Customer Reviews
a great bartender's guide
Liked this so much I got one for myself and one for my daughter, an aspiring bartender. The Regans are truly experts and writers, a rare combination. Buy a copy and enjoy the presentation as well as the recipes.
A frisky little barguide.
The Bartender's Best Friend is a precious little book; precious and a bit precocious too. Let me explain: to begin, this book, while qualified as a hardback is actually very soft. It was bound in the style of old sturdy crafts manuals from the Days of Yore. Its sturdy waterproof cover wraps around your hand in a supple and comfy way, bringing to mind another era. It's just plain fun to hold! Mainly a book of recipes, there too it feels like a classic barguide. Mardee's comments on her chosen drinks are wry and dry and bolster the comfort-level which the guide has already engendered. Before you slip on the slippers and nudge the fire with the poker, though, know that Mardee Regan has the devil in her! She has picked her recipes for both drinkability and, dare I say, for a bit of social commentary -if not satire. Her introduction hints at this, and the reader is regaled with cocktails as a LIVING art, and a joyous one. Regan is a very funny woman with a fearless streak as she blithely trips from shopworn classics to internet unspeakables. All are delivered with a devilish eye twinkle that, again, helps make this manual so precious. It is also precocious insofar as, for a first solo book, it is wise, urbane, witty, and GOOD. The goodness is in the writing, in the heft, and in the recipes - for no matter the shady sources from whence some of these bibulous instructions sprang, the results seem always to be a celebratory - & potable - potation! Though The Bartender's Best Friend is proffered, apparently, to bartenders, it would reside well between the bookends of home & castle bon vivants as well. It would do my heart good to see it anywhere a cocktail is dreamt of.
Yeah!!!
I'm so excited about this book. I've always wanted easy access to drink recipes....as they're supposed to be, not as twenty different people think they should be. The layout is wonderful. I'd recommend this book to anyone.
