The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft: Revised And Updated Edition

Think about your favorite nights out drinking cocktails at a bar, what do you remember most? Was it the ambiance of the space, stylish fixtures, the quality of the cocktails, or the demeanor of the bartender who created them? Odds are, all of these came into play.  This is the difference between tending ones bar, the culmination of all of the elements that impact the experience of having your drink, versus mixology, the ever expanding study of what goes into the glass.  This book explores the tending of the bar and how to make fantastic cocktails in equal measure. 

Originally published at the very dawn of the Craft Cocktail Revival, which swept the bar scene starting in the early 2000s, this book is required reading for any new bartender, and serves as a great resource for any curious home mixologist.

Gary (Gaz) Regan was known across the bar industry for his welcoming spirit, offbeat caftans and eyeliner, and finger-stirring any negroni that came within arms reach. This revised and updated edition features a new introduction which reflects on the changes he observed between when he began his bartending career and the state of the industry upon the book's re-release in 2018, only a year before his passing.

Regan encourages the bartender to really listen to their guests-- and to understand and embody the space in which they serve--and dial in their style of service accordingly.  

Equal parts history, technique, and hospitality guide held together with Regan's trademark wit and the occasional dirty joke, the sections which help break down the 'families' of cocktails and their shared ingredients are especially helpful to anyone in need of memorizing a large rolodex of recipes. 

Hardcover.