by Andrew Morrison | My hearty congratulations to all of those who received gold, silver, and bronze accolades at yesterday’s 23rd annual Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards. Though I didn’t attend this year (still nursing the Canucks loss and shaving), I appreciated the many attendees who texted updates my way (I’m particularly grateful for the more comedic ones – I lost my soup a few times!). My general takeaway of the results? It was nice to see Hawksworth clean up so convincingly (winning Best New, Best Upscale, Best Design, and Chef of the Year), and I was glad that L’Abattoir won Best Casual (well deserved), but beyond that and a couple of awards that were long overdue (congrats Brooke Delves on scoring a Premier Crew nod), there were few surprises that weren’t happy ones. Thanks to my fellow judges, and to all those in the trade for making it a very tasty year. See all the results here and let us know your opinion on them in the comments…
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Would you be able to provide a legend to the pictures above?
The first time the CPBA gets to judge for Bartender of the Year and they vote for their own president?! What a joke. I love Dani, but this was Sweetwater’s year.
Top left to right (in a circle ;-): Hawksworth; Re-up; Maenam chicken; Angus An of Maenam; Nicli Antica Pizzeria; Vongole at La Quercia; Paul Grunberg of L’Abattoir; Ulla (Victoria)
They forgot Best Dishwasher again
I’ll be sure to remind them.
It was NOT a great year for restaurants in Vancouver, so while I can not complain about the results, I will say (again) that the judging system needs to be radically changed. The judges eat and drink for free and they don’t get to half as many restaurants as they should to be fair. They go where the PR girls host them. It’s as simple and rigged as that — a popularity contest with Joeys for dessert.
Who is this Sweetwater that you speak of? I’m a cocktail superfan and must try this Sweetwater’s drinks so I can Tweet about them . . .
Agree with your sentiment, Jacob pretty much killed everything this year, and it sucks that anything even needs to be said about the link between Dani and the change in decision making in awarding Bartender of the Year, she has accomplished as much as anyone in the city over the past 5 years, but its Bartender of the YEAR not the lifetime achievement award.
Not going to do anything to bridge the gap between the CPBA and the non-CPBA Bartenders.