Reviewer of the Year 2006

Another year and another round of voting has taken place in the hallowed halls of the Cracow Life offices. But this was not the democratic voting of Cracow's Ten Best Places - no this was the top wigs of the CL board deciding who had won our prestigious 'Reviewer of the Year 2006' award.

For those of you who were unaware, every year we at Cracow Life generously reward our favourite contributor amongst our readers with a (nearly) all expenses paid trip back to Cracow. How jolly nice of us!

With more and more reviews being written on our sites - not just on Cracow-life.com, but on our sister sites such as Warsaw Life, Gdansk Life, Wroclaw Life and Zakopane Life - judging the best contributions is becoming a harder and harder prospect. Thankfully 2006's winner made the job a lot easier for us with a succession of droll reviews that really brought alive the places in question.

Here's what our man had to say about Tower Pub:

A satisfyingly dark cellar bar with a clientele that includes goth rockers with alabaster pallours, chainsmoking locals popping in for a post-work snifter, the obligatory loud-voiced Aussies and alas, blotchy Brit stag parties in humourlessly homemade matching t-shirts. Thankfully the deadbeat stag elements tend to skulk off early doors in search of lapdance drudgery, leaving a superb drinking hole with extremely friendly staff. It boasts a jukebox with an impressive selection (from Rammstein to Leonard Cohen) a fine choice of hooch and an atmosphere unlike any other bar I've found here. Not to be missed.

and again for Singer:

Darkness is golden in this divine drinkery. Piaf soundalikes vie with Estonian pop on the playlist whilst intense young folk contemplate their great unfinished novels. Given the pitch black environs, the hint of red velvet decadence and the atmospheric tea lights even Peter Beardsley could look wayward and poetic here if he slipped on a polo neck and sparked up a gitane. A true treasure and the pick of a fabulous strip of bars.

Sterling stuff we're sure you'll agree. Who's the man behind the quill? A certain fellow named Anthony J. Brown, whose profession as a stand-up comedian clearly served him well in composing such witty ditties.

Needless to say, with such worthy contributions to our sites, we were delighted to fly Anthony and his goodly wife out to Cracow to celebrate their anniversary - as well swap a few tales over a Zywiec or too! And the good news for everybody else is that we will be doing the same in 2007...

Find out more about our annual 'Review and Win' competition, to be in the running...