Next Year, Let’s All Meet at the Savoy

The martini was invented at the American Bar in the Savoy Hotel in London. That’s what Willy Bauer told me, and he is general manager of the world-renowned hotel.

There are lots of people who are sure that is wrong, and they can prove to you why the martini was created somewhere else. Like the Caesar salad, which most people feel was tossed for the first time with its 1 1/2-minute egg at Caesar’s Bar in Tijuana, the martini has its own cachet. If it was indeed at the Savoy that some inspired bartender first mixed chilled gin with a whisper of vermouth and a twist of lemon peel, it’s a credit to both institutions. Now that the world drinks white wine with its fiber and fish, it’s reassuring to know that the Savoy claims the martini with pride and pomp.

Willy Bauer was in Los Angeles last week to visit friends and he told me something of the history of the great hotel, which celebrates its 100th year in 1989.

Willy was born in Stuttgart, Germany, and trained in hotel management on the Continent. He has lived in England for 25 years, managing hotels whose names glow with glamour around the world. He speaks of the Savoy as a gentleman might speak of an elegant mistress. “It is the most famous, most romantic place in the world,” he told me.

Queen Elizabeth I met Prince Philip at a ball in the Savoy’s Lancaster Ballroom. The ballroom is done in soft turquoise blue, with mirrored arches and crystal chandeliers. The whole confection was copied from a room in a French chateau.

The Savoy Hotel opened in 1889, built by Richard D’Oyly Carte, the impresario who brought together William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, the librettist and composer who created a collection of comic operas, beginning in 1871.

D’Oyly Carte produced the wildly popular offerings at his Savoy Theater, and theatergoers who came in from the country would spend the night in London after the performance. D’Oyly Carte decided to build a hotel near the theater on a curve of the Thames River.

From the beginning, the Gilbert and Sullivan producer presented the hotel with the care, the gloss and precision that he brought to his theatrical productions. He made frequent trips to the United States and stayed at the finest hotels in most of the large cities.

When he opened the Savoy in 1889 after four years spent in construction, it had electric lights from its own generator and its own artesian wells. D’Oyly Carte’s Savoy Theater had been the first theater in the world to have electricity to replace gas footlights.

The theater/hotel entrepreneur managed to persuade Cesar Ritz to manage his masterpiece and Auguste Escoffier to act as head of all the food preparation and presentation.

Ritz engaged Johann Strauss to play for after-theater parties and he insisted on full evening dress.

Escoffier created Peach Melba for Australian diva Nellie Melba. It is still a highly favored dessert, a fresh peach poached in vanilla syrup, on a mound of vanilla ice cream and laved in pureed raspberries.

There are three staff members at the Savoy for every guest, which makes for very luxe service. Willy says that there is nothing you can’t have at the Savoy at any hour.

Half the guests are American. “We like them and they like us. They know what we can do for them.”

American theater and movie people often stay at the Savoy. Willy mentioned Liza Minnelli, Pierce Brosnan, Jack Lemmon, Harrison Ford, Frank Sinatra, Marvin Hamlisch and Ben Vereen as a few who visit.

The royals often come for meals. One time, the Queen Mother came for lunch and told her aide that she would like to be seated in the main dining room with the public instead of in one of the private rooms the Royal Family usually prefers. When she walked into the River Room, “with that lovely smile she has, everyone in the room stood and applauded,” Willy said. “After her lunch, she said she would like to meet the staff that had prepared such a marvelous meal. But she said she had only 10 minutes. She went into the kitchens and met and spoke to everyone. She stayed one hour and a quarter.

“When the Queen Mother left, we took her out through the Thames Foyer, again at her request. The room was filled with people having tea and a harpist was playing. For the second time, everyone stood and applauded. She went around to every table, even all the window tables looking out on the Thames. She was a delight,” Willy told me.

“Recently,” he said, “a cherished patron came in and told me that he was 75 years old and he and his wife were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. He said, ‘The first time I was at the Savoy, I was 9 years old and with my grandmother for tea. I had my 21st birthday here, my parents were married here and so were my wife and I. The Savoy has always meant celebrations to our family.’ ”

Next year will be a year of special hotel centennial celebrations.

I missed Dublin’s 1,000th birthday. Maybe I can visit the Savoy for its century party. If I do, I’ll have the Peach Melba, right after what must surely be one of the world’s great martinis. Hold the white wine; there’s a good fellow.