Blueblazer Gala 2025 in Rome Celebrating 10 Years of the Best Italian Bars

BlueBlazer Gala 2025 - Celebrating 10 Years! January 20th, 2025 (Rome, Italy)

Like every year was the much anticipated annual Blue Blazer Gala, this time in Rome. And this time celebrating their 10 year anniversary!

10 Years of BlueBlazeR

Celebrating a decade of advising cocktail enthusiasts and bar lovers where to drink all around Italy. The now internationally famous BlueBlazer Guide which highlights the best bars in Italia, a number which grows every year, may have started as a passion project by founder Giampiero Francesca but has since grown into a well-respected compilation and lucrative PR business with the equally drink-passionate team: Gaetano (Massimo) Macri, Giovanni Continanza, Federica Corona, Ascanio Bastianelli, and Matteo Petrella.

But what makes Italy a unique cocktail bar and drinking destination? In the words of Giampiero it is this (and I would 100 percent have to agree):

"The Italian bar industry enjoys an excellent reputation, as the rankings attest (within the) international bars (lists). Italy, to stick to Europe alone, has the greatest diffusion of bars high profile geographically. Here we drink well everywhere. The cocktail culture is not rooted only in large metropolises, where the most internationally significant bars remain. In urban suburbs and in the smaller provinces, where the connection with the territory is more central than ever, these bars have been able to interpret and enhance local resources, using raw materials that enhance their regional specificities. Drinking becomes territorial”

And the 370 plus bars featured in the BlueBlazer Guide?:

“These are our most significant experiences, completed during a year of trips. The Guide is a tool born exactly like this, from travel, which we always want to maintain this identity is clear. It is right, then, to reward those bars and those people who made us live an experience to remember,” underlines Francesca.

With the BlueBlazer app which serves as a literal roadmap for both beginners and expert drinkers, their interviews and reviews and other behind-the-scene efforts, all contributed to uplifting the Italian bartending and bar community, propelling them further into the spotlight and world stage. And this year the invaluable mobile resource debuted its first ever printed guide!

Now available on Amazon: Guida ai cocktail bar d'Italia. BlueBlazeR 2025 : Francesca, Giampiero, Macrì, Gaetano Massimo: Amazon.it: Books (only in Italian for now)

The festivities officially kicked off for those that opted to arrive early (like me) at Hotel de Russie on January 20th with Jules Daudin and Clément Bendaoud of Danico Paris behind the stick serving some delicious brunch cocktails sponsored by Altamura Distilleries, Diageo and Venturo Aperitivo as well as some small bites. Also featuring the host-with-the-most, bar manager of the Rocco Forte Hotel’s Stravinskij Bar Mattia Capezzuoli, Dario Arienzo and a special appearance by “Il Maestro” Salvatore Calabrese and Federico Pavan of The Donovan Bar in London. And the day prior, which I sadly wasn’t there for were the BlueBlazer pre-parties:

Sofokli Cali of Nouvelle Vague Albania at the newly opened La Menagere in Rome and Camparino in Galleria Milano at Wisdomless Club.

Some of the day-of special guest shifts organized by BlueBlazer post gala:

Andrea Arcaini and Massimo Borroni of Rita Cocktails Milano at Wisdomless, Maria Gorbatschova of Green Door Bar Berlin at Chapter Roma, Willy Park of Gong Gan Seoul, South Korea at Culto Trastevere, Lefteris Lisgaras and Panos Fatouros of Baba au Rum Athens, Greece at Freni e Frizioni, and last but not least closing with the last shift at Oro Whisky Bar was Federico Diddi and Marco Notari of Il Sal8 Bar Agricolo, the award-winning Agri-Bar of Poggio ai Santi in the Tuscan countryside.

Luckily, most of the bars were within a short walking distance of each other, making attendance more feasible, something perfectly orchestrated by the Blue Blazer team, and thanks to that fact, I ALMOST went to them all!

The big BlueBlazer Gala took place on the last evening of the two, on Monday, January 20th with thousands of people in the journalism sector and the bar industry coming together for their one shared love – cocktails and cocktail bars at Teatro Centrale a massive event space in Roma centro storico. With several drink stations where you were able to see some of your favorite Italian bartenders in action and in their element. So many familiar faces from all over the boot, it was the most special kind of reunion between peers (and their biggest fans) and in one word - an absolute lovefest.

Taking place at center stage, same as every year, were some of the “top-level” awards including Best Cocktail Bar, Best Hotel Bar, Best Bartender, Best Bar Manager, Best Martini Cocktail and Bar Icon, plus the “Un’Orto al Sal8” an award designed by Giulio Neri and Federico Diddi, from Sal8 Bar Agricolo, in San Vincenzo - a beautiful initiative that teaches bartenders the secrets of foraging and collecting botanicals, emphasizing sustainability (and when possible 0km) when creating cocktails.

The complete list of 2025 winners and their respective awards and partners are below:

Altamura Bar of the year: Rita, Milan. Since its inception, Rita, on the Naviglio Grande, has stood out for its ability to be a bar innovation: its innovations have become a norm for everyone over time. Today he continues to travel with the same freshness and philosophy as always, proving to be a point of reference, an example for young people embarking on a career in this sector. He taught and continues to do so, maintaining its values ​​of hospitality, dedication, quality and innovation.

Amaro Panorama Hotel Bar of the year: Igiea Terrazza Bar, Villa Igiea, Palermo. Knowing how to renovate is often more complex than building from scratch. An objective that the Igiea Terrazza Bar has hit the mark with great skill, keeping the magical atmosphere of what once was there intact home of the Florio family, but updating the style of service and proposal. Thanks for the advice of the "Master" Salvatore Calabrese, and a young and capable team, this cocktail bar represents the flagship of a structure, Villa Igiea, which makes excellence its standard.

Amaro Lucano Bar Manager of the year: Gregory Camillò, Jerry Thomas Project Group, Rome. A constant growth that of Gregory Camillò, which, from challenge to challenge, has seen him commit and establish himself successfully in Italy and abroad. Thanks to the constant search for continuous improvement, he has led with style and elegance some of the most prestigious bars in the world, from London to Singapore. Today he serves as General Manager of the Jerry Thomas Project Group, an iconic Roman brand, once again establishing itself as a leading figure in the panorama of international mixology.

Ford’s Best Martini: Nicholas Pinna, Hotel Locarno, Roma. Far from the spotlight, in that jewel of history that is the Hotel Locarno, with its original furnishings from the 1920s, Nicholas Pinna has been taking care of the souls of his many customers for more than a decade with his Martini. Artists and writers, journalists and politicians meet at the counter of this iconic bar every evening or in front of the elegant fireplace, to enjoy the pleasure of what, more than a cocktail, is a way of life.

Bar Icon: Vincenzo Errico, ArteFatto, Forio d'Ischia. Originally from Campania, Vincenzo Errico honed his technical skills between London and New York, dominating the nightlife scene that matters. With his work he influenced bartenders the whole world. His creations have achieved unparalleled fame. His is the Enzoni created at famous Milk & Honey, in the Big Apple, like the Red Hook, a variant of the classic Manhattan and inspired by the Brooklyn neighborhood, which has now become a modern classic, prepared in all the bars around the globe.

Un Orto al Sal8: Barmacia, Potenza This is a prize that Blueblazer has supported for some years. Designed by Giulio Neri and Federico Diddi, from Sal8 Bar Agricolo, in San Vincenzo, in the province of Livorno, awards the Guide's restaurant which best interprets the philosophy of this particular Tuscan restaurant. Participants spend a whole day, which begins with foraging in the Sal8 garden, learning to recognize and use plants, herbs and spices, which they will use to prepare the evening's drinks.