Celebrate Excellence at the Bar & Restaurant Expo Industry Excellence Awards!
Recognizing the best of the best in hospitality, the Bar & Restaurant Expo Industry Excellence Awards honor outstanding individuals and venues that are making a significant impact on the industry.
2025 Industry Excellence Award winners:
- Bar of the Year: Tell Your Friends; Scottsdale, Arizona
- Bartender of the Year: Ava Vitale, Crave; Rockford, Illinois
- Best Cocktail Program: The Manor Bar; Montecito, California
- Best Hospitality Training Program: Livio Lauro, EuroBar, Master Your Glass; Las Vegas, Nevada
- Chef of the Year: Guy Vaknin, City Roots Hospitality; New York, New York
- Community Leadership Award: Toups Family Meal; New Orleans, Louisiana
- Design of the Year: Le Basque; New York, New York
- Restaurant of the Year: Anixi; New York, New York
Entry Criteria and Judging.
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.
Self-nominations for individual awards are not allowed. Otherwise, nominations are completely open. Bar and restaurant owners, operators, managers, employees, public relations representatives, marketers, and even the general public are allowed to nominate venues or individuals for the Industry Excellence Awards, presented by Bar & Restaurant.
Incomplete submissions will not be considered. We encourage you to include as much information as possible.