Back in the early 1900s, Ada Coleman became the first female head bartender at the American Bar in the Savoy Hotel.
A position she would hold for nearly a quarter century, Coleman is one of the most recognized bartenders of all-time, and the creator of the iconic Hanky Panky cocktail. And today, the Bar is the longest surviving cocktail bar in London and one of the most renowned in the world.
To find out more, through some research, I connected with the Savoy’s in-house Archivist, Susan Scott.
“The cocktail was invented for Sir Charles Hawtrey, a British actor, director and producer. “Scott emphasizes however that “Sir Charles was not related in any way to the famous British actor George Hartree, who used the stage name Charles Hawtrey and encouraged the belief that he was Sir Charles’ son.”
Sir Charles did have a son, but it wasn’t George.
“One day, Sir Charles simply walked into the American Bar (he was a regular) and asked Miss Coleman to create a pick-me-up for him as he was feeling a bit under the weather. When he tried the drink, he evidently found it did the job, and exclaimed “that’s the real Hanky-Panky.”
During Coleman’s tenure, another one of the most recognized bartenders at that time, Harry Craddock, started working at the Savoy.
Craddock was originally from the United Kingdom, though spent many years in the United States. He reportedly mixed the last legal drink in America before Prohibition (according to a placard next to his likeness at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum) and is credited with the Savoy Cocktail Book where the Hanky Panky Cocktail was first officially published.
And while his name is synonymous with the book, Craddock was a great collector of cocktail recipes – but not a writer.
Scott believes Craddock was just in the right place at the right time. “His talents were not really literary,” she notes. “Craddock did exactly what it says on the title page and compiled about 750 of the most popular cocktails available in the American Bar at that time.”
And Although stories speculate that Coleman and Craddock didn’t get along, and Coleman was ultimately pushed out, or transferred because of him, Scott tells me, “There was no possibility of getting the top job in the American Bar as long as Miss Coleman was there. And while it is easy to say that there was no love lost between them [Coleman and Craddock], that is just supposition.”
Coleman was only the second head bartender at the American Bar and today remains only one of two women who helmed it. When she retired in 1926, five newspapers wrote about it, with one of them describing her as the “last of the famous barmaids.” (photo below)
The Hanky Panky
As noted in the Savoy Cocktail Book
Ingredients:
- 2 dashes Fernet Branca
- ½ Italian Vermouth
- ½ Dry Gin
Preparations: Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. Squeeze Orange peel on top.
The post Toast to Ada Coleman, National Women’s History Month appeared first on Chilled Magazine.
Source: Mixology News
