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Vince Keenan

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Down the Hatch: One Man's One Year Odyssey Through Classic Cocktail Recipes and Lore Kindle Edition

by Vince Keenan (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

5.0 11 ratings

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The acclaimed essays featured in Slate and USAToday.com collected for the first time

The product of a teetotaling home, Vince Keenan didn’t have his first serious drink until he was in his thirties. But when he fell, he fell hard. And started writing about it. The result is a love letter to libations and a celebration of the joys of a good barroom.

In bright and entertaining style, Keenan chronicles a year’s worth of cocktails. Each week brings a new beverage, prepared at home in a modestly stocked bar. He makes mistakes, finds concoctions he doesn’t care for, perfects his technique. Above all, he keeps experimenting.

While telling the story of how discovering cocktails broadened his world, Keenan also delves into the stories behind each drink, introducing a host of characters from bartenders past and present to a lazy lightweight boxer, a two-fisted screenwriter, and a suicidal Olympic swordsman.

Written with passion and curiosity, Down the Hatch is a book for the cocktail enthusiast and amateur alike.

With over 50 recipes

Print length

128 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publication date

September 28, 2013
File size

553 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Vince Keenan is just the sort of man with whom I like to drink: Funny, sharp, opinionated, a Mets fan - and a truly engaging storyteller. Down the Hatch is a terrific guide through the classic cocktail repertoire." - Rosie Schaap, author of Drinking With Men

"Fancy a good cocktail, and a well-told-tale to read while you sip it? This is the book for you. Vince is obviously passionate when it comes to cocktails, and he does a damned fine job of telling us how everything came together for him in this great compilation of fine drinks." - gaz regan, author of The Joy of Mixology

"Tipsy and jolly ... much, much more than a recipe book; it's really a memoir to the joys of drink and of creating delicious drinks." - A.J. Rathbun, author of Ginger Bliss & The Violet Fizz

"A very fine cocktail book. It brings to mind Ted Haigh's classic Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails for its depth of research, readability, and in colorfully telling the stories behind the drinks (what we all strive to do). It chronicles a man's immersion into craft cocktails, with a delicate balance of history, folklore, technique, humor, and the human side of mixology, personal taste. Vince's book is eminently approachable by geek and novice alike, and offers to the latter a fine introduction to many of the other experts on whose shoulders we all stand. I look forward to including Mr. Keenan's book alongside these others behind my bar." - Philip Greene, Author, To Have and Have Another - A Hemingway Cocktail Companion and Co-founder of The Museum of the American Cocktail

About the Author

Vince Keenan is one-half of mystery author Renee Patrick, the other half being his wife Rosemarie Keenan. Their novels featuring the Golden Age of Hollywood sleuthing duo of Lillian Frost and legendary costume designer Edith Head include DESIGN FOR DYING, DANGEROUS TO KNOW, and IDLE GOSSIP. The books have been nominated for the Agatha, Anthony, Left Coast Crime, and Macavity Awards. Vince is the former editor-in-chief of NOIR CITY, the magazine of the Film Noir Foundation. He is the author of DOWN THE HATCH: ONE MAN'S ONE YEAR ODYSSEY THROUGH CLASSIC COCKTAIL RECIPES AND LORE. Originally from New York City, he lives in Seattle.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00FIU1IQC
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 28, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 553 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 128 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,929,343 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #665 in Liquor, Spirits & Mixed Drinks
- #2,241 in Cocktails & Mixed Drinks
- #2,319 in Alcoholic Spirits

Customer Reviews:
5.0 11 ratings

About the author

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Vince Keenan

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Vince Keenan is one-half of mystery author Renee Patrick, the other half being his wife Rosemarie Keenan. Their novels featuring the Golden Age of Hollywood sleuthing duo of Lillian Frost and legendary costume designer Edith Head include DESIGN FOR DYING, DANGEROUS TO KNOW, and IDLE GOSSIP. The books have been nominated for the Agatha, Anthony, Left Coast Crime, and Macavity Awards. Vince is the former editor-in-chief of NOIR CITY, the magazine of the Film Noir Foundation. He also wrote DOWN THE HATCH: ONE MAN'S ONE YEAR ODYSSEY THROUGH CLASSIC COCKTAIL RECIPES AND LORE. Originally from New York City, he lives in Seattle.

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A. N. Noble

A smart, entertaining drinking companion

Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2013

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Keenan's guide is an instantly engaging introduction to some seriously wonderful cocktails from some of the best bartenders in the country. With learned, loving prose and accessibly crafted recipes (no artisanal snobbery here), Keenan escorts us through his transformation from cocktail neophyte to poised imbiber.

There are no filler recipes in this book. You will want to try every one of them. Organized kindly so you can build a modest bar as you progress, Keenan doesn't direct you to drop coin on trendy ingredients you will only use once. Each recipe is entertainingly researched and profiled. I look forward to following the writer's example and trying one cocktail every week or two until I have honed my own palate. Even better, I hope to get my friends to do the same so we can meet once a month to dispense and discuss: it'll be the best book club ever.

Never precious or pedantic; always thoughtful and charming. As all drinking companions should be.

One person found this helpful

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meflfm

Drink it up!

Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2014

Verified Purchase

This book evoked two reactions in me that would make any writer proud: First, I wanted to be there, at that bar, sipping that drink, listening to that repartee. Second, I wish I could write like that! It's amusing. It's engaging. It's a winner

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David Montgomery

A cocktail education, told through stories and recipes

Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2013

Until he was in his twenties, crime writer Vince Keenan knew as much about cocktails as your maiden aunt Betty. You know, the one who also happens to be a nun. But one day Keenan's wife -- clearly the brains of the outfit -- convinced him to try a real drink. That was the beginning of what was to become a minor, but magnificent, obsession.

Keenan became a regular at the Zig Zag Cafe in Seattle, Washington, where star bartenders like Erik Hakkinen and Murray Stenson plied their trade. Keenan was an eager learner and a quick study, and he watched everything the bartenders did, and then went home and tried it out on his own.

DOWN THE HATCH tells the stories of the cocktails Keenan learned, both the histories and facts of the drinks themselves, along with his own encounters with them. Naturally, he also includes the recipes for the drinks so that you can make them yourself. He features the best-known classic cocktails, ranging from the Margarita and Manhattan, to the Tom Collins and Jack Rose. Unlike the recipes one finds through Google searches, these are legitimate, tried-and-true recipes that you can safely follow to create delicious drinks.

Keenan isn't a bartender or professional spirits taster. He's a writer, and not surprisingly, DOWN THE HATCH is a well written book. Kennan is a guy like you or me who spent the time learning how to make cocktails, and now he's sharing that knowledge with us. He's an amateur in the original sense of the word: someone who does something out of love. And his passion shines through.

Part recipe book, part history lesson, and part memoir, DOWN THE HATCH makes for a fun, informative, and very useful read. Be warned, however: just flipping through it is liable to make you thirsty. If you're settling in for the long haul -- and you definitely should -- you might make sure you have a drink close at hand.

Reviewed by David J. Montgomery
[...]

One person found this helpful

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Brian Light

For those who take their drinking seriously...

Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2014

...you'll be delighted to know that Vince Keenan does as well. I give this book a forest of up-raised thumbs! These essays engage, inform, and delight in equal parts like a well-crafted cocktail. Taken as a whole, this is very much a personal journey, but it has widespread appeal. It is rich in colorful details and the writing is never less than stellar. In addition to the personal anecdotes and insightful historical asides, Keenan is not afraid to occasionally tweak the classic or well-established recipes in ways that greatly enhance the complexion of a cocktail without compromising its integrity, which is liberating. And he is generous in acknowledging his inspirational sources, which has enriched my palette and subsequently expanded my cocktail library. This book is also a meditation, of sorts, on bars, gin-jockeys, and the broader culture and history of the cocktail experience. Whenever I stir up "The Red Hook" I will raise my glass in honor because for Vince Keenan, that's where it all began. Recommended for the connoisseur, the amateur, and all the other "Faces along the Bar."

Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2013

One great advantage of drinking at bars (the good bars, anyway) is leaning in to ask, "Tell me about what I'm drinking." Keenan takes the place of your friendly neighborhood bartender in this collection, laying out the story behind each drink in prose that's frequently funny and always entertaining. Every drink has a tale, sometimes more than one, and you'll sip your way through the evolution of gin, a visit from Wyatt Earp, and 19th century Boston politics by the end of the book. Be warned: by the time you reach the recipe, you'll be intrigued enough to go to great lengths to try it, even if it means buying a bottle of something you've never heard of.

Luckily, as Keenan assures us in the introduction, the book is arranged according to his own experimentation. Once a bottle is bought, it's likely to show up a few more times, giving you the chance to build your bar and expand your repertoire. This is not a comprehensive book (and don't go looking for vodka), but it is a book that will spur you to adventurous lengths, and give you a story to tell on the other side.

One person found this helpful

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Eddie Muller

The Perfect Cocktail Companion

Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2013

Seriously, this is THE perfect primer for the cocktail aficionado. It's not precious and pretentious like so many recent tomes celebrating the culture's "spirit"ual renaissance. Instead, Vince Keenan provides precisely what you want in a drinking companion--lively conversation, good humor, and enough edification that should you wake up hung over -- you'll still feel smarter and richer for the experience. Plus, he combines an adventurous spirit with practical common sense--you don't have to turn your cabinets into a full-scale cocktail lounge to enjoy the formulas herein. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

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