{"id":944824,"date":"2026-10-29T06:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T06:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944824\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T06:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T06:10:11","slug":"alia-2026-celebrates-australias-pub-excellence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944824\/","title":{"rendered":"ALIA 2026 celebrates Australia\u2019s pub excellence"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 Australian Liquor Industry Awards (ALIAs) were held last night at The Fullerton Hotel in Sydney, with more than 500 on- and off-premise liquor industry participants from across the country in attendance to celebrate.<\/p>\n

With a \u2018Sporting Icons\u2019 theme, everyone got into character, coming as football players, Formula 1 drivers, basketballers \u2013 and even a few Sharons from Kath and Kim.<\/p>\n

Throughout the festivities, the hard work of the industry was honoured. In the on-premise component of the awards, pubs were celebrated \u2013 with both large and small operators recognised with wins.<\/p>\n

Hotel of the Year was awarded to the Bat & Ball Hotel in Sydney\u2019s Redfern. The Bat & Ball Hotel has taken over the cultural zeitgeist of Sydney\u2019s pub scene in the last two years, with a very traditional pub offer done very well. The venue is operated by Working Holiday Group, who have also recently reopened Carlisle Castle Hotel<\/a>. Director Zac Godbolt said it was an honour for an independent operation to be acknowledged by their peers.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be acknowledged is incredible, considering it\u2019s voted for by our peers, but we owe it all to our team, our community, our customers. It means so much when you\u2019re out here just trying to reinvigorate independent pubs and give them that credit that I think everyone wants to. At the end of the day, we have the incredible captain behind the ship, Rachael at the Bat & Ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachael Paul, licensee and co-owner of Bat & Ball Hotel \u2013 and ALIA\u2019s 2025 Best Publican<\/a> \u2013 was also thrilled by the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be nominated is unexpected every time, but to win is just incredible. It\u2019s unbelievable,\u201d stated Paul.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Best Publican gong went to Kayla Seeney, general manager of the Camden Valley Inn, who has spent 14 years at Lewis Leisure venue<\/a> in Sydney\u2019s south-west, and has led the venue since 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe recognition is absolutely fantastic, I love this industry. I love my job, I love the people, and I love my venue. I\u2019m the licensee at the Camden Valley Inn and I\u2019ve been there for 14 years now, so I\u2019ve really seen the place evolve and grow with the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Kayla Seeney (left), GM of Camden Valley Inn, was named Best Publican.<\/p>\n

Best Hotel Group Operator went to Kickon Group, with several venues across Victoria and Queensland, including The Terminus North Fitzroy, The Doutta Galla Hotel, Osbourne Hotel in Fortitude Valley and The Grand View Hotel in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

Kickon Group founder and director Craig Shearer was thrilled with the win and credited his team with the success.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge honour to be recognised by our peers and the industry as Australia\u2019s Best Hotel Group Operator at the ALIAs. We\u2019ve got an incredible team of people across Kickon Group who put their heart and soul into what they do, so this is a fantastic reward for all their hard work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all super proud, and while we\u2019ll definitely enjoy celebrating this one, it\u2019ll only make us hungrier to keep getting better!<\/p>\n

\u201cA massive congratulations to all the finalists and winners. What an amazing industry we get to be part of here in Australia!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Kickon Group was named Best Hotel Group Operator.<\/p>\n

Industry partner awards<\/p>\n

Taking out Best On-Premise Distributor or Wholesaler was ALM On-Premise. The hospitality wholesaler enacted a major step-change at the start of the year<\/a>, backed by new resources and investment to better connect suppliers and their venue customers.<\/p>\n

At the start of the year, Jeremy Goodale, general manager of ALM Southern Region and National On-Premise told Australian Hotelier: \u201cThis reset is about providing venues with the appropriate tools to run their business more efficiently and effectively. We have a new structure including some very experienced and passionate on-premise industry champions to support our aspiration of being Australia\u2019s premier liquor wholesale partner, which we\u2019re super excited about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asahi Beverages was named Best On-Premise Supplier. Asahi has executed multiple on-premise activations in venues<\/a> throughout the year to drive sales, as well as partnering on flagship venues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can view the full list of pub winners below. The complete list of 2026 ALIA winners will be available on TheShout shortly.<\/p>\n

Best New Pub or Renovation: Waterside Hotel, Melbourne, Vic<\/p>\n

Highly Commended: Hotel Harry\u2019s, Surry Hills, NSW<\/p>\n

Best Sports or Entertainment Venue: Oran Park Hotel, Oran Park, NSW<\/p>\n

Highly Commended: The Caxton, Brisbane, Qld<\/p>\n

Best Pub Dining: Builders Arms Hotel, Fitzroy, Vic<\/p>\n

Highly Commended: The Lincoln, Carlton, Vic<\/p>\n

Best Draught Product: Guinness<\/p>\n

Highly Commended: Hard Rated<\/p>\n

Best On-Premise Spirit\/Liqueur: Never Never Triple Juniper Gin<\/p>\n

Highly Commended: Archie Rose True Cut Vodka<\/p>\n

Highly Commended: Campari<\/p>\n

Best Beer List: Odd Culture, Newtown, NSW<\/p>\n

Highly Commended: Bitter Phew, Darlinghurst, NSW<\/p>\n

Best Wine List: The Dry Dock, Balmain, NSW; and Bar Demo, Enmore, NSW<\/p>\n

Highly Commended: Claret Club, Darlinghurst, NSW<\/p>\n

Highly Commended: Odd Culture, Newtown, NSW<\/p>\n

Best Hotel: The Bat & Ball Hotel, Redfern, NSW<\/p>\n

Highly Commended: The Old Fitzroy Hotel, Woolloomooloo, NSW<\/p>\n

Best Hotel Group: Kickon Group<\/p>\n

Highly Commended: Momento Hospitality<\/p>\n

Best Publican: Kayla Seeney, Camden Valley Inn<\/p>\n

Highly Commended: Georgia Harris<\/p>\n

Best On-Premise Distributor\/Wholesaler: ALM On-Premise<\/p>\n

Highly Commended: Paramount Liquor<\/p>\n

Best On-Premise Supplier: Asahi Beverages<\/p>\n

Highly Commended: LION<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 Australian Liquor Industry Awards (ALIAs) were held last night at The Fullerton Hotel in Sydney, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[512073,64,63,10885,44],"class_list":["post-944824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-alia-2026","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-editors-pick","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=944824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}