Restaurant Awards 2025: Sommelier of the Year and Bartender of the Year

Sommelier of the Year 2025: Chris Reilly

In the public’s mind, a sommelier arrives on this earth with a preternaturally amazing palate and an encyclopedic knowledge of great vintages for every region. But while being able to blindly ID an off-dry chenin from the Loire’s 2001 vintage is admittedly a cool skill, it’s not super helpful when a tableful of conference-goers wants something familiar to go with their burgers. A great somm can balance the reams of factual details underpinning the art of winemaking with deciphering the more pressing needs of their customers—and few somms can read the room better than Nightingale’s Chris Reilly.

Wine wasn’t a big part of Reilly’s life growing up in Kaslo, B.C., and even after relocating to Vancouver and working in hospitality it was more of an afterthought than a driving force. But as is so common in the industry, it was his interactions with those who have a passion for wine that drew him toward his true calling. The first was a GM at The Boathouse in Richmond—Michael Moller—who saw something in the young bartender, and from there Reilly was blessed to interact with a number of individuals along his path who poured encouragement on his dream. But it wasn’t until he arrived at Hawksworth in 2018 that the promising young somm took a leap into the ranks of the elite.

The wine crew during his tenure might be the greatest this city has ever seen: Bryant Mao, Roger Maniwa and Franco Michienzi are all past winners of this award. Sean Nelson and Jayton Paul have both won Best Somm in B.C. from the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers and, if those weren’t enough all-star colleagues, fate threw in legend Todd Prucyk, too, for good measure. And while Reilly gladly cops to learning something from all of them, the list and the vibe he’s created at Nightingale achieves that rare feat of being all things to all people. While it’s only five pages long (although sometimes keeping it that length sees Reilly surreptitiously decreasing the font), it has something for nerds, investment bankers, natty lovers and the Meiomi drinkers who just need a loving push toward something transformative. And while he’s assembled a team that can readily opine on whole cluster ferments in Sonoma Coasts pinots, they’re spring-loaded to adapt their knowledge and passion to the needs of their consumers. No one leaves Nightingale having been upsold, bullied into riesling or feeling that they were talked down to. And those are the good vibes that lift Reilly to the title of SOTY.

Bartender of the Year 2025: Tara Davies

The bartenders plying their craft today are hands down the best bartenders ever. They’re well-versed in the history of mixology, can opine on the effect of pH level in a properly made brandy crusta and, whatever you do, don’t get them talking about ice. But even with all this technical prowess, sometimes, as with the case of Tara Davies, this year’s BOTY, it’s the heady dose of old-timey hospitality that inspires her legions of rabid fans.

Perhaps it’s because she came relatively late to bartending, spending the first part of her career FOH before a stint at Toronto’s famed Bar Raval brought into the drink-making fold. And while she did her deep dive into the art (don’t get her talking about ice either, by the way) she never lost that love of one-to-one human connection that became the hallmark of her and partner Marcelo Ramirez’s beloved Chupito.

It was that perfect place that succeeded against all odds: started during COVID in an alley with ongoing permitting issues and lacking, you know, a ceiling. But damned if everyone who visited didn’t feel like they were at their best friend’s backyard BBQ and a huge portion of that feeling was bellying up to the bar and being immersed into the wonders of agave by a perpetually upbeat Davies. And while the original Chu­pito is gone, there’s no keeping a great bartender down—the new Chupito rises in Mount Pleasant this spring.

Find more of the best Vancouver restaurants on our list of 2025 Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Award winners.