The Ultimate A-to-Z Bar Guide [Paperback]

Sharon Tyler Herbst (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 13, 1998

What's a Dirty Martini? How do you pronounce Cuarenta Y Tres? Which glass do you use for a Stinger? How did the Margarita get its name?

Answers to these questions and thousands more can be found in The Ultimate A-to-Z Bar Guide, a one-stop, user-friendly cocktail guide featuring more than 1,000 drink recipes and 600 definitions for cocktail-related terms.

The Ultimate A-to-Z Bar Guide offers a unique blend of features, including:

Definitions of over 600 cocktail- and drink-related terms, including liqueurs, types of drinks, cocktail jargon, and the etymology of drinks like the Martini and the Fuzzy Navel, all organized in an easy-to-use A-to-Z format with sound-out phonetics.
Drink recipes for more than 1,000 cocktails for every season and occasion.  Each recipe is complete with a graphic showing the appropriate glass to use.
Ideas on how to make sure guests have a great time while encouraging responsible drinking.
Tips on everything from stocking a home bar to choosing the right glassware, plus loads of professional bartending tricks and shortcuts for creating the perfect cocktail.
Humor through anecdotes, toasts, and quotes from the famous and infamous.
Four indexes that make finding the listing you want a snap!

Accessible, fun, hip, and written in the Herbsts' inimitable style, The Ultimate A-to-Z Bar Guide deserves a place at every home and professional bar.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

What's a Dirty Martini? How do you pronounce Cuarenta Y Tres? Which glass do you use for a Stinger? How did the Margarita get its name?

Answers to these questions and thousands more can be found in The Ultimate A-to-Z Bar Guide, a one-stop, user-friendly cocktail guide featuring more than 1,000 drink recipes and 600 definitions for cocktail-related terms.

The Ultimate A-to-Z Bar Guide offers a unique blend of features, including:

Definitions of over 600 cocktail- and drink-related terms, including liqueurs, types of drinks, cocktail jargon, and the etymology of drinks like the Martini and the Fuzzy Navel, all organized in an easy-to-use A-to-Z format with sound-out phonetics.
Drink recipes for more than 1,000 cocktails for every season and occasion.  Each recipe is complete with a graphic showing the appropriate glass to use.
Ideas on how to make sure guests have a great time while encouraging responsible drinking.
Tips on everything from stocking a home bar to choosing the right glassware, plus loads of professional bartending tricks and shortcuts for creating the perfect cocktail.
Humor through anecdotes, toasts, and quotes from the famous and infamous.
Four indexes that make finding the listing you want a snap!

Accessible, fun, hip, and written in the Herbsts' inimitable style, The Ultimate A-to-Z Bar Guide deserves a place at every home and professional bar.

About the Author

Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst are the authors of the bestselling Wine Lover's Companion.  Sharon is the award-winning author of twelve books on food and wine, and the foremost writer of culinary reference books, including the bestselling Food Lover's Companion and Food Lover's Tiptionary.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter; 1st edition (October 13, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767901975
• ISBN-13: 978-0767901970
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.9 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #128,935 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #71 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Drinks & Beverages > Bartending

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good layout, accurate, fun to read, January 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Ultimate A-to-Z Bar Guide (Paperback)

I bought 4 drink books over the holidays, because it seemed each had its strong points (Mr. Boston, Poister's New American Bartender's Guide, another one, and this one). This one I read the most by far. As far as this book goes, it is well-laid out, and entertaining just to flip through and read. Every other page has some kind of interesting drink-related quote or joke on it. The overall manner of this book is very friendly and informative, as opposed to certain other drink books. The type is large enough to read comfortably and the book is printed on high quality paper. An excellent choice if you're just buying one book. Has recipes for pretty much all the standard drinks you can think of. Doesn't have the number of different/crazy drinks like Poister's "New American...", but I find this book less snooty and more fun. Buy that one if you want more unusual drink variety. Mr. Boston is nice because it's hardbound & thorough as well, but they shamelessly self-promote their own liquor and liquor products, which annoys me. Buy this book if you're only going to buy one drink book, you probably won't be disappointed.

48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to Follow, Fun to Read, December 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Ultimate A-to-Z Bar Guide (Paperback)

After searching the shelves for a bar guide, my husband and I finally decided to get The Ultimate A-To-Z Bar Guide because it was fun and interesting to read. Its content is comprehensive--everything one would ever want to make is in this book. And the layout/format is simple: look up drinks based on ingredients, alphabetically, or even by type. And the prose is entertaining as well! The introduction packs a lot of useful information for the beginning entertainer, like what glasses to use and basic liquor knowledge. We're glad we picked this one.

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the best book on the market today,for novis &pro bartenders, March 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Ultimate A-to-Z Bar Guide (Paperback)

being a bartender at a casino on the mississippi gulf coast,we sometimes have to knock out twenty on up drink,orders in minutes. the ultimate A-to-Z bar guide is by far the most user friendly bible on the market today ! i've recomended it to everyone i know ,that wants to be the best .