If you would like to infuse the drinks you mix at home with a certain panache, who better to guide you than the bartenders at New York’s most famous restaurant? With The Four Seasons Book of Cocktails, virtuosos Greg Connolly, Charles Corpion, and John Varriano invite you to try your hand at duplicating their creations. They also encourage you to drop by Park Avenue at 52nd Street for a taste of the unique Four Seasons experience. If you’re unable to visit in person, this book is the next best thing.
The Four Seasons first opened its doors in 1959, and to instant acclaim. The restaurant is housed in the Seagram Building, the vision of world-renowned architect Mies van der Rohe and an essential stop on any tour of Manhattan architectural treasures. Like the building itself, the restaurant’s interior—the work of architect Philip Johnson—enjoys landmark status. When granting the designation in October 1989, the chairman of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission described the restaurant, with its soaring but spare expanses of French walnut and Italian marble, as “one of the most elegantly refined and beautifully proportioned and richly created spaces in the modern movement.“ Sprinkled among the thousand-plus recipes in this book are glimpses of the beauty and history of the quarters where Greg, Charles, and John work their magic—how the Seagram Building and The Four Seasons came to be (An American Landmark); theories on why the 25-foot-high beaded curtains in the Grill and Pool Rooms mysteriously began to ripple as soon as they were installed (The Magic Curtains); how a 22-by-18-foot tapestry by Pablo Picasso found a home in the restaurant (Paging Pablo Picasso); and more.
Over the past three decades, The Four Seasons has flourished under the guidance of Managing Partners Alex von Bidder and Julian Niccolini, whose restaurant is known as much for its top-flight cuisine as its ambience. A first-time customer might be surprised to learn that a dining establishment so amiable and serene was the birthplace of the power lunch. It was also the site of President John F. Kennedy’s dinner for his forty-fifth birthday before setting off for Madison Square Garden, where Marilyn Monroe (also no stranger to the restaurant) serenaded him with her now-legendary “Happy Birthday, Mr. President.” Famous names notwithstanding, The Four Seasons Grill Room bar is a place where people from all walks of life join in the conviviality and feel right at home.
FOUR SEASONS MIXOLOGY
This book—a new incarnation of The Ultimate Bartender’s Guide: 1000 Fabulous Cocktails from The Four Seasons Restaurant—adds scores of new drink recipes to the mix. And the qualities that made the original a best seller remain intact: the unique twist given to cocktails, be they classic or brand-new; bits of expert advice; and notes on the origins of spirits and liqueurs. The “Your Home Bar” and “The Perfect Drink” chapters help you get off on the right foot, with instructions for everything from stocking a home bar to shaking a drink to garnishing it. At book’s end are “Bar Bites” from The Four Seasons kitchens—seasonal hors d’oeuvre to serve at parties or special dinners.
At the heart of the book are the wondrous creations of the bartenders, native New Yorkers all. Charles Corpion (far left) followed in the footsteps of his father, who tended bar at New York’s Copacabana in the 1950s. Head bartender Greg Connolly (right) was enshrined in the Bartender’s Hall of Fame but modestly says he’s “a husband and father first.” John Varriano (center) is a successful painter who became a bartender back in his “starving artist” days—and has a love of opera to boot. (Some of his artwork is featured in this book.) Together, the men have more than half a century of bartending experience, the fruits of which they now invite you to enjoy.