One of Melbourne’s oldest pubs, Hotel Lincoln in Carlton, has won Victoria’s coveted Pub of the Year award, run by radio station 3AW.

Great beer and food: Carlton’s Hotel Lincoln

The 1854 pub, one of the pioneers of the more recent gastro pub movement in Melbourne, is operated by husband and wife team Jon and Antoinette Burfurd, who had no experience in the hospitality industry prior to taking over the lease five years ago.

The 2011 Pub of the Year award was adjudged by Melbourne media personality Tony Leonard for Neil Mitchell’s Friday program.

According to Leonard, in determining the best pub, each year the basics remain a constant.  In brief, clean premises, great draught beer, smart, engaging, knowledgeable staff, exciting food and wine offers, all tied in with a sense of community and comfort and hospitality, the foundations on which pubs were established.

This is the 20th year of the award, established as Victoria’s leading award for pubs. Leonard reviewed 39 hotels including several in regional Victoria. 

Hotel Lincoln owner Jon Burfurd said he saw the award as an acknowledgement of the pub’s high standards of service, quality bar and dining room food, fresh on-tap beers and general genial pub ambience.

“As the current custodians of a long-running Melbourne institution we are pleased that we’ve been seen to be maintaining the cultural traditions of the pub,” he said.

“At the outset, we were conscious of the role of the pub in Melbourne social and cultural heritage which is why we introduced the Art @ The Lincoln project were artists take a contemporary look at pubs, the good, the bad and the ugly.”