Meehan's Bartender Manual

Learning about mixology is an excellent way to add culture to your life- a great gift!

Meehan is a legend, the tome is well written, content stands the test of time, and the corners are rounded!

Great back stories regarding individual drinks along with perfect ingredients and presentation. Bonus bar design and more. Get the book.

Beatifully executed book. I appreciate it covered a large territory, everything from drink recipies to the ideal architecture of a home bar.would highly recommend.

Released in 2017, this is the second book we’ve featured of Meehan’s (the first being the essential ’PDT Cocktail Book’.)We began 2022 by abstaining from alcohol for the month of January. However, we also pledged to expand and improve our mixology skills during the year.This exhaustive collection of text contains a wealth of information for the professional and home bar enthusiast alike. Within the pages, you’ll find history, essential hospitality industry information, expert advice, techniques… and 100 recipes for classic cocktails. Not only did working through this book elevate our skills but it expanded our palate as we explored spirits we were less familiar with (rum and tequila, in particular). The book is gorgeously designed and features simple, beautiful photographs of every drink, as well as wonderful illustrations throughout. Here are the cocktails we made:• Old Friend - Created by the author himself in 2012 for the Chef’s Club in Aspen, Colorado, this cocktail feels like a timeless classic! It features one of our favorite spirits, Campari! This bitter crimson-hued liqueur is definitely an acquired taste but we love it so much we will drink it by itself with a splash of soda. Here, it’s shaken with gin, grapefruit juice and St. Germain (an elderflower liqueur) before garnishing with a lemon twist.• Martinez - Dating back to 1884, the “recipe” from O.H. Byron’s ‘The Modern Bartenders Guide’ simply stated, “same as a Manhattan, only you substitute gin for whiskey.”Here, the drink receives an upgrade - combining Old Tom gin, vermouth, maraschino liqueur and a couple dashes of bitters. Garnish with an orange twist and imbibe!• Five Island Flamingo - This cocktail allowed us the opportunity to explore rum as the featured spirit. As it turns out, there are far more (better) options than that bottle of Malibu we choked down after our senior prom. This delicate creation features white rum, grapefruit soda and lime juice. With minimal ingredients, quality is key - as there’s nothing for them to hide behind.• East India Negroni - This twist on the classic subs Banks 5-Island rum for the gin and Lustau East India Solera sherry for the sweet Vermouth. Although interesting, we ultimately preferred the classic over the remake - not unlike the movie ‘Footloose’ (or ‘Dirty Dancing’).• Tommy’s Margarita - Created in the late 80’s by second-generation owner Julio Bermejo of Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant in San Francisco, this recipe trades triple sec for agave syrup. Using the best quality reposado tequila is crucial - as there’s nothing, aside from lime juice and the agave syrup, for it to hide behind. If your only exposure to margs are the 3 for 1 blended concoctions at your local Tex-Mex joint, give this sophisticated, yet simple, version a try.

Great book but arrived damaged

I got this for my brother for Christmas since he wanted to get into mixology. He has been reading through it to try new concoctions and to give him ideas. He is thoroughly enjoying it!

This is a nice little book, but it is also a little quirky in its format, so it may not be exactly what you're expecting.What's in the book?History. There's a short history of how cocktails came to America, including factors such as refrigeration affecting cocktail production. Covers a lot of the main points, such as the influence of juleps and Prohibition on American cocktails. This is a good inclusion, as it informs some of the later points.Blueprints of great bars. There is a section with a …handful of blueprints of great bars, from award-winning NYC hotspots to a very famous closet bar - as in literally an armoire someone customized into a bar for house parties. The general gist is that no matter your level from home drinker to professional bar owner, you can build a great bar.Bar-geek celebrity interviews and quotes. Interviews with famous bartenders, from quotes jammed into other articles to some small interviews with the bartenders themselves, dot the book.Advice on setting up and running your own bar. From what equipment to get, to financial considerations. The book again tries to run the gamut from home drinker to professional bar owner.Recipes. I don't have the book to hand but it has maybe a dozen cocktail recipes, roughly laid out so that you can plan a minimum set of ingredients and equipment, and build your bar from there. It's a short but effective list of classics.Who's the book for?As a jack of all trades, this book is for everyone and no one. Basically, this book is meant for sort of hipster bar geeks who are just as excited about stocking their home bar as they are for learning about how the same process works at the greatest bars in the world. It's not particularly helpful for any single audience, but it does a great job of being a general overview. It's a great "coffee table book" and conversation starter. You could easily end up passing this around if you have some bar-geek friends.For a home bartender, there are tips to give you some rough ideas for starting your home bar. For instance, start by picking a few cocktails and buy those ingredients. Then find what cocktails recycle those same ingredients - if you bought vodka for martinis, start by looking at other vodka cocktails. Smart tips like this make a big difference - financially and practically.If you want to buy a property and open your own bar, this book would give you some great ideas for a "minimum viable product" of equipment and considerations you should plan for - from the liquors to stock, to locating the bathroom. You obviously need professionals to check your assumptions, but you could definitely use this book to plan your space in broad strokes and check whether a physical space supports your goals.Overall.I'm exactly in the target demographic for this book, so I love it. I built my own basement bar, complete with barstools. There are lots of things from the book that I'm going to look out for next time I go to a bar. How do they lay out their equipment? Are they being efficient with their space? If you're a bar-geek like me, this book rocks. I'm not sure how big of an audience that is, but if you're there, get it.

Not only amazing for drinks (partial to The Last Word and Corpse Reviver #2 myself) but as guide to considerations of managing bartenders, bars, and even designing layouts through examining of world-class bars. Lovely for any aspiring or professional bartender, and great fit for cocktail enthusiast.

This book is definitely a book every bartender/aspiring bartender should check out. Not only are the recipes unique detailing the classics as well as other cocktails, the ingredients it references throughout the recipes are sometimes more usual to find in stores where home bartenders can look rather than stuff you have to make or find specialty. It also has a lot of interesting information on how to properly lay out a commercial bar space and how to utilize the layout of your bar based on famou…s bars from around the world to maximize the experience by your patrons. I bought this book along with the Cocktail Codex and Death and Co. because I had read all three from a friend and thought that I needed my own to have on hand, they are that great!