He is known as “the best bartender” on the planet and “the king of cocktails”. Cause for Colin Field, creator of Kate 76 and Clean Dirty Martini, who retires at the Hemingway bar at the Ritz after 30 years Paris. Field’s notable and regular clients have included three James Bonds, Roger Moore, Daniel Gregg and Pierce Brosnan, among others.

“When people ask me what to do in Paris, I always say, ‘Go to Colin’s at Hemingway’s bar,'” said Charles Rivkin, former ambassador to France under President Barack Obama. In honor of the ambassador, the famous bartender created the Rivkin Martini, which includes vodka with Sorrento lemon, served in a glass chilled to minus 23 degrees Celsius.

Meet Kate Moss’ fairy godfather, Colin Field, head bartender at the Ritz. https://t.co/6NphwwP2Zo#luxury hotels pic.twitter.com/xpq2Ip9oKC

— Grand Luxury Group (@GrandLuxury) June 8, 2016

“I love the Ritz, but I was bored there,” said Field, who was born in the UK. “I wanted to do more creative things without adding 65 different ingredients to a cocktail. I don’t like fashion with so many ingredients that customers don’t know what it contains and have to wait 15 minutes for it to be delivered.” Field says the best cocktails are made with “two or three ingredients.”

He was also the first bartender to begin the now common practice of serving cucumbers with water. Field says he started it back when there were no cell phones and some customers answered their calls right at the bar. While they did not order, the famous bartender “cooled” them in this way.

Hemingway’s bar had been closed for 12 years when he came to work there on August 25, 1994. It was the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Paris when Ernest Hemingway, then a war correspondent, grabbed a machine gun and convinced some French resistance fighters to shoot him, accompanying them on a mission to drive the Nazis out of the Ritz, his favorite pre-war bar.

The bar that hosted Marlene Dietrich, Ingrid Bergman, Henry Ford and many others closed in 1970. Mohammed Al Fayed made an unsuccessful attempt to reopen it as a Hemingway bar after buying the Ritz in 1979, however the bar was resurrected after Field’s arrival.

Under his leadership, the small bar, seating just 25 people in leather chairs, has become one of the most incognito places in Paris, attracting the rich and famous.

Bar Hemingway at the Ritz Paris. The highest rated martini in the world. pic.twitter.com/O4Q3ugK0Y6

— Eric Christian von Fricken (@ericchristian_) April 26, 2023

According to NYT, The Times