Meehan's Bartender Manual

In the spirit of Craddock s The Savoy Cocktail Book, my first book, The PDT Cocktail Book, was a snapshot of what I hope many will fondly recall as a seminal moment in cocktail history. It s a recipe book first and foremost, documenting the popular ingredients and proportions used to make classic and contemporary cocktails at the time of its publication. 

In this book, instead of focusing on a particular time and place, I ve panned back to address a much more layered subject: bartending itself. I ll begin with a chapter on the history of the American cocktail, from seventeenth-and eighteenth-century punch to the neoclassical cocktails we drink today. From there, I move onto chapters on bar design, tools and techniques, service, and hospitality. This book does include cocktail recipes one hundred total, which include classics and my own signatures plus spirits primers to help stock your bar. Each recipe includes information on the origin of the drink, the logic behind why it works, and hacks for the curious bartender. 

Throughout the book you ll find insights from more than fifty friends, colleagues, and mentors who ve shaped my views of the craft of bartending. I ve included quotes from my former employers, Audrey Saunders and Jimmy Bradley, colleagues like Jeff Bell and Don Lee, icons like Dale DeGroff and David Wondrich, lifelong friends like Brian Bartels and my brother Peter, and spirits producers like Hans Reisetbauer and Beppe Musso. I hope that you ll be as inspired by them as I have been. 

I didn t learn how to tend bar from reading books. Tending bar is mastered through thousands of hours spent watching, listening, and learning from your colleagues and guests. That said, I hope this book will foster dialogue about how and why we tend bar. Some of my most respected colleagues and friends (even those featured in the book s portraits) may disagree with the philosophy and practices I ve outlined here so I m sincerely eager for them to

Jim Meehan is a renowned bartender and author of The PDT Cocktail Book. He worked at some of New York City s most revered restaurants and bars, including Gramercy Tavern and Pegu Club, before opening the James Beard Award winning bar PDT in 2007. In addition to writing for Tasting Table, Lucky Peach, and Sommelier Journal, Meehan served as an editor for Food & Wine magazine s annual cocktail book and Mr. Boston Official Bartender s Guide. He and his family reside in Portland, Oregon, where he runs the consulting firm Mixography, Inc.

"Absolutely necessary for any spirits dork."
Christine Muhlke, Bon Appetit 

There s much more to being a good bartender than being able to quickly and efficiently make great cocktails. Yes, Meehan addresses cocktail recipes, what ingredients tools and techniques to deploy to make great drinks, but importantly this book is about much more than just mixing cocktails. Anyone who absorbs the pages on spirits will have more than passable knowledge of each of the spirit categories, and anyone who s serious about bar management, or indeed any aspect of bar operations should read this book.
Simon Difford, Difford s Guide

"One of the most recognizable names in the bar world brings you the ultimate cocktail guide, complete with recipes, origin stories and hacks because not owning an esoteric bottle of bitters shouldn't hold you back from a good drink. There are also floor plans of bars around the world and deep-cut cocktail facts for those who want to geek out."
Abby Reisner, Tasting Table

"For anyone obsessed with cocktails and their unique subculture, this book will be fascinating and essential, a heady tome that pores over the origins of whiskey and gin like a graduate school volume."
Matthew Kang, Eater

"Jim Meehan was among the pioneers of the craft cocktail movement, opening PDT in Manhattan in 2007.  Meehan s Bartender Manual is exactly what the title promises: a manual for professional bartenders. But it will make a welcome addition to the library of any serious at-home drink maker."
Wayne Curtis, The Wall Street Journal

There are hundreds of bar books that focus on cocktail recipes or history, but few really explore the art and practicalities of bartending. Jim Meehan strives to write a modern handbook on par with the 1862 book, Jerry Thomas' Bartenders Guide. Meehan whips through cocktail history basics and features in-depth recipes for classic cocktails, but the best