Ada Coleman

Ada Coleman (1875–1966) was head bartender at the Savoy Hotel in London for 23 years, the only woman to have held that position. While working at the Savoy, she invented the "hanky panky", a distinctive variation on the sweet martini cocktail.

Early life

Coleman was born in 1875, the daughter of a steward at Rupert D'Oyly Carte's golf club. When she was 24 her father died, and D'Oyly offered her a job at one of his hotels, first in the flower shop and then in the bar at Claridge's hotel.

Around the time that Coleman began working as a bartender, according to a study published in 1905, slightly less than half the bartenders in London were women. "Barmaids", as they were called, were usually the daughters of tradesmen or mechanics or, occasionally, young women from the "better-born" classes who had been "thrown upon their own resources" and needed an income. In an interview with the London Express, Coleman remembered that the first mixed drink she made was a Manhattan, and that she was coached by Fisher, the hotel's Wine Butler, on how to make it.

At the Savoy

Coleman was promoted to head bartender of the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel in 1903. Though Coleman is sometimes cited as the first and only female head bartender at the Savoy, there was already another woman tending bar, Ruth Burgess, known as "Miss B" or "Kitty", who started in 1902. Newspaper accounts say they were equally popular with customers, but it was Coleman who was interviewed when she retired and who later found her way into 20th and 21st century histories of cocktails and bartending. One account says the two women worked separate shifts for 20 years without speaking to one another because Coleman had refused to give Burgess the recipes for her popular drinks.

American bars, and the diverse cocktails they served, had become popular in England in the late 19th century, and were a selling point for any establishment that had them during Coleman's era. Coleman quickly developed a reputation for being a talented bartender and consummate hostess to the notable and affluent clientele of the Savoy. The Earl of Lonsdale wrote that "she was so nice and so kind and so full of life and energy." Other clients who drank at Coleman's bar included Mark Twain, Marlene Dietrich, Charlie Chaplin, Diamond Jim Brady and the Prince of Wales.

A lover of musical theatre, she also gave parties at her home which were attended by a diverse crowd of people.

After Coleman left the bar, some cocktail historians have said she worked in the hotel's flower shop. In 2016, Susan Scott, the archivist at the Savoy said she had found no evidence of that. The hanky panky is now served worldwide. In 2015, it was listed by Drinks International as one of the top 50 best-selling cocktails, and is called one of "the unforgettables" by the International Bartenders Association. At the Savoy, it is served in two versions: the original Coleman recipe along with an upgraded version which is aged in oak barrels and includes several different kinds of vermouth and gin. In 2018, a cocktail bar and lounge named Ada's Place opened in the Hudson Yards neighborhood of New York City. The name is a tribute to Coleman.