Liverpool's best independent restaurants, pubs, cafés and shops listed for 2024 awards

Liverpool’s top food, drink and retail destinations have been revealed as finalists of the Merseyside Independent Business Awards.

The annual accolades, which commenced in 2013, are designed to shine a light on the very best the region has to offer. The awards are broken down into a dozen categories, including Bar of the Year, Food Venue of the Year and Best Start-up Business.

Liverpool’s Arts Bar, Lark Lane’s Love & Rockets and The Bus Yard at Crosby Marina are all in with a chance of being crowned Bar of the Year, with each being well-loved spots for a drink.

The Food Venue of the Year finalists are all vastly different, with Emily’s in Formby offering an Instagram-worthy brunch in a botanical setting and the not-for-profit Squash in Toxteth bringing the community together through nature, food and art. Hope Street Hotel’s fine dining venue, The London Carriage Works is also a finalist, alongside the ever-popular Watering Can in Mossley Hill.

The awards ceremony will take place on October 17 and one of the individual category winners will also be crowned Merseyside Independent Business of the Year.

Full list of Merseyside Independent Business Awards 2024 finalists

Culture & Tourism Business of the Year

• Blackstock Market
• Hope Street Hotel
• Regal Entertainments
• Southport Bijou Cinema

Retail Business of the Year

• Delifonseca, Brunswick Way
• Lunko by the Lane, Lark Lane
• Nibu Naturals, Lark Lane
• Snips Movies, Bebington
• Wongs Jewellers, Whitechapel

Bar of the Year

• Arts Bar, Hope Street
• Love & Rockets, Lark Lane
• The Bus Yard, Crosby Marina

Food Venue of the Year

• Emily's, Formby
• Squash, Toxteth
• The London Carriage Works, Hope Street
• The Watering Can, Mossley Hill

Trades or Manufacturing Business of the Year

• Baltic Bespoke
• Ecogee
• Kimpton
• Sterling Plastering
• Trojan Lighting Solutions

Professional Services Business of the Year

• Bathgate Business Finance
• Evans & Co Hospitality Accountants
• MLA
• Sutcliffe

Best Creative Business

• Builder Book
• Future Yard
• Loud Speaker
• Make CIC
• MyCardium Al

Best Start-up Business

• Butterflies Rising Funeral Care
• Harker
• Lunko by the Lane
• Select Training
• Unity Lives

Health & Wellbeing Business of the Year

• Caring Connections
• Kaizen Wirral Mindset
• Katumba Drumming & Movement
• Northern Vision

Employer of the Year

• Caring Connections
• Krol Corlett
• MLA
• The Progess Group
• Wellbeing Enterprises

Digital & Technology Business of the Year

• Connect
• Harker
• MICT
• MyCardium Al

Business Person of the Year

• Kiera Vogel (Senate Group)
• Mike Skeggs (Owen Drew Candles)
• Paul Growney (Caring Connections)
• Sean Keyes (Sutcliffe)
• Simon Krol (Krol Corlett)