| Antique Vintage Cocktail Batenders Guides: The History of the Drink As sites like the Webtender and their WikiTender, Mudpuddle Books, Bitters Blog and the Cocktaildb grow popular for their historic traces of classic mixed drinks, it makes one want to have their own classic library of bar books. Well, I have spent many a month making these books available (and as drink stained as the originals!) so that they can get back behind the bar where they belong. If you are looking particularly for Absinthe, or a Rickey, or Fizz, or a Highball, or Juleps, I can't help you as most of these books have them all. Most of these original guides run $80 to $900, if one can find them. So save your money, buy these, and please have a drink on me! And if you want me to add you to the "new release" notification list, just shoot me an email.
Angostura Bitters Drink Guide 1908 Reprint: a little tiny bar book made big This product has been a mainstay in the industry for years. One can compare its recipes to the later versions (available on eBay for a few bucks) to see how drinks progressed. Has recipes with and without bitters.
Albert Pick & Company 1913 Reprint General Catalog Huge book, tons of stuff for any collector of barware. They were a big distributor in their day to "Hotels, Tavern, Saloon, Restaurants, Clubs, Institutions, Soda Fountain Parlors and Billiard Halls". A great book to flip through to really understand the classic bar experience. No drink recipies in this one.
Boothby's 1934 Reprint World Drinks and How to Mix Them This one is unique as it is meant as a bartenders reference, therefore poplular drinks in an easy referenced book. Nice also are measuremnets that we can use today. Lots of pages in this one full of cocktails. Boothby's was printed both before and after prohibition so you know it was a popular book. Originally compiled by “Cocktail” Bill Boothby, once a minstrel performer, then San Francisco bartender and author of “American Bar-Tender”, and finally California Assemblyman.
Jerry Thomas Bartenders Guide 1887 Reprint The first. Really. Well not really as Jerry Thomas has some others earlier, but he is accepted to have written the first cocktail guide every. Early books were for brewers or cooks, but this one is the bomb. The nice thing about his 1887 edition is it has some popluar drinks (Manhattan / Tom Collins / Martinez ) that the earlier editions did not and it gets rid of the brewing information. It was first know as How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon Vivant’s Companion and published in 1862 with A Manual for the Manufacture of Cordials, Liquors, Fancy Syrups, etc, etc by Christian Schultz attached at the back, since any good bartender was supposed to know how to do both mix and make.
This cocktail book series is the subject of the book Imbibe by David Wondrich.
Burke's Complete Cocktail and Tastybite Recipes 1936 Reprint This was meant for "the cocktail hour" at home. Fun as it gives his opinions in many places on such topics as prohibitionists and the top 15 drinks to have. Some food and 250 cocktail recipies make this a winner. Includes Between the Sheets, the Honeymoon and Merry Widow (listed right after each other???), a Princeton, the Blood and Sand, a T.N.T. Cocktail, the Fedora, the Yale and a Valedictorian's Assistant, a few Absinthe drinks, and a White Bear.
Cheerio! A Book of Punches and Cocktails How to Mix Them 1928 Reprint Delmonico's was a famous place that went under because it couldn't serve alcohol. The restaurant has been revived by Emeril Lagasse, but this book came out before he was born! Since the place was as famous then, this little gem from its bartender Charles makes a great edition to know how people liked things back in the day in New York. At a chep trinket at the price!
Cocktails by Jimmy late of Ciro's 1930 Reprint Ciro's was a hip London establishment (before another popular one opend up in Los Angeles in 1940), that had as their bartender Harry McElhone (author of Barflies and Cocktails and ABC of Cocktails), at which Jimmy took over when Harry went off to Paris. There is much debate as to the origin of the Sidecar. Jimmy, Harry, and the Ritz in Paris Frank Meier knew of each others doings so it is good to know and compare this famous establishment agains the others. Also nice is he defines Old Time Gin versus Dry Gin, as well as a very different grenadine than "red syrup" or pomegranates.
Bar La Florida Cocktails 1935 Reprint This one sold on eBay for over $800, and rightly so. It deserves way more attention than it gets becasue it is one of the three big bars that people would frequent in Cuba, and is the "cradle of the Daiquari". You want to talk Hemingway? You want to find out see how a green lemon translated into just a lemon screwed up lime usuage for 75 years? Its here. Bilingual (Spanish and English), it also covers more obscure drinks like absinthe drop, mojito, zazerac, Mary Pickford, Peggy Niles, and pisco punch.
HERE'S HOW 1941 Reprint This one cracks me up. Hillarious Appalachian region cocktail folk art (by Tad Shell) on most pages, a discussion of drinks, originally wooden covers (now faithfully reproduced on authentic glossy wooden pulp pressed paperback thin), about as fun as a bar top book can get!
The New Mixing Book 1869 Bar Drink Guide Reprint Loftus in London put this out since they were manufacturers of drink making devices. One may think it transcendental to ask, "What is gin? What is rum?" But early bartenders with their Jerry Thomas How to Mix Drinks in hand had to make their own cuts of liquor. This book explains how, and includes cocktail or punch type recipies in the gallon measure.
The Saloon in the Home or A Garland of Rumblossoms 1930 Reprint This one cracks me up too. One of the few U.S. cocktail books printed during (!!!) our prohibition. It tells the evil of drink in graphic detail, children being run over, punched, people dead, and then tells you how to make the drink to get there! Hillarious and bizarre, but fun to have. Compiled by Ridgely Hunt and George S. Chappell, drawings by John Held Jr.
Shake 'Em Up! 1930 Reprint Banned! Yes Banned folks. Says so on page 68. This is the one I end up using the most because it is tasty, entertaining, great pictures, great to show off to your friends, and for $9 makes a great gift. United States Attorney "requested" they remove page 68 because it featured a recipe on how to make gin - during prohibition! This lady had some pretty big gall to print a cocktail recipe book during prohibition. A toast to Virgina Elliott and her fine book!
Sloppy Joe's Bar Reprint Season 1932 - 1933 The other Papa Hemingway bar in Cuba. Not talking about the Florida watering hole, but the original Cuban one that got closed down. It had the worlds longest Mahogany bar and liquor cabinet. Also makes the same Lime mistake as the Bar La Florida book. This was meant as a free suvinear, now a priceless collectable!
The Cocktail Book 1926 Reprint: A Sideboard Manual for Gentlemen This book was meant for the home use and was so popular it was published at least 5 times both before and after prohibition. It features the Blue Blazer (Blazes), Bacardi Dry, Navy, New Orleans, Florida, Absinthe, as well as standard favorites, the Marguerite, Martini, Manhattan, Whiskey Sour, Mint Julep, and a few Fizz, Flip, Cooler, Cup, and Cobblers. Famous day to day drinks that survive the ages? This is it.
The Old Waldorf Astoria Bar Book 1935 Reprint If you thought I was into self promition, A.S. Crocket compiled several books making himself famous all about teh Old Waldorf Astoria. Lucky for us his books are pretty good and the recipies taste even better. Bit of history, bit of lore, bit of fun, he also gives his view of how drink recipies changed before and after prohibition making it a useful history too. This book is one of those staples that never seems to die and with good reason.
What Shall We Have to Drink? 1933 Reprint This guy (X. M. Boulestin) was into food, wine, and cocktails. Although the focus of this is on wine, the guy is an expert and helps us explore the best of the best in food and drink regions. Really a great time capsule for any wine lover with information relevant today before wine became overwhelming
What'll You Have? 1933 Reprint If you didn't like Boulestin and thought Crocket to into himself, what do you think of Julien J. Proskauer? This book of his plagerised (with many thanks for their contributions) Wehman's Bartender's Guide, Shaw Book of Cocktails (published 1897), and The Standard Handbook of Wines and Liquors. Great for us since he pulled out the best drinks and put them in an easy table to add our notes. Do you know what Shaw would say if he was alive today? "Let me out! Let me out! Get me out of this coffin! I'm alive I tell you, alive!"
!!!!THE LATEST ADDITIONS!!!!
Chicago Bartenders 1945 Bar Guide Reprint Recipes Mob connections? Frank Nitti ran booze for Al Capone and got busted later for trying to corrupt the Union. Backstory is greate, drinks are great, making this one a winner. It includes Mary Pickford and the Zombie (made famous after it was served in the 1939 World’s Fair by Don the Beachcomber), as well some local drinks like Chicago Punch that would be used by union members of the day.
Jack's Manual 1933 Reprint J.A. Grohusko wrote this book five times from 1908 to 1933. This man loved liquor in all forms and so this book was more a drink encyclopedia than simple bartenders guide. In its over 230 pages Gohusko has covered Flips, Fizzes, Highballs, Juleps, Punches, Toddies, Toasts, and much more. With estimated 1,000 different cocktail recipes here, this is just one BIG book o' drinks.
A life Time Collection of 688 Recipes For Drinks 1934 Reprint A commercial prodcution of just the most useful drinks for the home, with out having to pay "Robert late of the Embassy Club in London" to reprint his Cocktails :How to Mix Them one more time. By the same publisher you see.
Title: MODERN AMERICAN DRINKS
Author: GEORGE J. KAPPELER
Publisher: Saalfeld Publishing Co, New York, Chicago
Year: 1895 It features an estimated 400 different cocktail recipes! And if that wasn’t enough reason to pique curiosity, this book is claimed to be the first printed mention of TWO drinks, the Old Fashioned and Widow’s Kiss. Some ads (like Anheuser Busch) and dual covers make this a nice collectors piece.
Wehmans Bartenders Guide copyright 1912 - The precursor of the Old Boston books, publishers of pulp joke books and other rags. This book was very popular becasue it had A LOT of drinks and it was 10¢ for most of its life, though this one is 25¢. My guess is that they used the same inside for many years (no sidecar dates it pre-1918) because I have seen the same book (drinks and copyright) with different prices and back cover ads. The Wehman publishing company was started around 1891 by Henry J. Wehman. They pumped out dime novels (in paperback of course) until around 1930. Later the publishing name resurfaced in the 1970’s to put out some Old Mr. Boston's Bartender's Guide by Leo Cotton. These guys crack me up with all they put out - magic / horses / French / and of course cocktails. | | Oh... The one I seem to reach for the most? Like if you were to buy just one for somebody and were running out of time and have to make it look like a thoughtful gift? Shake 'Em Up - tasty, easy, timely, amusing, and great to show off. See below left for more reasons why. | |