Editor's Note: This is another article in the Kyiv Post 20th Anniversary Series to mark the newspaper's founding on Oct. 18, 1995. All articles in the series, as well as some Kyiv Post classic articles of yesteryear, can be found at www.kyivpost.com, under the hot topic "Kyiv Post's 20th Anniversary Series."
Almost five years after the Kyiv Post held its last Best of Kyiv contest, winners still proudly and prominently display their awards in their establishments.
In O’Brien’s Irish Pub, a popular expat hangout, an entire wall by the second-floor bar is devoted to Best of Kyiv diplomas.
“We won the Best Beer Choice, the Best Breakfast and the Best Pub. We were picked best in a lot of categories,” said bar manager Ihor Nosenko. O’Brien’s took home at least five awards in the 10 years of the Best of Kyiv’s existence.
The Kyiv Post launched the contest in 2000 “to honor the businesses that make the difference in Kyiv community,” according to the newspaper’s first publisher, Jed Sunden, and former chief editor, Greg Bloom, in the first Best of Kyiv Awards supplement.
Years after the last contest took place, Nosenko said that the diplomas are more than a sweet reminder of good times. “They mark the whole epoch of very active restaurant life that ended then,” he said, referring to the last Best of Kyiv supplement in 2010.
Stuart McKenzie, the managing director of Pulse Marketing Agency, a co-owner of Shooter’s nightclub, said the Best of Kyiv awards “were a good way to keep in touch with where to go, what was new, what was good.”
McKenzie, who also serves as president of the Kyiv Lions Club, was emcee for the penultimate Best of Kyiv gala in 2009, a year before the newspaper retired the awards in 2010.
The Best of Kyiv events and contests helped the local community – particularly expatriates – bond, McKenzie said. He also thinks the recognition helped some winners attract business. Shooter’s won the best nightclub category in 2009.
McKenzie noted that Arizona Bar BQ, one of the first expat hangouts in independent Ukraine, had a Best of Kyiv award on its wall “from the first year until they closed it down in the last year.” He said that trust in the Kyiv Post is why people and businesses still display the awards. “If it was just any old newspaper, you wouldn’t have the pride of putting it on the wall,” he said.
Yaroslavna Onishchuk, the general director of TGI Fridays, said their awards are still on the wall of their administrative office. “Back then we were a big chain, and we are just one restaurant now – so the diplomas inspire us for future achievements,” Onishchuk said.
The award’s launch coincided with the Kyiv Post’s 5th anniversary. The winners were initially picked by a jury of community leaders and Kyiv Post staff. The number of categories increased to several dozen at times, with winners eventually chosen by a combination of online vote and jury panel. The first award winners included McDonalds (best multinational company), Chumak (best Ukrainian company with foreign investment) and Obolon (best Ukrainian company).
The first restaurant awards came in 2003 and soon became one of the most prestigious honors.
“I can remember only a few contests and events held at such a level,” says Svitlana Yastrubenko, the owner of the Docker Pub, also an award winner. “I remember myself being so proud to be at the ceremony and getting the award.”
Olha Yakovets, an administrator of Oliva Restaurant on Velyka Vasylkivska Street, said the restaurant’s award in 2010 carried special meaning. “We had this whole stratum of clients – foreigners and expats, who, we knew, would read the paper and value our victory,” she explained. “It meant something to them, so it meant a lot to us.”
Other Best of Kyiv winners agreed. “We know the paper has a qualitative audience and, besides that, people just like to know what other ordinary people think of their favorite places,” Yastrubenko of Docker Pub said.
The Kyiv Post ended the awards in 2010 for a variety of reasons. One was the effort, time and cost involved in assembling juries, conducting online voting and putting on award banquets. Another was the steady migration online of customer-generated reviews and paid advertising. A third reason was simply that many of the categories and winners were becoming repetitious.
“There was a sense that its time had come and gone,” said Kyiv Post chief editor Brian Bonner. “On the news side, we’d be open to reviving it in a way that the community finds useful. But I know the commercial side would need to be convinced that this is a financially viable undertaking.”
McKenzie said he thinks that the community would support revival of the Best of Kyiv awards in some fashion, if only to provide people with another opportunity to get together. “Any high-end networking event is very good for business,” McKenzie said. “There’s so much happening that people need to share information and thoughts.”
Yastrubenko of Docker Pub said restaurants with expat clientele would gladly welcome the contest’s revival.
“Due to the latest events in the country, many foreigners fear to come over, but your audience trusts you, so the contest held by the Kyiv Post might be a good boost for our businesses,” Yastrubenko explained.
And all would be happy to win again.
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected]
