The Boothby Best Bars NSW awards are open for nominations

Here we go, NSW — you can now nominate your favourite bars in New South Wales right now; the form is below.

This is a program I’ve really enjoyed putting together. We began with two events last year — one in Brisbane for Queensland, and one in Sydney for the NSW program — and went on to add a third in Melbourne for Victoria.

The Boothby Best Bars awards program is all about what makes the drinking great in each state. I’ve written before that I think great bars speak to a time and place, and the big idea with the Boothby Best Bars program is to get a better view of how we drink right now. And the lists have given us the chance to look deeply into what's on offer in the best bars (you can look at the research from NSW and the conclusions from 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.

And the Boothby Best Bars awards are also about throwing a great hospo party to celebrate the industry. For NSW, the big awards party will take place at Earl's Juke Joint in Newtown in Sydney on Monday 15 July — it’s gonna be a good time!

How does it work?

1. Nominations open on Friday 14 June. We’re putting the call out for nominations for bars across NSW, with an emphasis on getting nominations from regional cities and towns. We also want you to tell us who should be named Person of the Year.
2. After nominations close at 11:59pm AEST on Wednesday 26 June, the NSW Boothby advisory panel — consisting of bartenders, bar owners and other industry figures — will cast their votes based on the nominations, which will need to include at least two venues from outside their own city. Interested in being on the panel? Email me.
3. On Monday 1 July, invites to attend the Boothby Best Bars NSW event will be sent out.
4. On Monday 15 July, we’ll gather at Earl's Juke Joint in Sydney to celebrate the best bars in NSW, and countdown the Top 50 all the way to the number one and award the Best Bar in NSW presented by Never Never Distilling Co.; the Best New Bar NSW presented by Patrón Tequila; the Best Cocktail Bar NSW presented by Grada; the Person of the Year NSW presented by Jack Daniel’s; NSW’s All Time Great presented by Jim Beam for bars that have been operating for 10 years or more, and for the first time, the Best Hospitality Team presented by Perrier, for those teams with outstanding service.

It only takes one nomination to be considered in the next round of voting, and personal nominations are encouraged.