I remember first meeting Emma Sleight at North America’s 50 Best Bars in 2025. It was at an event in a crowded bar and someone introduced her to me. I remember how kind she was in that moment despite the boisterous room and thinking: this is a real professional. Not the kind of industry leader who sets themselves on the top but one who takes the time to genuinely speak to everyone. Emma Sleight is Head of Content at 50 Best and it is obvious that she loves this role. Give our interview with her a read to learn more about this. For the purpose of this piece, she is a true Hospitality Gem. One who has worked in the industry in various capacities and one who truly cares about the people within it.
Bartender Atlas: Emma Sleight, where were you born?
Emma Sleight: I was born in Winchester in Hampshire in England.
BA: Where do you work out of now?
ES: I work at 50 Best. I’m the Head of Content.
BA: And where’s that? Where’s your office?
ES: We have offices around the world, but we work out of two of the UK-based ones. One is in a place called Crawley, but we always stay near Gatwick because no one knows where Crawley is, and one’s in London.
(another 50 Best representative manages to pull open a heavy door while holding three coupe glasses with good washlines, delivers one on the drinks to Emma)
BA: Wow! That was impressive!
ES: There she is! Gracias!
BA: So what is your job title and what do you do in the hospitality industry?
ES: I’m the Head of Content, and in a nutshell, we don’t just work on the awards, but that is a big part of the job that we do. Celebrating global hospitality through bars, hotels, vineyards, restaurants around the world. And in addition to that, specifically in the content team, we are all about telling the stories behind those venues, not just on one night, but throughout the year.
BA: You’ve practiced that one.
ES: It’s all in my head. I get asked that question a lot.
BA: Where do you go out to eat and drink on your days off?
ES: It’s really difficult whenever I travel. I never go on holiday because holidays for me is eating and drinking at as many places as possible so I have hit lists. I use our 50 Best Discovery platform and I’ll usually type in where we’re going and then I will try and go to as many places as possible. Then ask them where do you eat ,where do you drink, so those are how I get my reccos.
When I’m in London there’s loads of places that I go back to frequently. I think KOL is great. I can’t recommend any bars but there are bars I will always pop into frequently. a Connaught Martini at the end of the night is never going to go awry. There’s a little bar in Notting Hill called Viajante87 that does a good mezcal program. Honestly Waltz in London is a cool new opener. It’s not really that new anymore but there’s so much going on in London constantly you could never pick one place so the only thing you can do is try everything all at once.
BA: What do you do outside of eating and drinking for fun?
ES: Oh my god, I mean, is there fun outside of eating and drinking? What do I do? Well, gosh, I spend a lot of time with my very demanding rescue cat, who’s like a dog and requires 24-hour care. I’m in a choir which sounds lame. But it is very, very cool, in my opinion. What else do I do? Sometimes, on occasion, I have been known to run marathons. But I haven’t run one for a very long time.
BA: What’s you pace per kilometre?
ES: Oh my God, it’s terrible, don’t ask me that, why would you…
BA: I am also a runner. I’m asking out of genuine curiosity.
ES: Slow as bull, slow as anything. I’ve never managed to do a marathon sub-four and a half hours. But I don’t do it for the speed, so I usually do it to raise money for a charity that I’m a trustee of, which is BrightSparks charity, which provides free education to kids in India. Now you feel bad, don’t you?
BA: Ha ha ha! What’s one album that you think everybody should listen to?
ES: Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon.
BA: What an incredibly British answer.
ES: Thank you. I love it.
BA: What’s the best advice that you’ve ever gotten?
ES: You can’t be good at everything so hire great people and get out of their way.
BA: What is something that you’re excited about? What’s coming up? I know we had an award show last night, but what’s next?
ES: Honestly, we are incredibly excited to bring Europe’s 50 Best Bars to the world this year. There’s no denying that Europe has fantastic bars. Cocktail capitals are plenty from Italy to Spain to UK to France. However, there are so many incredible cocktail destinations across the entirety of the region and it’s incredibly diverse. So we are looking forward to shining that spotlight on the whole of the region so that people can get to explore it more.
Find Emma on Instagram
RETURN TO ALL HOSPITALITY GEMS
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Posted May 5th, 2026
