McMillian, Chris (1961–), is a fourth-generation bartender based in New Orleans. Imbibe Magazine recognized McMillian in 2010 as one of the top 25 most influential cocktail personalities of the past century.
McMillian was born in northern Louisiana, grew up in California and Hawaii, and traveled widely before settling in New Orleans in 1984. Intrigued by the city’s historic cocktail culture, McMillian immersed himself in researching early cocktails and defunct New Orleans bars (particularly antebellum bars), freely sharing what he learned with fellow bartenders and customers before cocktail history arose as a popular pursuit.
McMillian got his start as a banquet bartender before taking a position at the Ritz Carlton in downtown New Orleans. While presiding over the hotel’s small Library Bar, McMillian became widely known among craft cocktail bartenders for his resurrection of the traditional Mint Julep. Using a canvas ice bag and oversized mallet, he’d pound the ice in syncopation while reciting Soule Smith’s late nineteenth-century “Ode to the Mint Julep.” McMillian often advocates for bartenders to focus not on drinks but on hospitality. “Making drinks only comprises 10 percent of what I do as a bartender,” he has said. “I’m a host, concierge, tour guide—I do any number of things in addition to making drinks.”
Lift Your Spirits, a history of cocktail culture in New Orleans, cowritten with the author and food historian Elizabeth Williams.See also Mint Julep.
Curtis, Wayne. “Characters: Chris McMillian,” Imbibe Magazine, May/June 2009.
Williams, Elizabeth M., and Chris McMillian. Lift Your Spirits. Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2016.
By: Wayne Curtis