On the cocktail world’s biggest awards night, Phoenix bar Century Grand took home top honors.
The immersive, three-bars-under-one-roof concept was named Best U.S. Cocktail Bar on Thursday night in New Orleans at Tales of the Cocktail Foundation’s 17th Annual Spirited Awards. Known as the Oscars for mixology, the event recognizes people and bars for their outstanding work.
Over the years, Valley bars including Century Grand, have received nominations — a feat and an accolade of its own when competing on a national and global stage. Yet, none of those bars have ever won the final bragging rights. Until now.
“Everybody’s really stoked. It’s a little like when you finish a race and you’re out of breath, but we’re feeling good,” says Mat Snapp, executive vice president of operations for Barter & Shake Cocktail Entertainment, the hospitality group behind Century Grand. “It was the closeout to a lot of hard work and a lot of excitement. We’re thrilled; we’re beyond thrilled.”
Team members at Platform 18, one of the bars inside Century Grand, which received the award for Best U.S. Cocktail Bar from the Spirited Awards.
Barter & Shake Cocktail Entertainment
‘We’ve been here the whole time’
Century Grand is home to the immersive, showstopping Platform 18, UnderTow and Grey Hen Rx, stylized respectively as a Pullman train car, the hull of a ship and a New Orleans apothecary. The 90-minute bar experiences lean into stories to immerse guests, but the team’s bartending prowess has also consistently turned heads locally and beyond. The bar collective was a Spirited Award finalist for Best New American Bar in 2020 and a regional honoree in the West for Best U.S. Cocktail Bar in 2022.
In addition to its nod this year for Best U.S. Cocktail Bar, Century Grand was a nominee for Best U.S. Bar Team. Century Grand and the bars within it often find themselves on local and national best-of lists, including the New Times’ Top 100 Bars and the 50 Best Bars in North America.
Kailee Asher, Barter & Shake’s director of communications, says she was a “nervous wreck” heading into the awards ceremony on Thursday. Co-founder of Barter & Shake and Kailee’s husband Jason Asher was surprisingly calm, she says.
“As soon as they called our name, Jason broke down crying,” Kailee said from New Orleans. “As much as we were trying to manifest it, we still had our doubts.”
With the addition of this latest award, Snapp was aware of how it will bring more focus on Phoenix’s craft cocktail scene. During the live stream of the awards ceremony, as Jason Asher stepped up to the podium to accept the award, others could be heard shouting “Arizona!” from the crowd.
“For a lot of us Arizonans, we’re like, yeah we’ve been here the whole time. Listen up, come on out, see what we’re working with,” Snapp says.
Congratulations streamed in via social media posts from bars and bartenders Thursday night, including from a fellow Spirited Awards finalist.
“Massive congratulations to our (Century Grand) family for bringing home (Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards) Best U.S. Cocktail Bar award. We are so proud of you,” read a story on Little Rituals’ Instagram.
Downtown Phoenix hotel bar Little Rituals opened in 2019, serving complex, expertly crafted cocktails. The swanky space is a collaboration between Ross Simon, the cocktailer behind Bitter & Twisted, and Aaron DeFeo, who moved from Tucson to Phoenix to open the bar. The collaboration was lauded from the start. The bar was a Spirited Awards finalist for Best U.S. Hotel Bar in 2022 and a regional honoree for the West in 2020, as well as a regional honoree for Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar in 2019. Little Rituals was also a 2020 James Beard Award nominee for Outstanding Bar Program.
“To have this (recognition) for Arizona means that we’re doing something right and it’s great for everybody and all the venues in the Valley,” Ross Simon, owner of Bitter & Twisted and co-owner of Little Rituals says.
Kailee noted the challenge of making it onto the national and international stage as a bar located in Phoenix, rather than known cocktail markets such as Miami or New York City. Century Grand’s win is the culmination of work by Phoenix industry leaders, Kailee says, crediting Simon and DeFeo for their contributions.
“Without the community as a whole, this recognition would never exist in Arizona,” she says. “As much as we are so proud and so excited it’s our win, at the same time, it’s the community’s win.”
Earlier this week, Tales of the Cocktail also hosted the New Orleans Spirits Competition. On Tuesday, local craft soda maker Big Marble Organics received two awards in the No/Low Elixir category – a gold medal for Best Soda for its ginger beer and a silver medal for its Dry Tonic. The beverage company was founded by former Breadfruit Rum Bar owner Dwayne Allen and features a lineup that also includes lemon and hibiscus-flavored drinks.
Amanda Gunderson, CEO and co-founder of Another Round Another Rally, received the Spirited Awards Pioneer Award last year. The organization is based in Phoenix.
The Spirited Awards are judged by a collection of bartenders, owners, educators and writers from around the country. Century Grand’s Asher is a Spirited Awards co-chair for the West region. However, Spirited Awards Committee Members are not eligible to vote in any category in which they or their workplace are nominated.
This year, five Valley bars made the Spirited Awards’ top 10 nominees: Bitter and Twisted Cocktail Parlour, Century Grand, Khla, Little Rituals and UnderTow Gilbert. Once the nominees were whittled down to four finalists per category in June, just Century Grand and Little Rituals remained. And at the ceremony in New Orleans Thursday night, Century Grand was finally awarded the winner.