The secret to being a good bartender, according to Colin Field? “People must feel your presence when you’re in the bar,” he tells Vogue. “When a good bartender walks into a bar, everybody notices. Good bartenders are animators, they are showmen!”
Field would know: as the charismatic former head bartender of the Bar Hemingway at the Ritz Paris—arguably the most star-studded watering hole in the world—for three decades he made drinks for everyone from Bruce Willis to Pierce Brosnan. (Brosnan, he confirms, loves a dry martini just like James Bond: “‘I asked him how it was and he said ‘Perfect, Colin.’ In my own little head, I was in a Bond film for five seconds,” he says.) Forbes named him as the world’s best bartender in 1997, 2001, and 2004. Meanwhile, in 2011, he created the world’s first advanced degree for bartenders in France at Sorbonne University. He is also credited with inventing the Kate 76 (vodka, grapefruit juice, and Champagne—inspired by one of his favorite patrons, Kate Moss) as well as the Clean Dirty Martini.
When he announced his decision to retire in 2023, odes flooded in from all corners of the globe, lamenting the loss of the charismatic cocktail maker. “For nearly 30 years, the Bar Hemingway, a 34-seat, oak-paneled hideaway in the Ritz Paris, has been a destination for discerning Parisians and hotel guests in search of a perfect drink prepared by Colin Field, a jovial Briton regarded as one of the world’s greatest bartenders,” wrote The New York Times. Moss herself gave a quote to the paper, saying 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.”
And what a room it was: only 34 seats, Field took great care to make sure the ambiance of the bar lived up to its historic hype. He carefully decorated the bar’s historical walls with Ernest Hemingway-themed memorabilia—including a fishing pole that Hemingway’s son, Jack, helped him hang—and took great care with the crystal and barware he used.
Now, you can take home a bit of Bar Hemingway along with you. This winter, Christie’s will auction off a number of items from Field’s personal collection in a sale titled “Colin Peter Field’s Treasures: The Collection of Ritz’s Bar Hemingway former Bartender.” There’s a pair of leather boxing gloves (an ode to Hemingway’s many bar fights), as well as a collection of antique typewriters: throughout his tenure, Field would leave out typewriters for bar regulars to write letters and continue the bar’s rich literary heritage. (One was a gift from Moss herself.)
