National Good Food Guide Bar of the Year finalists announced

What would you pour to celebrate being named one of Australia's top bars? A bar that nails service, drinks, vibe, decor and adds something new or different to the drinking scene? It's the question you can ask the bartenders at these five contenders for Bar of the Year. The winner will be announced on October 16 at the inaugural National Good Food Guide Awards, presented by Citi and Vittoria.

Above Board

​Prime or end your night at bartender Hayden Lambert's house of earnest drink worship. The 12-seat charcoal and glowing mesh bar is mostly built for booze nerds, happy to sit around the intimate 360-degree central bar and watch as Lambert crafts manhattans and citrusy originals over branded ice.

Level 1, 306 Smith Street, Collingwood, aboveboardbar.com

Arlechin

​Welcome to the Grossi family's new alleyway bar: the party you never knew you were missing that's now here to tempt you until 3am every night. It's a domed temple of Italo-Australian wines, bracing cocktails and things you can-and-want-to eat with one hand after midnight, from bolognese jaffles to quail, crisp and cinnamon-crumbed.

Mornane Place, Melbourne, Victoria, 03 9662 2412, arlechin.com.au

The Dolphin

​Last year, star restaurateur Maurice Terzini took one of the worst pubs in Surry Hills and turned it into a multi-tiered fun house of pizza, wine, tiny snacks and beers. Out the back, the wine bar offers up an esoteric mix of natural-leaning wines, cracking cocktails and snacks like the crisp pig's head sandwich.

412 Crown Street, Surry Hills, 02 9331 4800, dolphinhotel.com.au

The Gresham

​Ryan Lane is a bloke who cracks tinnies with the same enthusiasm he applies to bourbon or a well-mixed martini. He leads one of the best bar teams in Australia at this heritage-listed Brisbane joint, which comes into its own on Saturdays when the suits stay home, the nips get bigger and Maggie May is turned up to 11. In Rodenbach and Rod we trust.

308 Queen Street, Brisbane, thegresham.com.au

Wyno

​Chefs Elvis Abrahanowicz and Ben Milgate offer up rich, salty snacks that make you want to order more from Joe Valore's broad and eminently drinkable wine list. And goddamn if this isn't the best plate of fried eggs doing the rounds in a Sydney bar right now. Foie gras: nature's answer to the perfect trans-seasonal garment.

50 Holt Street, Surry Hills, 02 8399 1440

The Good Food Guide goes national this year with hats awarded across Australia. The Good Food Guide 2018 will be launched in October with our presenting partners Citi and Vittoria and will be on sale in newsagencies and bookstores.