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…).