Industry Excellence Awards, Presented by Bar & Restaurant Expo
The Bar & Restaurant Expo Excellence Awards allow bar and restaurant owners, operators, managers, employees, public relations representatives, marketing professionals, and the general public to nominate venues via an online survey in January 2022. The Bar & Restaurant team conducts an extensive review of each valid nominee, which includes but is not limited to interviews, online research, analysis of reviews from online sites Yelp, Google and Facebook, and selects three finalists in each award category. The list of 30 finalists is then sent to our judging panel of previous award winners, who remain anonymous, for final selection. Final winners, and the judging panel, are revealed on-site at the 2022 Bar & Restaurant Expo.
Entry Criteria:
Nominated bars and restaurants may be stand-alone concepts, or operate within a hotel/resort property in the United States. Chain concepts (five or more locations of the same concept) are not eligible to enter. Only individual concepts (operating in four or fewer locations) owned by a single individual or company may enter. A company operating multiple bar concepts may not be nominated; only the individual bar or bar concepts may be nominated.
Award Categories
Individual
- Bartender of the Year
- Chef of the Year
- Operator of the Year
- Community Leadership Award
- Innovator of the Year
Venue Awards
- Cocktail Bar of the Year
- Sports Bar of the Year
- Restaurant of the Year
- LGBTQ Venue of the Year
- Most Original Concept
Award Judging
The mission of the Bar & Restaurant Expo Industry Excellence Awards is to recognize, celebrate and support the people who make the independent bar and restaurant industry great. These awards honor industry leaders for their talent and integrity, in addition to their commitment to equitability, sustainability and community and culture across the industry.
Judging:
- An open call for nominations allows anyone (owners, managers, even guests) to nominate a venue via an online survey.
- Bar & Restaurant will review the nominations through an extensive process, and select three finalists from each category.
- An anonymous judging panel comprised of previous years’ winners reviews the finalists, and selects winners for each category.
- Award winners and the judging panel are revealed on-site at the 2022 Bar & Restaurant Expo.
