Cheryl Charming
| Cheryl Charming | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Cheryl Caple November 19, 1960 Azusa, California |
| Known for | Writer |
Cheryl Charming (born November 19, 1960) is an American bar professional and published author of 15 books on cocktails and bartending.[1] She currently works as the Bar Director at the Bourbon "O” Bar in New Orleans, Louisiana, and in 2014 was named the New Orleans Magazine Mixologist of the Year.[2]
Early life
Charming was born on November 19, 1960 in Azusa, California, to Barbara Jane Shaw Caple (from Spokane, Washington, born August 23, 1941, a housewife and former owner of a Cancer Ranch) and Gordon Edward Caple (from Little Rock, Arkansas, born February 19, 1938, a mechanic and owner of a gas station and an automobile graveyard). When she was five years old, her parents moved with her and her sisters Carolyn and Charlene to Little Rock, where she spent most of her childhood.
While attending Bryant High School, Cheryl took her first job at age 16 as a food waitress at John Barleycorn's Vision, a restaurant & bar in Little Rock that had many themed rooms. Later, Cheryl took a job as a cocktail server at the Cabaret on Kavanaugh Blvd. in the Heights. After six months, owner Lynda Johnson promoted her to head bartender. Cheryl found herself serving minor celebrities such as President Bill Clinton's brother and Gennifer Flowers,[3]
Career
After tending bar for five years aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Charming began working at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida in 1989. She was part of the opening team of Pleasure Island. Later she transferred to the Grand Floridian Beach Resort & Spa where she tended the beach bar serving the rich and famous. There, her knack for bar tricks and bar magic earned her a job teaching those skills to other Disney cast members through Disney's food and beverage training program called Quest for the Best.
Bar tricks and bar magic was the subject of Charming's first book, Miss Charming's Book of Bar Amusements, published in 2000 because she had collected almost 1000 tricks. Since then, she has published a total of 15 books on cocktails, bar magic, and related subjects, with a 16th (Cocktails FAQ) due out in 2017.[3]
After the turn of the millennium, Charming went back to college to study graphic design, hosted seminars at the New Orleans-based Tales of the Cocktail Festival, and began working as a freelance mixologist and cocktail menu designer for Brown-Forman. While working on a book project, Cheryl needed to know when the first Cosmopolitan was seen and mentioned on the television series, Sex and the City. She searched the Internet and emailed cocktail friends only to learn that no one knew. Since this was pre-Netflix and streaming television years she went to the Orlando library and checked out series DVD's to get her answers. She learned that the first time the Cosmopolitan was mentioned and seen was on July 18th, 1999, 2nd season, 19th episode called The Chicken Dance. Samantha orders a Cosmopolitan at a wedding bar and Carrie orders Scotch straight up.
In October 2010 Charming relocated to New Orleans from Florida. In January 2011 Cheryl took over as bar manager at The Bombay Club, which is known for their Martinis. Charming introduced a timeline Martini menu starting with the Martinez from 1862.
In April 2013, Charming took over as Bar Director of the Bourbon "O” Bar in the Bourbon Orleans Hotel. Charming has been an early proponent of the craft cocktail movement, she set out to modernize her menu with contemporary seasonal cocktails, recipes for the Bourbon Street clientle, renovate the interior, and introduce a live jazz program. The Bourbon O Bar is the first "fresh" cocktail bar on Bourbon Street. Many of Charming's innovations and "bar hacks" have been widely recognized in cocktail culture and cocktail media.[3][4][5] Cheryl has been an extremely resourceful innovator in the cocktail culture throughout the years. She is quite simply known as the "Martha Stewart" of cocktails.
In December 2014, Charming was named New Orleans Magazine's Mixologist of the Year in recognition of her work at the Bourbon "O”.[2]
In the year of her recognition, Charming created a newspaper style seasonal menu meant to be stolen, introduced the first classy Bourbon Street "go" drink made with fresh ingredients, offered a 12 local draft beer flight served in a muffin pan, and glued magnets on top of bitters bottle caps to store them on a metal tray (on the ceiling) above the wells.
In 2015, Charming introduced a bubble tea shaking machine to the Bourbon O Bar program which enabled the bartenders to offer a six minute shaken Ramos' Gin Fizz. In her research on Charles Ramos, she learned that Ramos went into the paint business during prohibition and the house he lived in is the paint section of the store today, so her first idea was to shake the Ramos Gin Fizz in a paint can shaker.
In 2016, Charming helped bring more Jazz back to Bourbon Street by introducing live Jazz bands seven nights a week and increased the whiskey bottle selection to 75 (with a focus on Bourbon).
References
- ↑ "Cheryl Charming Author Page on Amazon.com". Retrieved August 24, 2016.
- 1 2 McNally, Tim (December 2014). "Mixologist of the Year: Cheryl Charming". New Orleans Magazine. Retrieved August 24, 2016.
- 1 2 3 Shenton, Will (July 31, 2016). "Cheryl Charming: Building an Oasis on Bourbon Street". Bevvy. Retrieved August 24, 2016.
- ↑ English, Camper (June 16, 2016). "6 Genius Hacks That Could Make Your Bar Run Better". Liquor.com. Retrieved August 24, 2016.
- ↑ Solmonson, Lesley Jacobs. "Champagne Bottle "Go" Cups and Craft Cocktails at Bourbon O Bar—Bringing End of Summer Fun to Bourbon Street". Chilled Magazine. Retrieved August 24, 2016.