On Tuesday, The World’s 50 Best Bars accepted Charles Schumann’s return of the Industry Icon Award. Schumann earlier posted via Facebook that he no longer wanted the award, amid a backlash surrounding sexist comments.
The owner of Schumann’s American Bar in Munich, Schumann was presented with the award at The World’s 50 Best Bars awards last week in London.
The award precipitated an outcry on social media, with members of the restaurant and bar industries condemning sexist comments made by Schumann during an interview in German Playboy Magazine years ago.
In a statement to The Spirits Business, The World’s 50 Best Bars said: “50 Best takes final responsibility for awarding the winner based on the number of votes cast. It does have a vetting process in place for its awardees, although on this occasion it was unaware of these historical comments made by Mr Schumann.”
The World’s 50 Best continued by saying that there would be no recipient of the Industry Icon award this year.
