Another round: how The World’s 50 Best Bars works with Emma Sleight
“That’s why the list is so dynamic and by its nature controversial.”
We’re taking a break from Drinks At Work this week as I’m on the road again — this time to Christchurch in New Zealand. All bar suggestions are welcome!
And we’re serving up another round of my interview with Emma Sleight, the head of content for The World’s 50 Bets Bars and The World’s 50 Best Hotels. It’s an interesting chat with someone occupying a one of a kind role in the global bar industry — and a high profile one at that.
I’ve asked every guest I’ve interviewed on Drinks At Work about what they think makes a great bar. Every answer is different; if there is one common theme or answer, it would likely be that it is the hospitality that makes bars great.
But that’s a big, squishy, hard-to-define term, and there is so much that goes into making a bar great and memorable. And it’s a subjective thing, too: what you think makes a great bar will depend on your experience and your preferences and what makes you happy.
Which makes sense, right? Once you’ve got the basics down — lighting, atmosphere, sound, service and drinks — the very best bars layer in something else that makes it stand out, but that can be hard to quantify, because we all experience the world of bars differently. That’s a good thing — there is no science to hospitality.
And that subjectivity is present on The World’s 50 Best Bars list, as Emma points out in this episode — it’s a feature, not a bug. Because, while I might think a number of Australian bars are better than those from other countries on the pointy end of the list, I’m sure there are people in other countries who feel the same way. What we think is great is subjective — it depends on where you stand.
(Full disclosure, too: I’m one of 28 academy chairs for 50 Best, and whilst I don’t work for the organisation — it’s an unpaid role — I do help them collate voters from the Oceania region and they do fly me to the event each year.)
I really enjoy talking to Emma, she’s someone who clearly genuinely believes in the role that 50 Best can play in shining a light on some amazing bars and bartenders. Give the episode a listen in your podcast player of choice, and below, get a couple of key takeaways to better understand what 50 Best is about and how it works.
The Quotable Emma Sleight
What is 50 Best?
“Fundamentally, World’s 50 Best Bars is an annual list that celebrates the very best of the international drinks industry,” she says. “So it’s been around for quite a while. First published in 2009, and it is obviously very well known as the annual ranking of bars as voted for by more than 700 drinks experts around the world. So the list represents the ultimate international guide to the world’s top bars and drinking destinations.”
On why there is no set criteria for deciding what is ‘best’:
“That’s why the list is so dynamic and by its nature controversial,” Emma says, “because you’re always going to get people who have different personal interests in what they consider to be best. But that is why we take that democratic view of a snapshot of 700 industry-leading people’s opinion at that particular time. All we do is collect the votes. So, you know, you’ve got someone over here voting for a cocktail menu or where the ingredients are from. But then you’ll have other people who are focusing on the ambience, the style of service or just the cool drinks list. So that’s why it’s important to have that diversity in that egalitarian approach to the vote.”