Pompadour

History

Created by Frank Meier, an Austrian Ashkenazi Jew who travelled to New York in search of a new life. He was hired by Charley S. Mahoney as an apprentice bartender at New York's Hoffman House in December 1902 and went on to become one of the world's most famous bartenders. After fighting in World War I, Meier was hired at the Ritz in Paris in 1920 as the first head bartender of its Café Parisian (renamed the Hemingway Bar in 1994). A few years later, in 1936, he published The Artistry of Mixing Drinks, which includes his recipe for a Pompadour cocktail.

When Paris was occupied by the Germans in June 1940, the Ritz Hotel avoided requisition because its owner and staff were Swiss. The hotel was frequented by high-ranking Nazis, with Hermann Göring and members of the Gestapo drinking with the likes of the widow Ritz and Coco Chanel. Despite his hidden Jewish heritage, Frank Meier remained the hotel's head bartender and used his privileged position to help the Allied Resistance. He ran a gambling operation and used the guise of placing bets to mask his passing messages and documents. It is said that plans relating to Operation Valkyrie, the failed assassination of Hitler and Göring, passed through his hands.

Meier lost his position after the hotel discovered he was instructing clients to pay their bar tabs into his private London bank account, promising he'd use the money to pay off their debts. Only he didn't. Frank Meier then mysteriously disappeared.

Philippe Collin's 2024 novel Le Barman du Ritz tells Frank Meier's story, from apprentice to Parisian Resistance hero, in the first person through his diary. The cocktail is mentioned several times in the book. "Some of my creations impressed Charley Mahoney so much that they made it onto the Hoffman House menu. The Pompadour - a name my mother loved to say aloud - was made with rum, Pineau des Charentes, and lemon juice, three ingredients that combined to create an extraordinary flavor."

POMPADOUR
In shaker: the juice of one-quarter Lemon. Half St. James Rum, half Pompadour; shake well and serve.
Note. – Pompadour is a specially prepared Wine from the Pinot (Charentais) Grape and contains at least 18° of alcohol.

Frank Meier, The Artistry of Mixing Drinks, 1936