We met Pritesh earlier in the year at Barcelona Cocktail Fest. Right from the jump he was kind and friendly and a wealth of information. This man has accomplished great things and it was no surprise when we saw that he was hosting The 50 Best Bars 2026 awards ceremony in Milan. We got to catch up with Pritesh at the closing party the day after the awards where he was still standing and smiling. What a pro!
Bartender Atlas: Pritesh Mody, where were you born?
Pritesh Mody: London. East London.
BA: What city do you work in now?
PM: I mean, that’s a question and a half. I work all over the world. So I live in Valencia. I still spend most of my social time, I guess, in London, but, you can find me all over. All over Europe predominantly, developing cocktails for places all over Europe.
BA: How would you describe your job title? Like, what are you doing in hospitality?
PM: I’m a cocktail strategist, I think this is probably the best way to do it. So I do strategic work for Coca-Cola, for Smirnoff, all the way through to menus for international restaurant and hotel brands where I’ll design the whole thing.
BA: When you have a day off, where do you go out to eat and drink?
PM: Well in Valencia it’ll always be somewhere new because it’s still a new city for me, and it’s one of these cities that’s really starting to buzz so there’s a lot of exciting things. I don’t have a regular spot there because there’s so much to explore. In London it will always be Thai food, which will be Speedboat, it’ll be Kiln, it’ll be Smoking Goat. There’ll be 100% breakfast at Dishoom with my dad every time. Then Indian food will be Gunpowder and after that I don’t really care. Oh, and a banh mi every time as well at Kêu. So those are my spots.
BA: That’s an amazing list.
PM: And before I lived in Spain, I would’ve gone to Barrafina or Mountain but I don’t really wanna see another croqueta when I’m in England. So all of those are off my list, but have to shout Barrafina out because I love Barrafina for their Spanish food. And sherry.
BA: What do you do outside of drinking and eating on your days off?
PM: I mean, what more is there to life? And that’s no joke. I come from a family of foodies. My family in the restaurant. My wife and kids are massive foodies. And really for us, life starts and finishes, every location, everything we do centres around, what’s the food option, and then everything else is secondary. So right, I love going to the beach. I love hanging out. As I said, I’m a tourist now in a new city that is my home. So I feel like that’s changed my life quite significantly in so much as there is always something exciting to do. Tomorrow I’m going for a flipping hike.
BA: Great.
PM: No, it’s not great. I told my wife that it might be easier for me to jump off the cliff, less painful for me to jump off the cliff than go for the hike. So if you’re talking about days off, that’s my day off tomorrow. Not great. No para mi, as they always say in Spain. Like, no.
BA: Would you say you’re more of a movie person or a music person?
PM: Music.
BA: What’s one album you think everybody should listen to?
PM: Oh, my God. Okay.
BA: It could be in a bar, it could be just in life.
PM: Uh
BA: It could be while you’re hiking up a mountain
PM: Pick anything early Tribe Called Quest. Just, do you know what I mean? Just, do you know what? Just, go with the Anthology.
BA: Yeah.
PM: Just go with Tribe Called Quest Anthology and that could be the soundtrack to so many lives.
BA: You know, we do a lot of these interviews, and that’s an open-ended question, but that’s the right answer.
PM: That is the right answer.
BA: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
PM: The first time I did TV- 11 years ago, live TV, and it was a big thing, right? It came from nowhere. The whole thing came from nowhere. I had this little cocktail company and I got invited to talk about things on live TV and my wife actually gave me this advice. It’s the reason I’m still here today. I was really nervous and my wife used to work in movies. She used to work for 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, all these guys, and she went, “Just remember, you’re the expert.”
“They have asked you to be there, so just have the confidence. No one cares if you get it right or wrong. Just have the confidence to say what you want to say and have the conversation.” And that sticks with me, and even yesterday I’m just talking to my friends in the audience. And I’m talking to my friends who are coming on stage to present a gift. They’ve asked me to host this event because they trust me to just be-
BA: You’re the expert
PM:… be the expert, be the natural on stage.
BA: What’s something you’re excited about?
PM: Oh, this year has been so exciting. Okay, within the context of these awards, I’m excited to see how it influences global menus for the next 12 to 24 months. So these awards, we’ve got so many entries from Buenos Aires and then South America, Middle America, Asia. And not to make it competitive, because I think it’s very reductive and I don’t want this to sound reductive but you know, Europe has and America has led these awards for forever. And I say, I don’t want it to sound like, “Oh, my God,” it’s their time. It’s not. Their time is not over, but the world moves on.
And now I’m excited to see how, what the Asians, what the South Americans are going to do to influence the globe, you know? In the UK I design cocktail menus for about 3,000 venues, so I sign off for major pub groups to luxury hotels, right? Now, at what point does everything I hosted yesterday and all of that influence hit mainstream? At what point, in England, does Waitrose take an ingredient that is only currently available because Alquimico has it in a cocktail in Colombia? Where’s that confluence, right? And that’s what I’m excited about.
RETURN TO ALL HOSPITALITY GEMS
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Posted October 16th, 2026
