aviv-based former Imperial Group CEO, sees this as progress.
He says, “Perhaps the only segment I like seeing earn awards and have real value to it are bars in locations far from the center core of western culture, where recognition might shed a light and bring in outside interest to fascinating cultures and styles otherwise hidden in global shadow – cities with growing cocktail culture in Africa, South America and Asia are getting a lot of recognition because they really manage to shine through to a global point.”
As these countries find their bar culture getting the attention they’ve long deserved Lerner and his fellow bar experts caution against putting too much stock in awards and thinking it will be the be all and end all for them.
Lerner offers some realistic advice, an assessment of awards culture, and the various highs and lows that come along with that trophy as he notes, “Awards create and strengthen the brand of the bar. The brand strength gave us a lot of advantages in terms of hiring and retention – bartenders wanted to work at the bar / group because of the awards. And, especially after the first awards, when the idea of bar ranking was new enough to get local media attention, we got a lot of work around it. To the point the bar was fully booked months in advance.”
Being fully booked sounds good, but Lerner notes, “It brought on its own issues – like handling challenges of reservations vs. walk-ins which led to the perception that Imperial is always full and busy which is why less walk-ins would show up and we’d get weaker shifts, or having people just sit at the bar and not order anything in the sense that they just wanted to experience Tel Aviv’s best bar but not spend any money. The pressure of having people wait outside, the high demand, and the need to balance quality of service and product with profitability in the business becomes that much more challenging as the owners see an opportunity to increase profits which comes at a cost.”
Just as every day there is a cost of doing business, so too is there a cost for engaging with and winning awards. Do it smartly and you’ll come out on top.
SIPS TO SAVOR
FORE CRAFT COCKTAILS
The brutal heatwave that has kept much of the country uncomfortable for the past few weeks doesn’t have to ruin all your fun. Being out and about in this weather is manageable with the right precautions. Like sunscreen, protective clothing, and hydration.
If you find yourself out on the golf course (or anywhere else the sun is shining brightly when you want a drink) know that Fore Craft Cocktails are a total tap in.
Created in Richmond, Virginia, these drinks will slake your thirst and might even improve your game.
But, while we won’t make any promises about your handicap getting better, we can promise you won’t go wrong by trying the classic golf cocktail The Transfusion with its perfect combination of vodka, grape juice, ginger ale and lime, or kicking off a morning round with the Fore Bloody Mary.
