It’s been an exciting couple of weeks for bar awards! The Spirited Awards regional top 10 honorees were announced on April 18th. (I’m still trying to figure out a way to turn these into a spreadsheet – it’s a lot harder than the simple ranking of 50 Best!) North America’s 50 Best of 2024 were announced on April 23rd (and my full tracking spreadsheet was immediately updated as well). And next week, we have the first ever announcement of “Pins” from The Pinnacle Guide – a brand new ranking in the style of Michelin stars. Since bars do the work to nominate themselves for a pin, I’m hoping to see more regional diversity from them in the long run. Fingers crossed!

For reasons unbeknown to my sanity, I also decided to start a public Google calendar of all these awards. I’ve been making notes on my personal calendar when nomination periods open and close, and realized that might be useful for others as well. If I’m really ambitious, I’ll also try to add open cocktail competitions. Deep down I believe that the way we make these awards truly valuable is by making sure our bartenders, enthusiasts, and bar owners are putting in the work to nominate themselves and others who deserve recognition. The data speaks volumes about the diversity of bars reflected in awards with public nominations vs. private voting and while there still have to be checks and balances to avoid these awards turning into a social media popularity contest (I’m looking at you, Bar Boss), I want the net to be cast a little wider.

Anyway, I’m way behind on updating my travel maps (Singapore recap and Toronto planning, coming soon!) so instead of doing that, here’s a totally different project, my award tracking calendar. It’s pretty sparse right now because a bunch of nominations seasons just ended – but the Scottish Licensed Trade News noms are open and I’ll keep adding whatever I can find so subscribe for updates