London’s Lyaness Wins Top Honor At The 16th Annual Spirited Awards

London’s Lyaness roared to victory on the sixteenth annual Spirited Awards at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans. Ryan Chetiyawardana—a longtime darling of the hospitality world awards circuit—bested Fifty Mils, Charles H. Seoul, and the American Bar at The Stafford, as his famed cocktail cathedral was named World’s Greatest Bar for 2022.

Lyaness, above, was additionally honored because the Greatest Worldwide Resort Bar and Chetiyawardana obtained one other shot of acclaim as his Washington D.C. outpost, Silver Lyan (which was awarded Greatest New American Cocktail Bar in 2020), was acknowledged because the Greatest U.S. Resort Bar for 2022.

Lyan King: Ryan Chetiyawardana at his Spirited Award-winning bar Silver Lyan.

Jennifer Chase

“We’ve been very lucky with awards over time—they usually’ve lined every thing from our groups, design, menus to areas,” Chetiyawardana (aka “Mr. Lyan”) stated. “However there’s additionally been a number of change. We closed Dandelyan to pave the best way for Lyaness—and to problem a brand new facet of the world of food and drinks that we thought was tremendous vital, and really pay tribute to the success we’d had with the bar.”

One other feline-inspired watering gap—Masahiro Urushido’s Katana Kitten in Manhattan—was honored because the Greatest U.S. Cocktail Bar (topping New York’s Bar Goto, The Roosevelt Room in Austin, and Thunderbolt in Los Angeles). Urushido additionally took house prizes in two different main classes: Greatest U.S. Bar Crew and Greatest New Cocktail or Bartending E book for his 2021 tome, The Japanese Artwork of the Cocktail.

Glass Act: Masahiro Urushido, of New York’s Katana Kitten, gained a number of Spirited Awards, together with Greatest U.S. Cocktail Bar.

Alex Kikis

Urushido and Chetiyawardana weren’t the one ones to take house a number of accolades. A Bar With Shapes for a Identify in London was honored as this 12 months’s Greatest New Worldwide Cocktail Bar—and its founder, Remy Savage, was celebrated as Worldwide Bartender of the 12 months. Domestically, New Orleans’ beloved Jewel of the South was named Greatest U.S. Restaurant Bar and founder Chris Hannah gained U.S. Bartender of the 12 months. Australia’s Perhaps Sammy, a perennial awards favourite, gained Greatest Worldwide Bar Crew and its artistic director, Martin Hudak, gained Greatest Worldwide Model Ambassador for Mr Black Spirits.

On Prime, Down Underneath: Sydney’s Perhaps Sammy was named Greatest Worldwide Bar Crew.

Perhaps Sammy

Geographically talking, London dominated the awards within the worldwide classes with 5 standout wins out of eight awards. Along with Lyaness and A Bar With Shapes for a Identify, Monica Berg and Alex Kratena’s Tayēr + Elementary in Shoreditch was named Greatest Worldwide Cocktail Bar (beating Pujol, Le Marie Celeste, and Danico). And Horny Fish, the Asian hotspot in Mayfair, is that this 12 months’s Greatest Worldwide Restaurant Bar.

The Spirited Awards, which closed out the twentieth annual Tales of the Cocktail competition, returned in individual for the primary time since 2019 and the viewers within the ballroom on the Ritz-Carlton New Orleans celebrated the winners with a number of standing ovations all through the night time. (Full disclosure: Forbes is the official media companion of the Spirited Awards.)

Making a Identify: London’s A Bar With Shapes for a Identify was honored because the Greatest New Worldwide Cocktail Bar. Remy Savage (left, with cofounder Paul Lougrat) was named Greatest Worldwide Bartender.

A Bar With Shapes for a Identify

“The ingenuity and resiliency of the drinks trade is completely distinctive and deserves to be celebrated,” stated Eileen Wayner, CEO of the Tales of the Cocktail Basis. “Bringing this group again collectively in New Orleans, the hospitality capital of the world, to commemorate 20 years of progress goes to be such a pivotal second. I hope it serves as a reminder, that this trade offers not solely an area to collect, discover pleasure and group, but additionally to expertise the innovation of bartenders and merchandise throughout the bar all over the world. Bringing again the Spirited Awards, after a obligatory break attributable to Covid’s devastating impression, will reinforce the excellence and innovation of the bars, bartenders, writers and merchandise that drive international hospitality developments.”

Test In, Test It Out: Silver Lyan in Washington, D.C., was awarded Greatest U.S. Resort Bar.

Silver Lyan

The night’s large winner, Chetiyawardana, echoed that sentiment. “The nominations this 12 months have been massively vital to us,” he stated, “It helps cement for us that we’re making useful selections, and that it’s resonating with our friends, however primarily for serving to bolster that perception and pleasure for our groups and all of the arduous work and keenness they’re placing into doing one thing so completely different.

“All that’s exacerbated by the pandemic,” Chetiyawardana continued. “To have the ability to come again by means of and have positives to have a good time is unimaginable. However the pandemic additionally fast-tracked a whole lot of the issues we wished to deal with with the venues, so it feels much more vital to be getting that recognition and that booster to maintain combating for the problems we wish to change and problem.”

See the total record of winners from the 2022 Spirited Awards under: