Au Revoir To Colin Field, The World’s Greatest Barman

No, no, Colin Field hasn’t gone to heaven’s gate; At 62, he is alive, well and eager to get on with his life after 29 years as bar man extraordinaire at The Hemingway Bar at the Ritz Hotel in Paris.

I readily agree with my colleagues at Forbes that Field is the best bar man in the world, as has Travel & Leisure, and the London Times dubbed him “legendary.” Why he has accrued such accolades is evident in his own words from his book The Ritz Paris: Mixing Drinks, A Simple Story (2010), which is as much history and lore as it is a guide to making perfect cocktails: “While cocktail bartenders of the past used to only speak when spoken to, today’s bartender must be both a showman and a host. He must create the moment and keep the show running, just like the host at the Oscars. He must be generous with himself and his own life and offer a divertissement to his clients through his personal experiences, stimulating conversation and interaction. They can thus voluntarily forget their own problems and jump inside a ‘second life’ for the time that they are with him.”

All credit is due Warwickshire-born Field for being the prime mover (and shaker) behind the creation of The Hemingway Bar, which didn’t exist until August 25, 1994—coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Paris, when war correspondent Ernest Hemingway and French Resistance fighters “liberated the Bar at the Ritz” from German soldiers.

After the war the space was called Le Petit Bar, whose clientele included Marlene Dietrich, Ingrid Bergman, JFK, Noël Coward and Truman Capote. But the bar was closed in the 1970s, and an attempt by the hotel’s new owner, Mohamed Al Fayed, to re-launch it as the Hemingway Bar in 1979 foundered because it seemed gimmicky and needed an on-premises personality to give it a real vitality.

Enter Colin Field, whose interest in bartending dated back to when he was a teenager in awe of the sophistication of Paris upon a schoolboy’s trip to the city. He even then applied for a bar man’s position at The Ritz, which cordially told him he’d need a good deal of experience in life and service. Field set out to gain all that, working at several bars in the city before applying again for a job at The Ritz. He was at the right place at the right time, when Al Fayed re-launched the bar, and it Field’s experience as well as his knowledge of Hemingway and literary Paris that got him the job, which soon became so popular that he was working until 5 AM. Field himself collected Hemingway memorabilia for the small room, and he began perecting the kinds of classic cocktails, including the Hemingway daiquiri, that garnered hm a reputation for professional excellence. (He was the first bartender to be included in France’s Who’s Who in 2011. )

After a while everyone who was anyone, and just about everyone else, made a bee-line to the little bar at the rear of The Ritz, and Field himself had become like a character in one of Hemingway’s novels. In the days before cell phones the bar operated as a place people could make and receive phone calls, and some left mail for friends, knowing that sooner or later they’d be in for a drink.

Even though the hotel was closed from 2012 to 2016 for total refurbishment (Field traveled around the world as a bibulous ambassador of The Ritz) and during Covid, the Hemingway Bar re-opened and Field arrived at work in his white jacket and black bow tie, set out the tools of his trade, polished the bar and was as ready as ever to serve a regular clientele who appeared in droves. His clientele has included several James Bond actors, and model Kate Moss donated vintage typewriters to the décor.

I am one of those for whom a trip to Paris without heading for The Hemingway Bar is unthinkable, and on one occasion when I found Colin was not working that night, I was crestfallen and turned on my heels to head over to nearby Harry’s New York Bar on the Rue Danou for its signature bloody Mary. (For years Colin and I have argued over the origins of the drink, which I insist originated at Harry’s during Prohibition). I always used to precede my entering the Hemingway Bar by having a friend go first to hand Colin my card, on which is printed my daiquiri recipe, as Palladin used to have his motto on “Have Gun Will Travel.”

I asked Colin this week about his plans, and he told me, “Actually, this was my way of getting out of the Ritz to start doing things that are creative and fun. I always dreamed of working at Maxim’s, so I did that ten days ago. Tomorrow I have a fashion event at the Palais Gallera, and I am in talks for a week on a Monaco yacht week and then at Formula 1. So I’m Really enjoying myself. Oh. and I’ll be working in November in the new boutique hotel in the Marias called Maison Proust.” Eventually he plans to open a guesthouse outside of Paris.

Now I’m not sure what I’ll do when next in town. I will, of course, be interested to see if the newly appointed bar woman, Anne-Sophie Prestail, Field’s deputy, can bring the special savoir-faire needed for the job, for one cannot overestimate the wry British wit that Colin brought so effortlessly. It won’t be easy for Madame Prestail, for The Hemingway Bar was never about the drinks or even the memorabilia. Field was totemic, in the way that Harry’s Bar in Venice (unassociated with the Harry’s in Paris) is when Arrigo Cipriani is there. The Ritz without Field is like a Jason Bourne movie without Matt Damon. Fans may forever debate which actor was the best 007, but there’s no doubt that Colin Field embodied a place whose woodwork seems ingrained with his spirit.

So, his fans and I are not really saying goodbye to Colin Field. Indeed, I am reminded of the lyrics every Brit has taken to heart since World War II, when Vera Lynn sang, “We’ll meet again, Don’t know where, don’t know when, But I know we’ll meet again, Some sunny day.”