Cosmopolitan: A Bartender's Life

As a professional bartender (31 years behind the stick), I can attest to Cecchini's authenticity. With style, sardonic humor (aside from the Boston shaker, the bartender's most effective tool), grit and total 360 vision, he breaks down the experience for even the most clueless civilians to grasp. "Foodies," "restaurant people," hospitality workers, "bar dogs," "bar whores," however titled, are a definite sub-culture, observing humanity under a naked black light. Anthony Bourdain eloquently illustrated the inner workings of the restaurant and Toby Cecchini follows suit with his own distinctive style in autopsying the professional bartender and his personal life. I personally know the feeling of inventing a drink, showing it off with pride, and the subsequent bombardment of requests by spirit-ignorant dilettantes, the bastardization of the recipe by anyone who ever picked up a bottle of well vodka, and the regret that churns your gastric acids on just hearing the name of your drink hurled through the air. Toby brings that mix of pride and disillusionment to light with humor and without crying over the loss of his monster. Everyone who's ever been a bar or restaurant patron needs to read this book to try and pick themselves out of the crowd. Consider it a training manual in human behavior for the uninitiated and alcohol-impaired. Regarding the Cosmopolitan, I'd have to say that despite occasional criticism from the new genre of "bar chef's"... what the hell does that mean anyway? Listen to these yaks and you'll spend the whole night muddling cucumbers and Thai basil, straining blackberries, and trying to clean up your tools in time to prepare the next thirty drink orders that piled up while you were occupied pouring some slop into a stemmed cocktail glass for the grinning weasel supervisor from the local county clerk's office. You're either stationed in the kitchen or behind the bar, give me a break... Anyway, regarding the Cosmo, from my experience it remains the only new cocktail to have emerged in the last twenty years to have endured with any kind of sustained popularity based on its own merits. It's balanced, simple, and refined. That's all you need in a cocktail. That's all you need in life. A bartender's life.

Not a book for those who think true pleasure is a good head on your beer. Cosmopolitan is part social study and part culinary appreciation. At all times the writing in Cosmopolitan is beautiful and evocative and the insights are humorous, or sage or biting. A surprisingly enjoyable book, sweetened with the addition of some of the author's favorite cocktail recipes.

I really liked this book a lot. The author has a great eye and a sharp pen. After reading it, all I wanted to do was go get a drink -- at his bar. You know that this guy is a seriously great bartender. He just has so much integrity. It comes out in the book. It's a very fun read. And it'll make you want to order a Negroni or Manhattan next time you're out. It gives you a whole new perspective on socializing at the bar.

If Mr. Cecchini's alcoholic creations are half as good as his writing, then I am flying to New York to take part, and tip generously as I am drinking it down.This was a great piece of writing that took me by surprise. I am looking forward to his next book, in liquid form