Gold Winner Obladee, A Wine Bar
Silver Winner Little Oak
Bronze Winner The Watch That Ends The Night
Heather Rankin may have a stack of these awards praising her wine list, but this win isn’t lost on the owner of the ambient downtown bar, Obladee. “I think anybody who’s in hospitality and service are naturally people pleasers. Whenever you get the approval of the people, there’s nothing better than that,” she says. With its selection changing every eight to 10 weeks, Obladee’s staff spend a lot of time researching and curating the best and most interesting wines that are out there. Right now, she’s loving the wine world’s lean towards natural wines. “It’s just kind of about de-industrializing wine. We’re focusing on more small producers, less-manipulated wine. It means there’s less of the good stuff around but I think that makes more sense—it is necessarily a small batch product.”