Woburn Bar Again Named Semi-Finalist For James Beard Award

WOBURN, MA — The Baldwin Bar in Woburn has again been nominated for one of the culinary industry's highest honors. The bar, located on the second floor of the Baldwin mansion, was named a semi-finalist in the Outstanding Bar Program category Wednesday by the James Beard Foundation, for the second year in a row.

The "long list" of semi-finalists in each category will be pared down to a list of five finalists on March 25. Winners will be announced at the James Beard Awards Gala in Chicago on May 4.
The nominations are the first since the foundation announced in October that it was changing is judging criteria to produce a more diverse list of nominees and winners, including a change calling for the judging panel to be made up of proportions representative of nationwide demographics.

The Baldwin Bar is owned by Ron Duan and is on the first floor of the Baldwin Mansion, which, for nondrinkers, is locally best known as the home of Sichuan Garden, the Chinese restaurant Duan's parents operate. The bar has just 24 seats.

In 2017, Esquire magazine named it to its list of the 27 best bars in America. In 2018, the drinking website The Daily Meal named the Baldwin one of the 150 best bars in America.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.