Historic Bar Books

There is a history behind everything, but when it comes to cocktails, many date way back. We use the same recipes today that started it all back in the day. So next time you make that Tom Collins or Mojito... give your customers a little history lesson on them as well. It's interesting, entertaining and fun to read about.

The Book of Absinthe B-BOA  Click Here

$14.00

The Book of Absinthe A Cultural History. La Fee Verte ("The Green Fairy") has intoxicated artists, poets, and writers ever since the nineteenth century. Stories abound of absinthe's druglike sensations of mood lift and inspiration due to the presence of wormwood, its infamous special ingredient, ultimately leading to delirium, homicidal mania, and death. Softback book, 296 Pages.

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Jerry Thomas Bartenders Guide B-JTBG  Click Here

$9.99

Jerry Thomas Bartenders Guide - 1887 Reprint How to mix all kinds, plain and fancy. drinks. This book contains clear and reliable directions for mixing all the beverages used in the United States, together with the most popular British, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish recipes; embracing punches, juleps, cobblers, etc in endless variety.

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Boothbys 1934 Reprint B-BWD  Click Here

$10.99

Boothbys World Drinks and How to Mix Them - 1934 Reprint This book was written by "Cocktail" Bill Boothby, once a minstrel performer, then San Francisco bartender and author of "American Bar-Tender", and finally California Assemblyman. This 1934 book with over 150 mixed drinks, first published right after prohibition, is fantastic as an "unabridged encyclopedia of all popular beverages".

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Angostra Bitters 1908 Reprint B-ABDG  Click Here

$7.99

Dr. Siegert's Angostra Bitters Drink Guide - 1908 Reprint This book was most likely a promotional piece, and so it has over 200 recipes (with and without bitters) of food and cocktails. Since it was made to be popular, it features only the most popular drinks at the time like Mamie Taylor, Whiskey Smash, and Gin Sour. It is a great book to date cocktails as they emerged or disappeared from favor.

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Waldorf Astoria 1935 Reprint B-OWABB  Click Here

$7.99

The Old Waldorf Astoria Bar Book - 1935 Reprint The Old Waldorf hotel was built next door to William Astor's aunt, on the present day spot on the Empire State Building, because of a dispute with her. When she moved uptown the Old Waldorf Hotel joined with the Astoria hotel by a structure known as Peacock Alley, becoming eventually one entity. As for drinks, the Waldorf Astoria is said to have been location for the invention of the Bronx and popularizer of the Old Fashioned.

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Shake em Up 1930 Reprint B-SEU  Click Here

$8.99

Shake 'Em Up! - 1930 Reprint Nothing like being banned to really make a book exciting! Printed 3 years before prohibition was repealed, this book has page 68 removed at the request of United States Attorney because it featured a recipe on how to make Gin!

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Bar La Florida Cocktails 1935 Reprint B-BLFC  Click Here

$8.99

Bar La Florida Cocktails - 1935 Reprint La Florida Bar, also known as the "Floridita", invented the Daiquiri. And even if they didn't as some may claim that in fact it was American mining engineers drinking at the Venus bar in Santiago that invented it, La Florida Bar made it famous, with a little help from papa...

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Fine Art Mixing Drinks Reprint B-FAMD  Click Here

$29.95

Fine Art Mixing Drinks - 1948 Reprint Since its appearance sixty years ago, This book has become, in an exceedingly crowded field, an undisputed classic. Its essential truths have stood the passage of time, and the authors subtle, sly humor is as seductive as ever. Embury was probably the most important cocktailian author of the twentieth century. At a time when the craft of mixology could have fizzled out and been lost to the world, he was the guy who took drinks apart, examined their inner souls, and carefully reassembled them. Hardback, 368 pages

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