It’s time to kick off the Boothby Best Bars awards program for 2026, and as we always do, we’re beginning in Queensland.
This is the fourth year of the Boothby Best Bars program, which recognises the great bars in each state that are making things nicer for the rest of us. Great bars speak to a time and place, and the big idea behind the Boothby Best Bars program is to get a better view of how we drink right now.
So nominations for the Boothby Best Bars Queensland are open now. We want you to tell us which bars are making great drinks, offering a great experience, and getting hospitality right, whether they’re in the cities or the regions.
Queensland is up first, with nominations open for SA for the first time later this month, followed by NSW and Victoria.
And with a state by state focus, the Boothby Best Bars awards have shown that there are great bars outside of the big capital cities, with a number of bars from our regions making the lists in Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria.
But the Boothby Best Bars awards are also about throwing a great big hospo party to celebrate the industry, too.
So we’ll be doing just that, at an exclusive invite-only party on Monday 11 May at Dr Gimlette in Brisbane, when we count down the Boothby Best Bars QLD Top 30 and award seven major awards:
- Queensland All Time Great presented by Club Suntory;
- Person of the Year Queensland presented by Jack Daniel’s Bonded;
- Best New Bar in Queensland presented by Bacardí;
- Best Hospitality Team Queensland presented by Campari Academy;
- Best Bar Eats in Queensland presented by Estrella Damm;
- Best Cocktail Bar in Queensland presented by Perrier;
- and the Best Bar in Queensland presented by Never Never.
Nominations are open now. It takes only one nomination for a bar to be considered in the next round of voting by the Queensland Boothby advisory panel, and — for the first time this year — by paid Boothby members. We figure if you care enough to pay for a subscription to Boothby, you probably care enough to have a say in the voting.
Important dates
- Saturday 4 April: nominations open. Anyone can nominate — it takes just one nomination to be consider in the next round of voting, multiple nominations do not give any more weight. Self-nominations are encourage. Nominate at the link here or in the form below.
- Sunday 12 April: Nominations close at 11:59pm AEST.
- Monday 13 April: Boothby advisory panel voting and Boothby member voting begins.
- Friday 24 April: Advisory panel voting finishes.
- Monday 27 April: Invites to the Boothby Best Bars Awards Queensland are sent out to representatives of the Top 30 bars.
- Monday 11 May: Save the date! The Boothby Best Bars QLD Top 30 — and seven major award winners — will be revealed at Dr Gimlette in Brisbane.
