Jackson Cannon’s classy Kenmore Square speakeasy boasts an abundance of bartenders with the essential combination of technical chops and frictionless hospitality that characterizes the best craft cocktail bars. Saladino is a star among stars here, a blur of compact motion and economical energy who somehow manages to make each customer feel personally attended to and cared for. After nearly seven years in business, the Hawthorne is still the real deal, and Saladino is its paragon.
The Hawthorne
500A Commonwealth Ave., Boston • (617) 532-9150
thehawthornebar.com
Other Winners
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Bartender
2014 Winner: Katie Emmerson at the Hawthorne
“Sitting at Katie’s bar is one of life’s great joys,” says fellow bartender Tyler Wang of Audubon Boston, and we heartily concur...
- Hotel Commonwealth, 500A Comm. Ave., Boston
- (617) 532-9150
- thehawthornebar.com
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Bartender
2015 Winner: Ran Duan of The Baldwin Bar at Sichuan Garden II
Seventeen years after the B-Side Lounge birthed the local craft cocktail revival, Boston is blessed with scores of skilled, scholarly, engaging bartenders making serious drinks…...
- 2 Alfred St., Woburn
- (781) 935-8488
- sichuangardenrestaurant.com
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Bartender
2016 Winner: Jason Kilgore of UNI
The new UNI is a fantastic reimaging of Ken Oringer’s flagship restaurant, ditching Clio’s costly French/Japanese fusion for sushi and affordable izakaya snacks like pork-belly buns, skewers, dumplings and ramen while preserving the old Uni’s extravagant imported sashimi...
- 370 Comm. Ave., Boston
- (617) 536-7200
- uni-boston.com
Photo Credit: Melissa Ostrow -
Bartender
2017 Winner: Gwen Hagerty at Bar Mezzana
At Colin and Heather Lynch’s acclaimed coastal Italian restaurant, justly lauded for fabulous seafood and pastas, Ryan Lotz oversees the South End’s best bar program...
- 360 Harrison Ave., Boston
- (617) 530-1770
- barmezzana.com
Photo Credit: Holly Rike
