MILFORD – Five days after Bar One swept most of the first place restaurant awards in the Best Of Souhegan contest, Kimberly Lavoie and Ariana Camillieri are still smiling.

At the awards presentation dinner at Alpine Grove last week, the Milford restaurant earned first place in six categories: Best Bar/pub, Best Burger, Best Chef, Best Dinner, Best Happy Hour and Best New Restaurant.

“It’s really exciting,” said Lavoie during an interview at Union Coffee Monday, when Bar One is closed.

Lavoie is Bar One’s executive chef and Camillieri is the restaurant’s former sous chef and now works the front of the house. The restaurant is owned by their longtime friend, Persia Ardehali, who manages the front of the house.

It was Lavoie’s macaroni and cheese that won this woman-run restaurant its Best Dinner award. The tasty result of years of experimentation, Lavoie said Bar One’s version is made with a mix of smoked gouda cheese with a little Monterey Jack and cheddar with cavatappi pasta.

Lavoie, 32, and Camillieri, 25, live in Mason and are engaged to be married. Lavoie has cooked in some of the best restaurants in the area, including Surf in Nashua and Giorgios in Merrimack. If some of her dishes have a Southern flair, it could be because she’s worked in South Carolina as well. Her favorite is her buttermilk chicken breast with mashed sweet potatoes covered with duck gravy.

Camillieri is partial to Bar One’s brioche toast with melted brie, sliced New Hampshire apples, arugula and fig jam.

Bar One opened in June of 2016 and has been a hit since the beginning, with people raving about the food and cocktails on social media and cramming into the small space for dinner every night they’re open.

“We typically have people waiting at the door before we unlock it and open at 4,” Lavoie said.

People ask them why the restaurant doesn’t expand into the empty space next door that was recently vacated by Belair Barber & Beauty, which moved across the street.

That would be “a huge architectural undertaking,” said Lavoie, since stairs for the upstairs apartments separate the two spaces.

The 2107 Best Of Souhegan Region was a Souhegan Valley Chamber of Commerce event sponsored by The Cabinet Press. Winners in almost 150 categories were chosen by local consumers through online and write-in voting.

At the reception and awards presentation at the Alpine Grove Banquet Center in Hollis Sept. 13, Wendy Hunt, the chamber’s executive director, said “people took the time to write it in. These really are the best of the best.”

Cabinet publisher Heater Henline called the evening a celebration of fellowship and friendship.

Categories ran the gamut from best new restaurant to best firefighter to best septic service.

Along with Bar One, several other businesses won multiple awards, including Robin’s Egg, which won first place for antique shop and consignment shop, and second place for furniture store and home interior design company.

Other first-place restaurant awards went to Phil’s Old-Fashion BBQ, for Best Barbecue; Giorgios in Milford, Best Family Dining and Best Fine Dining; the Riverhouse Cafe, Best Breakfast; Amigos, Best Lunch; Mijalisco, Best Mexican; Milford House of Pizza, Best Pizza; Pasta Loft, Best Entertainment and Best Place to Watch a Game; Black Forest Cafe, Best Dessert; Papa Joe’s Humble Kitchen, Best Fast Food; Buckley’s Great Steaks, Best Steak, and Lobster Boat, Best Seafood Restaurant.