(Craddock mixed the last legal drink in America-or so a placard next to his likeness at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum would later claim.) Craddock returned to England, where found he work at the service bar of The Savoy in the fall of 1921.Īny interactions he had with his higher-profile colleague Coleman are undocumented and unknown.Ĭhanges, however, came to The Savoy in 1926. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1916, but his new country soon proved duplicitous, eliminating his livelihood in 1920, when Prohibition went into effect. He worked at the famous Hoffman House, Holland House, and Knickerbocker Hotel, among other venues. At 22, he sailed for America and took up bartending in Cleveland, Chicago, and New York. But Anistatia Miller and Jared Brown, while researching their 2013 book, The Deans of Drink, discovered that he was actually born in Gloucestershire, England, in August 1875. The Daily Express described her, with backhanded enthusiasm, as the country’s “most famous barmaid.”Ĭraddock was long thought to be American-born. When she finally retired, in 1926, five newspapers saw it as worth a mention. Cocktail historian Ted Haigh has noted that “not only was Coley…a woman in the world of male bartenders, it was she who made the bar famous.”Ĭoleman worked at The Savoy’s American Bar for more than a quarter-century. Charismatic and entertaining (musical theater was one of her passions), she made an impression on both everyday businessmen and the widely famous-the Prince of Wales, Charlie Chaplin, and Mark Twain were among her customers. Here, Coleman found her stage and spotlight. Management saw gold and soon transferred her to another of D’Oyly Carte’s high-profile properties, the newly renovated American Bar at The Savoy hotel. It didn’t hurt that she also had a personality the customers adored. When she moved behind the bar, she proved something of a drinks-crafting prodigy.
#FEMALE BARTENDER HOW TO#
The wine merchant at Claridge’s took a shine to her, teaching her how to properly compound a drink and shake a shaker.
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