PREFACE

It was the winter of 2006 in New York City, and I was somewhere between a college student and an adult, finishing up my degree by day but mostly enjoying the city by night. One cold, snowy evening, almost certainly half in the bag already, I sought refuge in a bar on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Leroy Street. It was located inside a miniscule flatiron building with a door at its apex that opened to a stairway leading down, the chunk-chunk-chunk of cocktail shakers and the sound of a trumpet inviting me in. The details of the night are a bit fuzzy from there. I remember a tiny coupe being set down in front of me, a twist of lemon expressed across its top, and the bright aroma as my lips touched the edge of frozen glass and the velvety liquid of a Gin Martini came forth.

That sip changed everything.

My first trip to Little Branch planted a seed in my soul, one that sprouted from hobbyist-level interest in cocktails and spirits and quickly grew into my life’s study. I soon found myself scouring the city for great drinks, eventually landing on a stool at Death & Co in early 2008. I immediately vowed to work there; not only did the bar serve impeccable cocktails, it did so while looking toward the future and making every guest feel welcome. Three years later, I became a partner at Death & Co, and the path toward putting these words on paper was well under way. Our first book, Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails, documented the first years of that special bar and all its creativity. This book reflects our evolution beyond those walls on East Sixth Street, extending to our work opening other bars and consulting on cocktail programs around the world.

For many people, the first strategy in studying cocktails is to memorize a bunch of recipes. However, it’s a well-known (but rarely acknowledged) secret among bartenders that almost every cocktail in existence today can be traced back to a handful of seminal drinks. Many classic cocktails are organized into “families,” or groups of drinks cut from the same cloth. This allows us to grasp a handful of recipes that connect to many more due to their similarities. While that helps in memorizing lots of “specs” (our lingo for shorthand recipes) and understanding their shared DNA, the approach has always felt a bit empty to me—it only scratches the surface of truly understanding cocktails. A bartender may know that a Martini and Manhattan are similar, but does that bartender understand why the recipes call for different vermouths, sometimes in different proportions? Memorizing families of drinks is helpful, but it does little to empower an understanding of why variations on a handful of formulas work (well or otherwise).

Over the past decade and a half, I’ve studied cocktails as a bartender working behind the stick, as an imbiber perched on any bar stool that would have me, and as a student with my nose stuck in a library of books on spirits, techniques, and the philosophies of great drinks. Those early visits to Little Branch and Death & Co (and so many other bars) were more than inspiring—they were also perplexing. To a newcomer, cocktails are mysterious potions concocted from a seemingly endless collection of bottles and poured into tiny glasses with extravagant garnishes. Throw in the theatrics of a performative bartender, and the craft of making cocktails can be overwhelming. For those who are new to mixed drinks, the world of cocktails can intimidate as much as it can inspire. That you’re reading this book means you’re inspired. Stick with it; we’ve got your back.

As my colleagues and I have learned more about cocktails, we’ve begun to think of drinks less as families and more as intuitive progressions arising from a handful of well-known templates: the Old-Fashioned, Martini, Daiquiri, Sidecar, Highball, and Flip. This book seeks to teach the internal mechanics of all cocktails using these six templates to demystify recipes and inspire creativity. Through years of training bartenders and opening bars, we’ve come to the realization that cocktail makers can enjoy a more intuitive relationship with the almost endless creative opportunities that a well-stocked back bar provides. Some bartenders have taken to studying the work of past masters to inform and drive their understanding of cocktails, while others have broken down the quantifiable data of various drinks’ composition with scientific precision. While we find it important to study the classics and understand the scientific reasons for a great cocktail, our perspective involves both. After you have mastered the classics and have an understanding of the physical (cocktail) universe, you can apply that knowledge. With this book, we want to help you understand how cocktails truly, fundamentally work and help you use that knowledge to understand the ever-expanding universe of cocktails so that you can add your own new creations to it.

Cheers,
Alex Day