Cheryl Charming

Cheryl Charming is an American author whose career was built behind bars, on service floors, in training programs, and through books. Her work centers on hospitality craft and the practical side of the trade, including the timing of service, the mechanics of pouring, presentation, menu design, and instruction. Across restaurants, resorts, cruise ships, cocktail education, and print, she built a career that connects doing the work with teaching it.

Early bar and floor service formed the base of her path. Cheryl Charming began as a waitress at a pizza parlor in Bryant High School / Arkansas, then worked as a food waitress at John Barleycorn's Vision in Little Rock, Arkansas. She continued as a cocktail server at Cabaret on Kavanaugh Blvd in the Heights in Little Rock, Arkansas, and later became head bartender there. Each step moved her closer to the bar itself, where service shifts from carrying orders to shaping the room through drinks and presentation.

Cruise service and theme-park bars added pace, movement, and consistency under pressure. Cheryl Charming worked as bartender on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, then became a cast member and bartender at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. She also bartended at Pleasure Island at Walt Disney World and at Grand Floridian Beach Resort & Spa in Orlando, Florida. During this period, she taught bar tricks and bar magic in the Disney food and beverage training program Quest for the Best in Orlando, a role that brought technique into performance and made instruction part of the job.

Her career later expanded into menus, seminars, and authorship. Cheryl Charming became a freelance mixologist and cocktail menu designer at Brown-Forman, host of seminars at Tales of the Cocktail Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana, and bartender at Bombay Club in New Orleans, Louisiana. These roles placed her on the education and writing side of the trade as well as behind the bar, building menus, speaking to peers, and working in a city where cocktail service has its own standard.

Since 2013, she has been Bar Director of Bourbon "O" Bar, a position that reflects sustained responsibility and continuity in the room. Author remains the other half of Cheryl Charming's working life. Her books carry the same priorities as her bar work: usefulness, directness, and a practical understanding of what bartenders and guests need. The Everything Bartender's Book and Frozen Drinks: An A to Z Guide to All Your Frozen Favorites show both sides of her practice, one as a working reference and the other focused on frozen drinks and the demands of color, texture, and speed. Together, they reflect a career spent organizing bar knowledge for people who use it. Cheryl Charming's recognition includes Mixologist of the Year.