Annie Coleman
Pastry Chef, Reveler’s Hour and Tail Up Goat | Washington, D.C.
March 2022
Annie Coleman was raised outside of Lady’s Island, South Carolina, where her mother and aunts would grow produce. Her mother was an artist and her father was a doctor, so it made sense for Coleman to have three great passions—food, art, and science. She tried to figure out a way to combine those interests while studying at the University of Georgia. She picked up a job at Epting Events and kept getting scheduled as a bartender or server until the day she was assigned to stand in an open field, making pralines out of a copper kettle. She was hooked.
After graduation, Coleman began baking at Independent Baking Co., where she developed her expertise for precision and simplicity. In 2016, Coleman moved to Paris to study pastry at FERRANDI. She found a mentor in Chef Jean-Philippe Garrigues and an internship at five-star hotel La Réserve Paris, which bolstered her confidence to jump from bread baking to pastry work. Upon returning to the States in 2017, Coleman staged at Michelin-starred restaurants Marea in New York City and The Dabney in Washington, D.C. The latter's farm-focused program made Coleman feel right at home. Within six months, she advanced from pastry cook to pastry chef.
After three years with The Dabney and another trip to Paris, Coleman returned to D.C. to become pastry chef of the Adams Morgan Mediterranean bistro, Tail Up Goat, and its sister restaurant, Italian-inspired wine bar, Reveler’s Hour. Coleman’s humble desserts and pints of gelato (served to-go at Reveler’s Hour) lean on her farming past to stretch the use of every ingredient with respect and great technical skill.
