DESTINATION Hemingway Bar at the Ritz Carlton, Paris
INSPIRATION Will Kopelman suggests that I order a drink from the world’s greatest bartender.
The Ritz Carlton in Paris is dauntingly grand and historic, but the Hemingway Bar in the back is a living room. It’s small enough to feel intimate but large enough to be able to have a private moment at your own table. I knew from the little I’d read that the bar is patronized by an international smattering of diplomats, bankers, fashion models, play- boys, and tycoons. Kevin Nealon had written me that it was the place where Diana had been last before the crash that took her life.
Paris was Hemingway’s inspiration—Paris with its food and drink. Mostly drink. Seems that every two pages Hemingway was downing a brandy, a beer, or a whiskey. In any case, this bar got its name because the writer famously ordered a drink here during the liberation of Paris while gunfire from retreating Nazi soldiers could still be heard outside. Apparently, not even war or the threat of speeding bullets could distract Hemingway from his pursuit of booze.
As I settled in, I opened my pink journal and flipped to Will Kopelman’s email, recommending that I visit the Hemmingway haunt to find a bartender named Colin.
Looking up at the bar, I knew the man behind it had to be Colin. He upheld the grandeur of the Ritz, standing elegantly behind the bar with his wire rim glasses and white blazer, and a Mona Lisa smile. I felt the familiar excited anticipation that comes with meeting someone new, and knowing I would hear a new success story to remind me what we can do with drive and motivation.
FROM Will Kopelman
TO Angie Banicki
subject 30 before 30
Thanks for this!
I found the part about Rao’s funny because though I totally agree (Frankie’s been like a second uncle to me growing up, and one of my dad’s fondest friends), as we both know, not anybody can just walk into Rao’s because they heard it was a great place to visit! That aside, here’s my two cents:
Paris: go to the Hemingway bar in the back of the Ritz hotel. It’s a tiny bar on the Rue Cambon side of the hotel where Ernest Heming- way used to hang out when he lived in Paris. The bartender, Colin should still be there. He’s a fixture of the joint. Tell him you’re friends with the Kopelmans, and have him surprise you with his best seasonal drink. He’s a master. One of the best small little bars in France; and when I say small I mean tiny.
To be honest, I was nervous. Yes, I was meeting a bartender—but in the bar of the Paris Ritz. One who I had read about in Forbes, celebrated as the world’s greatest bartender.
I leaned in, trying to be coy, but then burst out with a rush of words. “Colin—are you the Colin of the Hemingway Bar? My friend Will Kopelman has sent me to meet you!”
Colin laughed, “Ah yes! The Kopelmans! Such a lovely family and Will has spent quite a few fun nights here at the Hemingway Bar.” Colin quickly got down to the business of taking my order. I asked him to surprise me, as Will had suggested. Then I watched him go to work, disappearing to the back to gather supplies. He returned carrying a martini glass of yellow dandelion-colored drink, with half of a passion fruit floating in its center. Colin explained that I was to use the straw to suck out the strawberry-infused vodka and then remove the half passion fruit and drink up.
It was sweet and strong—and unbelievably delicious.
I asked Colin about his work at the Ritz and he described his entrepreneurial vision for bartenders and mixologists. He had taught courses and created training programs for bartenders around the world.
His philosophy is that bartending is about so much more than making drinks. It is about people and culture and understanding the world. This was before anyone really knew about mixology, and Colin had been practicing it for years! I felt adrenaline kick in just hearing his visionary approach first hand.
Colin’s work has brought him into contact with incredible people. Charles Veley, who he had just met that week, was a story that seemed to be created just for me! Charles is the world’s most traveled person. At age 37 he became the youngest recorded person to visit all the countries of the world as defined by the Traveler’s Century Club. He created a “Master List” that currently has 872 countries. No one has visited them all, but Veley has come closest, at 822.
I left the Ritz that day feeling that I had met an artist—not just with alcohol but in helping others live. Colin is the type of man you want to be, to know, or at the very least be around. Colin makes you think with- out knowing you are thinking. He makes you feel at ease without even realizing you were uncomfortable. I found myself wanting to write down every word that he spoke, but decided to sit and listen instead.
Will completely understood my search for inspiration when he gave me Colin. Leaving him, I felt inspired to make my own story worth someday being retold by the world’s greatest bartender.
I had some work to do.
THE WORLD’S GREATEST BARTENDER
“Over the past 18 years, Colin Field has made the Hemingway Bar of the Ritz Paris the city’s pre-eminent watering hole. More than a bartender, Mr. Field is a host with a knack for sparking conversation between his guests and approaches drink-making with the detailed eye of a tailor, often sizing up a customer’s personality and mood to create a made-to-measure cocktail. Considered by many to be one of Paris’s best bartenders, he will soon become the town’s most sought-after one as the Ritz prepares to shut down for a two-year renovation April 16.” – from the Wall Street Journal
“If you are going to make a cocktail, you must understand the man who made the alcohol. The average person measures the quality of alcohol according to the price, which is not necessarily right; you need to know who made it and why. Take a master blender such as Richard Patterson [of Whyte and Mackay] who makes fabulous whiskies on Jura. He is an artist and is trying to say things with his alcohol, trying to create an inherent quality of the island and balance between bitterness and sweetness. Then you get people who work behind a bar for the summer and call themselves a bartender, and they grab this bottle he has been working on for 20 years (he’s devoted his life to it, like Master Distiller Willie Tait) and they rip off the top and mix it with pineapple juice and grenadine. For me, it is a relay race. I grab that baton from Richard and have to win the race for him. It’s about respect of the earth, the distiller, the products, the alembics, the thickness of the copper, the way it was heated, everything, otherwise you can’t make a cocktail.” – Colin Fields, in an interview for The Connextion
FROM Kevin Nealon
TO Angie Banicki
subject 30 before 30
Susan and I went to Paris last year. At the time we were reading the Princess Diana book since it was, I think the 10th anniversary of her death and the book was relatively new and good.
We visited (actually stayed at the Ritz Hotel) and pretty much retraced her footsteps from the Hemingway Bar in the hotel to the nearby tunnel where their car crashed. We even rode up in the same elevator in the hotel. Sort of morbid but also nostalgic.
I think there’s also a famous tower in Paris you may want to check out.
Have a great trip and maybe we’ll see you on Wed. at the book signing.
Kevin
BIO >> WILL KOPELMAN
Will’s email responding to my 30 before 30 request was special because travel connected us. I knew Will as a staple on our H&S party guest lists, and I was excited to get a glimpse into his real life and learn that he wanted to share in my adventure. Will, an art advisor and curator known for his taste and intelligence, is now married to Drew Barrymore. When I met Drew, before she was with Will, I told her about my 30 before 30 too (or actually Harley Pasternak told her about it—yes it was at the gym). She responded as enthusiastically as Will, saying she wanted to travel with inspiration, too. A perfect match— one I wish I could take the credit for setting up.
TRIPPING POINT
No matter how well traveled you become, there will always be someone who’s done more.