Vot­ing in the Fourth Annu­al Wel­ling­tonista Awards is open from Decem­ber 1–15. Then come find out the res­ults at our Awards Night at Mighty Mighty on Decem­ber 17!

To vote, vis­it this page.

It does­n’t mat­ter how good the food is at a res­taur­ant or how com­fort­able a bar’s stools are if the staff scowl at you and dump your order down grump­ily in front of you. What makes us loy­al cus­tom­ers is the inter­ac­tion with the people on the oth­er side of the cus­tom­er, and these men and women are the shin­ing stars in their field. Being served by them really does make the day bet­ter.

Domin­ic at Hashigo Zake: When a bar has over 200 dif­fer­ent beers in stock, you’re going to need some guid­ance. Luck­ily for pat­rons at Hashigo Zake, Domin­ic is your man. Ask him for some­thing girlie and he’ll give you tastes from what’s on tap that week; ask him for the strangest beer in the bar and you’ll get a bacon-tast­ing Smokey Bish­op from Inver­car­gill. Domin­ic is insanely pas­sion­ate about beer and very happy to share that pas­sion with you. If the bar’s quiet, he’ll talk you through his stock at great length, and even when it’s busy he still cares about help­ing you to make the hard decision about what to try next.

Jane and Paul and Raechel at Green Land: Some­times you gotta know where every­body knows your name, even if it’s a tiny almost-hole-in-the-wall. Jane and Paul know almost all their cus­tom­ers, and no mat­ter how hun­gov­er they are, they’re always happy to see you. It’s a sign of how caring they are that instead of hav­ing a tip jar, they pick a char­ity each month you can put your spare coins towards, and dis­play how much they’ve raised on a black­board to give you extra warm fuz­zies.

Matt at Mojo Old Bank: Matt has been a force of nature of the social media sites. His Twit­ter feed brings daily spe­cials to his cus­tom­ers and his cof­fee ain’t bad either. And he genu­inely wants to know you, not just your money. (sniff) He’s just such a great guy! (sob sob)

The crew at Hawthorn: Alisa and the boys prob­ably know exactly what your pois­on is and are very happy to make it for you exactly the way you want it. Extra olives in your mar­tini? No prob­lem! Extra flames on your zom­bie? Bring it on! They are also charm­ingly dis­creet in sug­gest­ing that they call you a taxi should you have one zom­bie too many, and for that we salute them.

The crew at Hooch: We were a little wor­ried when we heard that the McK­en­zies were open­ing anoth­er bar, because the ser­vice at Hawthorn has always been so good that how could they recre­ate that? But some­how they man­aged, and even though Hooch is on Cour­tenay Place, it’s soph­ist­ic­ated and classy. The cock­tails are as expertly made as you’d expect, the staff are charm­ing, and Jonny is very good at get­ting rid of creepy old men if they’re both­er­ing you (although Tom no doubt curses them for that…).