Here are the nom­in­ees for the Best Drink cat­egory for the 2nd Annu­al Wel­ling­tonista Awards (2AWA).

When I am not hav­ing a mar­tini, I like to drink a___

There are many many places offer­ing many many cock­tails in Wel­ling­ton, but we want to know what the very best of them is. There’s a party in our col­lect­ive mouth, and these drinks are invited…

(nom­in­ees after the jump)

A. Maitai (in a pineapple if possible) at Imbibe

As the wise Mr. Beard once said, “You should nev­er have pine­apple in a maitai, but it’s okay to have a maitai in a pine­apple”. Imbibe know this bet­ter than most bars, who will throw in ran­dom fruit to dilute what should actu­ally be a drink so strong it’ll put spikes on your chest. They’ll remem­ber that you like your pine­apples, and if you call ahead, they’ll even order one in for you. It’s as close to a Tiki Bar as we’re likely to get in Wel­ling­ton any time soon, so I guess it’ll have to do…

B. Poached Pear Punch at Superfino

Tiny little Super­fino on Ghuznee Street may be the new bar in town, but they’ve been open long enough to start soak­ing pears in vanilla gin, and they’ll serve up whole chunks of pear to you in a glass brim­ming with such deli­cious good­ness that even boys won’t feel embar­rassed to be drink­ing such a pink drink.

WINNER!!!
C. Negroni at Hawthorn Lounge

The Neg­roni. Com­plex. Spicy. Bit­ter, although not overly so. The tini­est bit of sweet­ness to off­set that. It’s a drink to warm a cold breast. It’s a per­fect aper­itif, a drink to wake up your taste buds and shout “Ciao, ragazzo bello! Come stai?”. And the col­our! The rich brown and deep red tones seem to glow with soft light and autum­nal hues. Hold one near a light and your Neg­roni will erupt in orange novas. It’s the obvi­ous drink-of-Autumn for a Wel­ling­tonista. They do a fair turn at the Hawthorn – apt, really, with their fire­place, and moody mood-light­ing – and if you ask nicely, they’ll even make you one with their spe­cial man­dar­in-infused gin, no less. “Bene, gra­zie!”

D. Another Martini at Capitol

As a wise per­son once said, “Mar­tinis are like breasts on a woman: one’s not enough, and three are too many”. So for one’s second Mar­tini, we heart­ily recom­mend Cap­it­ol. Of the nearly 70 bars that made it into the Wel­lingtini book: last year, Cap­it­ol came out near the top of the list, and if it had­n’t been for their tend­ency to overdo the olives, it would have approached per­fec­tion.

E. Chimay Bleue at Leuven

We’re not all cock­tail snobs at the Wel­ling­tonista: some­times we like to com­mune with the masses by enjoy­ing a nice cold beer. How­ever, since we *are* snobs, we’d prefer a beer that actu­ally _tastes_ of some­thing, rather than mass-pro­duced swill dis­tin­guished primar­ily by advert­ising cam­paigns aimed at cret­ins. And while there are plenty of excel­lent loc­al boutique brews, Bel­gi­um is the spir­itu­al home of beer, and Leuven is our Mecca. An even­ing spent savour­ing Ver­boden Vrucht, Gulden Draak, Leffe Blonde and Deli­ri­um Tre­mens would be very mem­or­able (not that we remem­ber much of the last one). At the very top of the beer tree, how­ever, is the vel­vety gor­geous­ness of Chi­may Bleue.

For a handy map of where to get all these drinks, use the “best­cock­tail” tag on Zoom­in. Go drink up before vot­ing opens on Novem­ber 19.