How a New Orleans bartender earned his place in history - Chron

Along the edge of the Gulf, Nathaniel 'Natty' Adams details the people, places, culture and moments that make New Orleans one of America's most colorful and vibrant cities.

At the 20th anniversary Tales of the Cocktail Foundation Spirited Awards ceremony last fall—the first one since the pandemic began—Chris Hannah of New Orleans, dressed in a natty plaid waistcoat and bow tie, was named U.S. Bartender of the Year. His establishment, Jewel of the South, was named Best U.S. Restaurant Bar (it was also nominated for but didn't win Best U.S. Bar Team, narrowly missing out on the hat trick.) The industry buzz and consensus couldn't have been more unanimous: Chris Hannah, long a legend among bartenders, deserved this.

Hannah had been decorated before, notably with a coveted James Beard award, but this felt special, having been awarded by his industry peers rather than the culinary press. It's a welcome milestone in Hannah's career, but nothing compared to one just over the horizon, one that involves more pride for him than any other: 20 years as a French Quarter bartender.

"I've always thought of New Orleans as a play," Hannah says. "We have our own backdrop with its unique architecture and oak trees, our own local characters complete with vernacular that includes our own soundtrack. What really won my heart was realizing we could all be characters in this play."

Hannah is a New Orleans character, albeit a very subtle one until you scratch the surface and see the complexity. Riding around town on his bicycle in his pork pie hat, he looks like a typically mildly eccentric local. But his easy and cool affect belies a man riddled with obsessions great and small, all of which seem to connect in some way back to New Orleans and his love of the city and its cosmopolitan place in the world.

Hannah is a committed supporter of the New Orleans Saints and—less expectedly—Liverpool football club. He drinks tea with all the love and care of an Englishman. His childhood as a navy brat moving from beach to beach (including Panama), infected him with a Caribbean enthusiasm that finds its expression not only in rum but in dominoes and cigars. His contribution to New Orleans traditions includes a Christmas mulled-wine cart in Jackson Square that he started in order to give the homeless some small cup of seasonal cheer after Katrina.

Like so many people who visit New Orleans, Hannah fell in love with the place, feeling that everywhere else he had been "from Virginia Beach to New York City" looked the same: "Just big box stores and buildings all made from the same materials." His original dream was to run a guest house in the French Quarter, not to bartend. His love of hospitality was always about service. When he'd worked in bars and restaurants he realized his favorite part wasn't always the craft behind the bar, but the simple human interactions across it: writing recommendations for visitors down on a napkin, giving people directions, hearing what had brought people to town. And he realized that nowhere would match the French Quarter for that kind of service.

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"It’s simple things, like going out the side door and down the street to get a King Cake just to slice it up and bring a piece to guests who had never had it before—that would never happen anywhere else I’ve ever worked. And that it's just so normal to do that kind of entertaining for guests is what's so much fun."

Hannah spent his first three days in New Orleans applying to work at some of the neighborhood’s most famous bars and restaurants. Despite having tended bar before—he credits a four-year stint at Hooters with his capacity for efficiency and volume—he was at a loss when the application at Dickie Brennan's asked if he knew the ingredients to local classics like Milk Punch, the Sazerac, and Pimm's cup. He did not. Despite this lack of knowledge, he ended up getting hired at Arnaud's, one of New Orleans' oldest and most famous restaurants, and it was here that he would spend the next 15 years working his way up to head bartender of the French 75 bar, transforming its quality, style and program, and doing a lot of the heavy lifting in putting New Orleans back on the map of the world's great cocktail cities.

Hannah's ignorance of classic cocktails didn't last long—his penchant for deep obsession and research soon had him far outpacing other bartenders in the city. He dug into archives of legendary New Orleans bartenders like Henry Ramos and Joseph Santini and began serving long-forgotten drinks at the bar. Many ingredients that bartenders now take for granted—orgeat, allspice dram, Creme de Violette—were rare in the days before the classic cocktail explosion he was unwittingly helping bring about, so Hannah either made them himself or acquired them through great difficulty.

The French 75 bar gained in notoriety during his shifts, even if some customers, unaccustomed to tasting a Mai Tai with fresh orgeat or a French 75 made in the original New Orleans style with cognac instead of gin, sent their drinks back in bewilderment. Soon the management had to pull Hannah aside and ask him to clear all press statements with them first because the other bartenders were complaining that patrons were asking for drinks they'd read Hannah talking about that they didn’t know how to make.

Jewel of the South was named Best U.S. Restaurant Bar at the 2022 Tales of the Cocktail foundation Spirited Awards ceremony, the same year Hannah was named U.S. Bartender of the Year.
Courtesy Chris Hannah/Jewel of the South

This was the early 2000s, and bartenders around the country were having similar epiphanies around old recipes and freshly made ingredients. Younger bartenders were seeking out pioneers like Hannah to work under them. Shannon Brandon is Hannah’s current second-in-command at Jewel of the South:

"As a bartender under Chris, I’ve been able to get a lot more exposure," Brandon says. "Cocktail competitions or conventions are going to want bartenders from Jewel of the South because of his reputation, and having Jewel on my resume will greatly impact my career for the rest of my life."

But career exposure is just a happy byproduct of working with Hannah—his dedication to customer service is always what stands out.

"Hospitality is what he values above all," Brandon says. "The experiences of the guests are of the utmost importance to him, actually making cocktails is secondary. I really appreciate when I look across the bar to see him leaning out of the bar window at Jewel waving to cars as they pass by, or saying hello to folks that happen to walk past who are always surprised by a man in a suit leaning out of a window saying hello but ultimately charmed by it."

Hannah's dedication to service extends well beyond the walls of Jewel of the South to the region he loves so much. After Hurricane Ida, he and several bartenders, including Konrad Kantor of Manolito, went to the tribal area of Point-aux-Chiens to help put tarps on damaged and destroyed roofs. Kantor remembers Hannah, his incongruously spiffy wingtip shoes causing much comment from the locals, almost getting blown off a roof by a gust of wind.

"Through all the sadness and raw emotion of the storm, Hannah kept us smiling throughout the entire week-long journey down the Bayou," Kantor recalls. "And I think that's why he wears the shoes. It's why he writes postcards to people from all his travels. It's why he does what he does. It isn't about himself. It's wanting others to have a better experience because of him, regardless of the circumstances."

Next year will mark Hannah's 20th as a French Quarter bartender, and as a true New Orleans character in the bizarre ongoing play that is this city. It is also when he is due to serve his millionth French 75. Like his local heroes—not only bartenders like Santini and Ramos, but musical greats like Dr. John and Louis Armstrong—Hannah is on track to be more than a footnote in the history of this city, all because of his love of the place and his dedication to its people, both residents and visitors:

"Being a true hospitality professional is very much a lifelong calling for someone like Hannah," Kantor says. "It's why after so many years, he still prefers to tend bar over being an administrator. And whether it's perfecting a drink, keeping water filled in a section, or helping a group of people set up triage when they're fighting for survival, I'd wager no matter the situation, you're going to look back and see his main objective has always been to lift you up higher than you were before he stepped in to help."

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