Shortlisted for Scottish Bar and Pub Awards New Bar of the Year: What It Means When It Is Your Own Industry Doing the Judging

It has been a bit overwhelming lately.

A few months ago, being shortlisted for the Great British Entrepreneur Awards felt like the highest thing we could reasonably have hoped for in our first year. Since then, we have been named Startup of the Year by the National Startup Awards. We have made a national final with Franklin and Sons, taking place in London. And this week we got the call that Nectar has been shortlisted for New Bar of the Year at the Scottish Bar and Pub Awards.

I keep asking myself the same question every time one of these calls comes in. What means more? Who is actually giving out the accolade, and how do we even fit into these categories, a bar that has been open for barely a year, up against businesses that in some cases have been building their reputation for a decade or more?

It is humbling, because what we actually set out to do when we opened was simpler than any of this. Give people a fantastic meal and a fantastic drink, in a room with a great atmosphere. That is an oversimplification of everything that goes into running Nectar, but in the grand scheme of things, it is also exactly the point. We wanted people to fall in love with the story. We wanted them to hear about the dishes and the drinks and want to come and try them for themselves.

It seems, somehow, that the story has caught on.

What this specific award actually is

The Scottish Bar and Pub Awards are the longest-running trade awards in Scotland, now in their 31st year. This is not a general business award or an entrepreneurship prize. It is judged from inside the industry, by the people who run bars and pubs across the country, who understand exactly what it takes to build and operate a venue that people want to keep coming back to.

The category we have been shortlisted for is New Bar of the Year, which specifically recognises venues that opened after 1 September 2025 and have, in the words of the awards themselves, hit the ground running: exceptional drinks, outstanding service, and a memorable atmosphere that has already made its mark on the industry. The judging looks for a bold new concept, a beautifully designed space, or a passionate team creating something truly special for their community.

That last phrase is the one that has stayed with me since we got the call. Something truly special for their community. Because that is precisely what we were trying to build, and it is strange and moving to have that specific intention recognised by people who understand the industry well enough to know the difference between a bar that looks good and a bar that actually works.

Why this one feels different

Every recognition Nectar has received this year has meant something distinct, and I have found myself genuinely trying to work out why.

The Great British Entrepreneur Awards shortlisting mattered because it placed us alongside ambitious businesses from every industry across the entire country, judged on the strength of what we had built as a business rather than specifically as a bar. The National Startup Awards win mattered because it came from entrepreneurs who understood exactly how hard the first year of any venture actually is. The Franklin and Sons final matters because it puts our cocktail programme directly in competition with the best bartenders in the country on a single, specific, technical brief.

This one is different again, and I think it might be the one that means the most, for a reason that has nothing to do with prestige and everything to do with who is doing the judging.

To be shortlisted for New Bar of the Year, you need to be nominated by others. And the only businesses you are being measured against are other hospitality businesses. Not entrepreneurs from unrelated industries. Not investors assessing a business model in the abstract. Bar owners, bartenders, hospitality operators, people who know exactly what it takes to open a room, staff it properly, keep the drinks and the food consistent night after night, and build something that a neighbourhood actually wants.

What that means to me is not that we have been proven right about something. It is that the people who understand this work best, because they do it themselves, looked at what we have built and decided it was worth putting forward. That is not a verdict on us. It is a reflection of the standard our own industry holds itself to, and being included in that conversation at all, in our first year, is something I want to treat with the seriousness it deserves rather than as a prize to be collected.

The people who made this possible

When I think about the businesses we are up against for this category, and the openings we are aware of across Scotland over the past year, I am genuinely aware of how fortunate we are to be included in that company. There have been some extraordinary new venues opening across the country in the same window Nectar has been trading in, and to be shortlisted alongside them is not something I take lightly.

None of this happens without the team. Margarita's kitchen has produced food that consistently exceeds what a first-year venue is supposed to be capable of. Panos has built a cocktail programme technical and distinctive enough to reach national competition finals, more than once, in the same twelve months he has also been running service every week. Eirini has made the room feel the way it feels, warm and specific and genuinely welcoming, in a way that no amount of design or décor alone could achieve.

And none of it happens without the people who have walked through the door. What has become one of the most beautiful things about this year is watching the faces that come through become more and more recognisable. We know names now. We know what people order before they ask. We know who is celebrating what, and who has become part of the rhythm of this place rather than simply a customer passing through it.

A full circle moment

Our one year anniversary was the clearest version of this I have experienced so far. We were dancing to Greek music, the room full of people we have come to genuinely love over the course of a single year. Some of them were friends we already knew before Nectar existed. But the majority, the overwhelming majority, were guests who have become part of the journey since we opened the doors.

It is difficult to properly describe how it feels to be received the way Broughton Street, Edinburgh, and now Scotland as a whole have received us. A year ago we were a team with an idea and no certainty about whether Edinburgh wanted what we were building. Now we are being nominated by our own industry for one of its oldest and most respected trade awards.

What comes next

The ceremony takes place on 1 September at the Doubletree Hilton on Cambridge Street in Glasgow, the 31st year of these awards. At least some of the team will be there to represent Nectar, and whatever happens on the night, being included in this shortlist is already more than we set out to achieve when we opened.

What we set out to do was give people a fantastic meal and a fantastic drink, surrounded by a great atmosphere. We are still trying to do exactly that, every single night. It just turns out that when you keep doing that consistently enough, for long enough, with people who genuinely care about doing it well, the industry around you starts to notice.

We will see you in Glasgow on 1 September. And we will see you on Broughton Street before then, because that is still where all of this actually happens.

Book a table at Nectar Bar and be part of the story that got us here.

Opening hours Tuesday to Thursday: 5pm to 11pm Friday: 5pm to 1am Saturday: 12pm to 1am Sunday: 12pm to 11pm Monday: Closed