Being a blogger definitely had its perks and it’s not the free stays and complimentary drinks. OK, no that’s a lie, those are some of the awesome perks but what we really enjoy is being invited to events. Events where we are exposed to a community we never would have otherwise. So anyways, the other day while going through my LINE contacts, I noticed a friend was inquiring about F&B and hospitality professionals. I reached out to her saying that I knew a few. She quickly realized that I’m a blogger and invited me to one of her upcoming events (she’s in PR). She asked us if we could cover The Bar Awards in Bangkok.

What is the Bar Award? Well it’s exactly what it sounds like. An event  that brings people in the industry together to celebrate the best bars and restaurants (and to get a little drunk). Last year it was held in Singapore so we were excited to part of the Bangkok bar scene this year.

What’s cool about The Bar Awards is that it’s not just one night – rather a weekend of events, workshops and activities. Apparently there were bartender masterclasses, guest bartenders at local bars, a picnic and the awards itself.

We went to the latter two events and here’s our experience.

The Bar Awards Picnic

@ Roots, K-Village

The picnic was a very fun event and was open to the public. It had a very relaxed, chilled and family-friendly vibe to it as if you were actually at a picnic – a boozy picnic. They had games, picnic baskets, international food, beers and of course cocktails. For music, band Jenny & The Scallywags amazed us with their performance playing some great cover songs. As the night went on, resident DJs took over with some house tunes.

The highlight of the event were the bars after all. Every hour 3 bartenders from local and international bars would showcase their best cocktails for people to try. They were all priced at 200 THB nett, which was a pretty good deal. In total there were 12 bartenders across a span of four hours.

Every drink we tried was of the best quality and extremely strong. I could not do more than 4. If you’re interested to try any of these bars and their cocktails, I took a photo of the menu just for you.

The Bar Awards

@ Zuma, St. Regis

The next evening we got all dressed up for the awards. We arrived on time with less than a dozen people there, so we familiarized ourselves with the drinks, some food and seating. As the restaurant got busy, it got hotter as well so we decided to walk around and mingle.

If you want to know who won the awards, just scroll down to the bottom, otherwise READ ON.

We actually ended up bumping into some of our High School friends who work in the industry – people who hadn’t seen in years! This was a pleasant surprise and a bonus to the evening.

Round 2 of great cocktails.

THE BAR AWARD WINNERS

After an hour or so the award ceremony started. Everyone was excited for the announcement and results. You could feel the energy at Zuma and it was all fun.

Here are all the categories and those who won (BEST OF). The italic ones are bars that we have been to.

– The Rising Star: Bamboo Bar (Mandarin Oriental)

– Restaurant Bar: Vesper Cocktail Bar & Restaurant

– Beer Bar: Mikkeller Bangkok

– Bar & Beverage Publication: Drink Magazine

– Bar Food: Bunker

– Hospitality Team: Q&A Bar

– Hotel Bar: The Bamboo Bar (Mandarin Oriental)

– Creatively Cocktail Bar: Bronx Liquid Parlour

– New Cocktail Bar: Backstage Cocktail Bar

– The Ada Coleman Award: “Chacha” Suwincha Singsuwan (Rabbit Hole)

– Bartender of the Year: “Chacha” Suwincha Singsuwan (Rabbit Hole)

– Best Cocktail Bar: Teens of Thailand

Wow, we’ve only been to two of these awesome bars. I guess we’ll have to go try them now.

SHOUT OUT to my friend Kat from As You Wish Services who invited us to this event and did such a great job at co-organizing it.

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post nor are we inclined to write a post for them. It was a friendly invite and we love to blog about events we enjoy. As always, we give our 100% honest opinions.