LONDON FACES
London Face
Joe Gilmore, cocktail barman, Holborn WC2...
...was head barman at the Savoy for 40 years. He created cocktails for a plethora
of famous historical fi gures including Winston Churchill and Frank Sinatra.
He is now ambassador for Smirnoff Black vodka.
My f_i rst job in London when I came
over from Belfast in 1938 was packing
in the Sanderson’s Wallpaper Factory
for a pound a week.
I was always starving... because
they didn't feed us at the factory so
I got a job at the Lyon's Corner House
in the Trocadero Centre because they
gave you breakfast, lunch and dinner.
£3.10 a week... was my wage when I
started as trainee barman at the Savoy
in 1940. I got my food included too.
Elizabeth Taylor came in often...
She liked a Bourbon Sour. Laurence
Olivier never drunk cocktails, just gin
and tonic. Doris Day liked champagne
cocktails and Ella Fitzgerald would
only drink champagne.
Set 'em up Joe... That's what Frank
Sinatra used to say when he came
in for his Dry Martini. He had a song,
'Set 'Em up Joe'. I don't know if it was
written for me but that’s what he used
to say. When he came back from his
shows, he'd often sit at the piano and
play and sing. It was marvellous for
guests who happened to be there.
Errol Flynn was the f_i rst... person I
ever served a vodka to. No one drank
vodka before the war. It only became
popular in the f_i fties but he used to
drink it with cayenne pepper on top.
Winston Churchill liked whiskey...
but he didn't like the Savoy brand so
one day, he came in with a bottle of book before the war. They used makes it better for the shorter cocktail.
Buchanan's Black & White and said, to come in with it and just point I always say one Martini is too many
'That’s for me only.' So I kept it for out which recipe they wanted. and four is not enough!
him. I should have got him to sign it. When the astronauts came The Corpse Reviver... is a cocktail
I created a cocktail in his honour and back... after landing on the moon, I invented for when you don’t
in return, he gave me a cigar. I didn't I sent grapefruit juice, champagne, know which hair from which pack
smoke it but I kept showing it to rosewater and Grand Marnier to greet of greyhounds bit you! It's brandy,
guests and it soon turned to sawdust. them. I called it the Moonwalker. Fernet-Branca and Crème de menthe.
Laurel and Hardy were characters... To make the very best Dry Martini... It really does the trick, gets the liver
Harry Craddock, the former head use the very best vodka – Smirnof_f going. Anything that tastes that
bartender had given them a cocktail Black is distinctively smooth, which horrible must be good for you!
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issue 6 london face.indd 3 5/3/08 16:48:53
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