Vote Now for Boston’s Bar of the Year [POLL CLOSED]

Welcome to day five of the ninth annual Eater Awards, honoring the most talented restaurant and bar industry gurus in cities across the world. Here’s a refresher on how the Eater Awards work, in case you’re just tuning in: All 24 Eater cities and the national site will grant prizes in multiple categories, including but not limited to Restaurant of the Year, Chef of the Year, and Design of the Year.

In each category, there will be an editors’ choice winner (chosen by the editorial staff of each Eater site) and a readers’ choice winner (chosen by poll) — all to be announced on December 5, 2018. The readers’ choice winners get unlimited bragging rights as Eater fan favorites. The editors’ choice winners will each receive an illustrious tomato can trophy, as is the tradition around here.

And that’s not all. Over the course of the coming year, stay tuned for features highlighting what makes each of the editors’ choice winners so great.

A few notes on nominee eligibility: As with all Eater Boston coverage, the Eater Awards cover not just Boston proper but Cambridge, Somerville, and a bit beyond. Secondly, the Awards focus solely on restaurants that opened in the past year (including openings from late 2017, after nominations closed for that year’s awards, which means that late 2018 openings will be considered next year). And thirdly, nominees are not repeated among the five awards categories.

Earlier this week, you voted on Restaurant of the Year, Chef of the Year, Design of the Year, and Fast-Casual Restaurant of the Year. Today, the final category: Bar of the Year. What’s the best new place for a drink?

Eater Boston’s 2018 nominees in the Bar of the Year category provide unique wines in intimate settings, creative cocktails with a side of Chinese food, and excellent beer in a long-awaited taproom.

Brush up on the details on today’s nominees before voting, if you’d like:

• Backlash Beer Company: Contract-brewing since 2011, Backlash has finally put down roots, opening its own brewery and taproom in an old piano factory in Roxbury. The spacious new spot features 10 taps (IPAs, stouts, and more), can purchases, packaged snacks from local vendors, games, and rotating food trucks outside.
• Blossom Bar: The team behind the award-winning Baldwin Bar at Sichuan Garden in Woburn have transformed the Brookline location of Sichuan Garden into a cocktail destination as well, still serving solid Chinese and Chinese-American food but adding excellent tropical cocktails to the mix (along with a really nice renovation).
• Nathálie Wine Bar: Following in the footsteps of its big sibling downtown, Haley.Henry, but with a little bit more space, Nathálie serves up a list of uncommon wines, especially showcasing small-production, natural wines from female winemakers. Pair a glass of wine with a montadito or two, or try one of the rotating seasonal entrees.
• Rebel Rebel: This cozy little wine bar lives at Somerville’s Bow Market, which means that drinkers can bring in snacks from the rest of the market to pair with the creative and ever-changing list of natural wines. (Disclosure: Owner Lauren Friel is not only a wine expert but also a writer whose work has previously appeared on Eater Boston, among other publications.)

Now, without any further ado, it’s time to vote for the readers’ choice winner in the Bar of the Year category. The poll will be open for 24 hours (beginning and ending at 10 a.m.) and will be strictly policed for funny business.

Cast your vote for Bar of the Year now; the poll closes at 10 a.m. on Saturday, December 1:

Note: If you cannot see the above poll, please try again in a different browser or on a different device; there is a known issue regarding the poll not showing up on AMP and Apple News platforms.