The Bartender's Black Book
by Stephen Kittredge Cunningham
The Wine Appreciation Guild, 2006
ISBN: 1-891267-31-0
$12.95, 264 pp

The Bartender's Black Book is the product of veteran bartender Stephen Kittredge Cunningham. Geared toward the professional, it is spiral bound so pages with new drink recipes can be added with each edition. Within its pages, Cunningham covers about every libation known to man - not just the trendy, but the classics too - listed alphabetically. To aid the barkeep who doesn't know the name of a drink, but does know its base ingredient, there is a helpful index in the back matching drinks with their liquor. There are also sections on non-alcoholic concoctions, martinis, frozen drinks, hot drinks, shots and shooters, dessert drinks, and beers.

Cunningham's Black Book isn't just about alcoholic concoctions, though. He also offers tips for the professional bartender on everything from controlling the room, to tipping out the back of the house, to making it home with your hard-earned gratuities intact. For the bar patron, he offers sound advice on etiquette that, in a perfect world, every customer would read and follow.

Additionally, this, the eighth edition, includes The Wine Advocate's Vintage Guide. It offers tips on storing, pouring and enjoying, along with best values and wine speak. Also, The Wine Advocate's rating system is finally explained.

The Bartender's Black Book is perhaps the most comprehensive drink guide on the market. Or was. Unfortunately, it has fallen out of print, but continues to be the bible among many bartenders today. Because it was updated each year in its hey-day, and no doubt faced seemingly insurmountable deadlines, there are numerous typos and grammatical errors throughout, as if its pages were prepared in haste. Really, just a minor drawback considering its ease of use and the quality of information packed between its covers. Contains 2800 drink recipes.

Playboy's New Bar Guide: How to Create and Enjoy the World's Best Drinks
by Playboy Press Staff
Playboy Press, 1975
LCN: 75-14620
$1.50, 320 pp

In this age of mega-corporations determining our tastes, it's easy to forget that wasn't always the case. In the sixties and seventies, the sway of publishing mogul Hugh Hefner left its mark on America at large. At the time, the Playboy brand was considered the height of contemporary sophistication. Through his publishing empire and chain of clubs, Hefner changed the norms of society when it came to our attitudes toward sex and partying, making naughty nice again.

New School Basics
Published by Playboy Press, Playboy's New Bar Guide: How to Create and Enjoy the World's Best Drinks, is intended for the home bar host. It includes tips on getting guests to your party (none on getting them home, however), stocking the home bar (as a rule, its recommended you keep one gin; both sweet and dry vermouth; four whiskeys - American blended, bourbon, Scotch and Canadian; and the ever popular vodka and rum, totaling nine bottles of booze in all). That's just the basic bar. If you're having guests over who are known for drinking screwdrivers, you'll want to up your vodka (and orange juice) stock in anticipation, and always, ALWAYS count on a minimum of three drinks per guest.

"A chick who doesn't have the faintest idea of what ingredients go into pastis or prunelle will nevertheless receive the same luxurious wavelengths from either of these drinks."

New Bar Guide also covers glassware for your home bar (including chilling and frosting), bar accessories, condiments, mixers and post-coital cocktails. It includes instructions on everything from proper hosting, to proper timing, to proper serving (who knew there were so many rules for the home bar?) to ensure a successful cocktail party. It's got it all but specific instructions for getting your mack on.

Old School Attitudes
Divided into chapters by type of spirits, each is introduced with a brief history, or myth when historical facts are sketchy. (Nobody's sure where the word "cocktail" originated, but one theory involves Dutch barmaids who used rooster feathers to clear away bar litter.) Each introduction is then followed by drink recipes. While the approach is very organized, scattering the drinks this way throughout the book makes locating them a bit cumbersome. A consolidated alphabetical list of drinks and their ingredients would be much easier.

Though for a lot of us the seventies don't seem so long ago, the vernacular of New Bar Guide definitely dates it. With statements like, "A chick who doesn't have the faintest idea of what ingredients go into pastis or prunelle will nevertheless receive the same luxurious wavelengths from either of these drinks," it's clear we're not in Kansas anymore. In this respect, New Bar Guide caters to men, not women. While that sort of narrow thinking may not appeal to the average reader, it's what makes New Bar Guide a fascinating read. Its pages provide a historical record of society's spirit and attitudes toward women and alcohol in 1975, and a terrific barometer of how far we've come. With an index of every drink in the book, if the user can get past the sexism, it's not a terrible reference tool. Contains over 675 drink recipes.

posted 01/26/25

TOP | NEXT