DRINK

Hey Love Is Officially the Best U.S. Hotel Bar

The Jupiter Next watering hole won the title at this year’s Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards.

Hey Love (Henry Cromett)

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Since opening five years ago, Hey Love has been many things: a botanical garden that also happens to serve food and drinks, the Jupiter campus’s coolest hang, a Halloween-themed saloon called Black Lagoon and a Christmas pop-up named Sleigh Love.

Now, it can add an even more impressive identity to that list: the Best U.S. Hotel Bar.

Hey Love, located on the ground floor of Jupiter Next at 920 E Burnside St., received that honor Thursday at the 17th annual Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards in New Orleans. The award goes to a hotel bar with “exceptional service, consistently excellent drinks and great ambiance,” according to the spirits industry nonprofit organization.

The awards committee also embraced the multifaceted nature of Hey Love, noting that it’s “a top-notch cocktail lounge, a community meeting hall, a hidden garden and a house party, all wrapped into one.”

The Spirited Awards is one of the most prestigious competitions for beverage professionals, products and businesses—consider it something akin to the Great American Beer Festival for mixed drinks.

The Hey Love team, which includes industry veterans and co-owners Emily Mistell (Rum Club, Ava Gene’s), Sophie Thomson (Andina, Mississippi Studios), and Dig A Pony founders Aaron Hall and Nicholas Musso, thanked Jupiter Hall for its support after receiving the honor.

“As a peer-voted award, this recognition means the world to us,” the group said in a joint statement. “It acknowledges all of the hard work and passion our team pours into making Hey Love an oasis of inclusivity and escape.”

So what’s next for the best hotel bar in the nation? Keeping the party going with a celebration event on Aug. 17.

Andi Prewitt

Andi Prewitt is WW's arts and culture editor. She writes about Oregon’s trifecta of fun: craft beer, food and the outdoors. A native Oregonian, Andi’s claim to fame was being named Princess of Newberg. It’s all been downhill from there.

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