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Pompadour

Aperitivo/aperitif

4.0 7 ratings

Favorite

Ingredients

1 1/2 oz Agricole rhum (unaged)
1 2/3 oz Pineau des Charentes
1/4 oz Lemon juice
3 drop Saline solution 4:1

How to make

Serve in a coupe glass

Prepare

  1. 1 Select and pre-chill a COUPE GLASS.
  2. 2 Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.

Method

  1. 3 SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
  2. 4 FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.

Garnish

  1. 5 EXPRESS lemon zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

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Flavour profile

19.0% alc./vol. · 1.5 standard drinks · 132 calories

History

Grassy rhum agricole and sweet Pineau des Charentes, refreshed with lemon.

Frank Meier, an Austrian Jewish immigrant to New York, began his bartending career in December 1902 as an apprentice at the Hoffman House. He later became a renowned bartender, joining the Ritz in Paris in 1920 as the first head bartender of its Café Parisian, which would later be renamed the Hemingway Bar in 1994. In 1936, he published The Artistry of Mixing Drinks, featuring his Pompadour cocktail recipe. During the German occupation of Paris in June 1940, the Ritz Hotel, under Swiss ownership and management, was not requisitioned. High-ranking Nazis, including Hermann Göring and Gestapo members, frequented the hotel, mingling with figures like the widow Ritz and Coco Chanel. Meier, despite his hidden Jewish background, continued as head bartender and is said to have aided the Allied Resistance from his position. He allegedly ran a gambling operation, using the pretext of placing bets to pass messages and documents, with some accounts suggesting plans for Operation Valkyrie, the plot to assassinate Hitler and Göring, passing through his hands. Meier's tenure ended when the hotel discovered he was instructing clients to pay bar tabs to his personal London bank account, ostensibly to settle their debts, a promise he did not keep. Following this, Frank Meier vanished. Philippe Collin's 2024 novel, Le Barman du Ritz, recounts Meier's journey from apprentice to Resistance hero through his diary, written in the first person. The cocktail is referenced multiple times within 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.

Created by Frank Meier