Customer Reviews

The Complete Bartender

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I hire and train bartenders for two resteraunts and a night club. This is the only book I currenlty allow my bartenders to use behind our bars. The glossary and ingredient index are very helpful. This book has helped greatly in getting some consistency back among my bartenders. I have run across only a couple of problems with it. The binding. If this book had been spiral bound it would be much easier to actually use while working. Because it is in a paperback format it is more of a reference than a tool. The life expectency of any paperback behind a busy bar is about one week. Glossy or laminated pages would extend it's life. I'm sure that cost is a factor with both of these problems, but any working bartender would gladly spend a few more dollars and consider it an investment.

This book is a must have! The entire book is layed out perfectly! The recipies are very easy to read and they're well layed out. They're alphabatized as well as the index and the glossary. The table of contents breaks the book down into catagories from stocking your bar, party drinks, to nonalcoholic drinks. Beginning with a list of mixers, 'Odds and Ends', measurements in ounces, standard bar measurments, and garnishes. Included is a section on 'Bartender's Secrets' that gives tips and tricks the professionals use to make drinks such as choosing glassware and how to open a bottle of wine.

One very important point discussed is the importance of being responsible while drinking and also on being a responsible bartender. Included is a body weight chart giving the ratio of weight to the number of drinks a person consumes and how long it takes the body to matabolize it.

One of my favorite parts is the index because it makes the art of bartending professionally or unprofessionally much simpler taking a lot of the guess work out. If you don't know what to make with that bottle of flavored liqueur or you want to use some wine just go to the index and it will give you a list of drinks that can be made using whatever kind of alcohol you have. For anyone watching their calorie intake the book also includes an Index of Low-calorie Drinks.

I agree that this book would greatly be improved if it were spiral bound and was somehow protected so it would avoid liquid damage. I wonder....since it's so thick, making it a bit bigger, allowing more space for text and minimizing the amount of space the recipies take up on each page, in turn minimizing the depth, would make it easier to spiralbound it. Other than that this is an outstanding resource guide!

Working in the tourist area of San Francisco, we get drink requests from people who are visting from all parts of the world. This was the only book we used out of four, and now that a parting bartender has made a momento of this one we either already know the drink or can't find it. It may be a bit light in other areas, (I never checked) but if you need a 'drink dictionary' behind the bar, get this one. Then give your boss the receipt and tell him to cough it up.

I am an idiot when it comes to making drinks and I felt this guide was wonderful! It was easy to look up a particular type of liquor you might like and find a drink you could make with it . Trust me if I could make a good drink called the popscicle delicious every time you can too!

"The Complete Bartender" is far from complete. Even though it looks like a hefty book (560 pages?!), it really leaves out quite a bit.

Of course, all of your standard drinks are included: martinis, margaritas, manhattans, and the like. But there's no recipie for cosmopolitans, apple martinis, or any "dirty" drinks (e.g. b.j.s or sex on the beach). And some of the recipies that are included are questionable at best - wrong at worst. The recipie for a zombie included cherry liquor; while the recipie for kamakazie did not include sweet and sour.

This book also lacks color pictures. If you think your presentation is perfect and you don't need any illustrations, then by all means go out and purchase this book. For most of us, it's helpful to have a few pictures to let us know if we're on the right track. In my opinion, a really good bartending book would illustrate the presentation for each drink.

This book isn't all bad. What it lacks in quality it makes up for in quantity. Despite the sometimes iffy drink recipies, the lack of color pictures, and the noticibal absence of several very popular drinks, it's still got tons of drinks and a helpful glossary that explains what different liquors are. There are some illustrations of the various tools and glasses needed to bartend.

I bought this book in college, thinking it would have every recipie I'd ever want. It's a big enough disappointment that I wouldn't really recommend it, but you do have to keep in mind that - with the internet - it's pretty easy to get just about any recipie you'd ever want for a drink. So if you're willing to look up the occasional drink, and you don't need pretty color pictures, this book might be right for you.

I like the book overall. As with any recipe book, you'll have to customize things to suit your taste. The biggest problem is the binding. It is impossible to mix a drink with the book open at the same time; it WONT stay open. If it were spiral bound, I'd give the book a "9.5".

This really is a complete book. It contains an index of recipes by ingredient and by type as well as clear instructions for thousands of drinks. .

This is the most up to date and accurate cocktail recipe book on the market. The Complete Bartender is a MUST HAVE for everyone interested in making cocktails. Jonathan C. Chance Libationist

Like others, I too would agree that this book should be spiral bound. It is rather difficult to mix a drink and try keep the book open. Even with that said, this is a great book with tons of recipies! Before I bought this book I didn't know how to make any mixed drinks and now I do. This book is not only great for bartenders, but anyone who likes to drink or have friends over for a night of fun. I highly recommend this book.

I think that books on mixing drinks, cooking, etc. as a rule should be spiral bound and in larger print! Maybe waterproof would be nice, too. That said, I enjoyed the recipes in this book, although I wished there were more non-alcoholic drink recipes included.