Engel, Leo

Engel, Leo (1844–1893), did not introduce American drinks and the American way of bartending to London, but he certainly popularized it and cemented it as a part of the city’s culture. Little is known of his early life beyond the fact that he was born in Germany and emigrated to America by 1867 (he became an American citizen in 1874). He may have begun his working life as a soap maker, but by the early 1870s he was tending bar at the popular Ridgewood Shades in Brooklyn, New York; at some point, by his own account, he also worked for Jerry Thomas. See Thomas, Jeremiah P. “Jerry.” In late 1874, Felix Spiers and Christopher Pond hired Engel to run the American bar in the Criterion, the new theater-restaurant complex in Piccadilly. There Engel offered the full range of American drinks, or at least ones that sounded American (some American visitors were not convinced). Such a thing had been done before in London, but never at such a scale or in such a fashionable venue. The drinks were a sensation, as was “Professor” Engel.

In 1878, Engel codified his craft with the publication of American and Other Drinks, to that date the most comprehensive treatment of the new American style of mixed drinks to be published in the United Kingdom. No matter if the great majority of the drinks were plagiarized verbatim, or nearly so, from Thomas; there were also fourteen of “Leo’s specialties” and a number of small adjustments to British conditions. The book was a popular one and became a cornerstone of British mixology.

Engel left the Criterion in 1882 to open his own bar, Leo’s Desideratum, in Haymarket. When that failed in 1884, he tried his hand as a theatrical agent and manager and then went back to barkeeping, briefly running bars in Leicester Square and St James Square. After the death of his wife in 1888, Engel moved to France, where he ran the New York Bar at 10 Place de la Madeleine in Paris and then followed in Ciro Capozzi’s footsteps as manager of the American bar attached to the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo, a position he held until his death. The American bar at the Criterion never got back the popularity it had when Leo was behind it.

Bailey, James Montgomery. England from a Back-Window. Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1879, 260.

“Music Hall Gossip.” The Era, February 11, 1893, 17.

“On the Lookout.” Brooklyn Eagle, July 2, 1902, 5.

“On the Riviera.” New York Herald, Paris ed., March 17, 1892, 1.

Richardson, Leander P. “Queer Things in London.” Chicago Tribune, March 22, 1882, 5.

By: David Wondrich

Leo Engel, from the 1880 edition of his book.

Wellcome Collection.

Leo Engel, from the 1880 edition of his book. Source: Wellcome Collection.