The Colin Field's Hemingway Bar Edition
On craft, cocktails, and careers
Colin here. Hemingway famously “liberated” the bar at the Ritz in Paris, leading to its famous namesake. It is an icon, not just for the environs, but also for the hospitality and craft. For thirty years, Colin Field was behind the bar catering to a range of local Parisians, well-heeled travelers, and those searching for a Clean Dirty Martini. And in May, just hung up his apron.
Field leaves a cult legacy: a name that is associated with the bar in a symbiotic way: the staff member becoming as important as the institution. The Times explains:
“Everyone asks me what should be on their itinerary in Paris, and I always say, ‘You can’t miss Colin at the Hemingway Bar,’” said Charles H. Rivkin, a former ambassador to France under President Barack Obama. For Mr. Rivkin and his wife, Susan Tolson, who would often walk over from the ambassador’s residence on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré for a nightcap, Mr. Field created the Rivkin Martini, with Sorrento-lemon-infused vodka, shaken with ice in one of two shakers designed by Mr. Field, and served in a glass frozen at minus 23 Celsius (9 below, in Fahrenheit).
The supermodel Kate Moss, who has been going to the bar since the mid-1990s, said Mr. Field “makes just the right amount of fuss over you to make you feel special, and like you’re the only customer in the room.”
Why is this interesting?
Bars are not just about cocktails. Plenty of places can execute innovative drinks or twists on the classics. What made Field’s bar particularly interesting is a combination of service and touch, with discretion and patina. First, he had the je ne sais quoi of a great bartender: knowing how to flex between different cultural operating systems, lean in and attend at one point or zoom out and give privacy at another. He refined elements of the bar (the Times cites his water with cucumber as a refreshing drink while you wait), and also played to the Hemingway aesthetic with a hand-crafted collection of ephemera: “Over the years, Mr. Field decorated the place with Hemingway-themed memorabilia that he said he bought with his gratuities, like shark jaws, taxidermy and a model of Mr. Hemingway’s fishing boat, Pilar, as well as items from customers, including business cards, invitations and signed books.”
Also, in a world of obsession with craft cocktails, Field’s approach is remarkably customer-centric. In an interview about his craft, he said:
…the cocktail is about the person you serve the cocktail to. As a bartender, it’s not about you, and it’s not about the cocktail. A big problem with the new mixology bartenders of the last 15 years is that they seem to think it’s all about the cocktail. But the cocktail’s not going to buy itself and it’s not going to drink itself. For me, it’s all about the client.
But perhaps the most important characteristic of Field was his persistence. It took him several tries and several years to get into the Ritz. The hotel politely asked him to come back after hotel school and had enough experience. But he did (his degree in literature ended up helping!), and in so doing, created a long-term legacy leaving worldly patrons, several Bonds and heads of state included, happy and satiated. (CJN)