MAGAZINE

The time has come

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s that time of year when I continue to remind you about entering the National Pub & Bar Awards, as the annual event once again prepares to crown the best pubs from every county of the UK. For if you don’t enter your venue, how are we supposed to know if it’s potentially award-winning?

The event’s tagline this year is ‘The Resilient and The Brilliant’ for good reason – it not only shines a light on the ever-impressive resilience and adaptive nature of the people and businesses that make up the sector, but it also remains focused on showcasing just how brilliant these pubs and bars are too. 

But how do we measure brilliance? Well, we like to think it can be observed in venues by assessing the effort, passion, skill, knowledge and consistency across a whole host of operational areas – from training and marketing to events and food and drink, every touchpoint is up for debate. This year, we’ve also added a couple of categories into the entry form, including one entitled ‘sustainability efforts’, which will contribute to finding the 2023 Sustainable Pub of the Year – a new accolade for the National Pub & Bar Awards.

In partnership with Heineken UK, we felt the time was right to add in this extra honour so that not only can pub and bar peers discover what a leading sustainable pub operation is made up of, but so the UK’s consumers can also find out about how the on-trade is tackling this topic, contributing to environmental best practice and reducing carbon emissions. We can’t wait to hear all about the sustainable efforts that your venues are making. 

Of course, that relies on you actually taking the time to tell us, so seeing as entries for the awards close next month, it’s probably time you headed to nationalpubandbarawards.co.uk to tell us why your site is not only resilient, but bloody brilliant as well.

Tristan O’Hana - Editor