Those who serve beverages in the south of England now have another chance to break the stranglehold of the North and the Midlands on the national café awards. 

No café, hotel or restaurant south of Wolverhampton has ever picked up the national Bev-E prize awarded by the Beverage Service Association. 

The Bev-Es, in which the association recognises cafés doing exceptional work or offering a "beverage experience", have been overhauled for this year.

As usual, there are awards for the best single-unit café, with four regional winners, one of whom becomes the national winner. This year, Rombouts is offering a trip to Antwerp as an additional top prize. There will also be a new award for the best chain of five outlets or more – three entries from any chain will be judged.

There will also be a section for coffee carts and mobile beverage operations, with one national prize. The judges’ guidelines have been revised, and 51% of the scores are now directly beverage-related, as opposed to marks for ambience and so on.

Last year’s Bev-E award was shared by two cafés – Sadliers Coffee Lounge in Tettenhall, West Midlands, and the Bottle Kiln, of West Hallam, Derbyshire. 

Nominations for this year’s award can now be made to the BSA: bsa@dial.pipex.com

By Ian Boughton