Product Description

With dozens of years of experience as a master mixologist, and more than 250 wide-ranging seasonal cocktail recipes, Nick Mautone has gone well beyond the usual bartender's guide to offer dozens of unique and foolproof ideas for easy and successful entertaining at home.

In addition to covering all the basics of cocktail making, Nick shares his tried-and-true secrets for choosing the right drink for the right occasion, serving cocktails for a crowd, and pairing specific cocktails with specific foods. With Nick by your side, be your own party planner and confident bartender: planning ahead, creating your own signature cocktail, perfecting techniques for muddling, mixing, and floating, making the right cut—twists, zests, swirls, and wedges, plus homemade alternatives for garnishes, syrups, cordials, and brandies.

From the Buck to the Bitter Pill, this book provides a wealth of information, along with extras such as Tricks of the Trade (tips on and shortcuts for preparing and storing drinks), Bonus from the Bar (easy recipes that can be made with components of the drinks), and Straight Up (the last word on demystifying hard-to-find ingredients). Plus an entire chapter filled with tempting easy-to-make snacks and hors d'oeuvres that will complete your entertaining needs.

From nogs to grogs, martinis to manhattans, frappés to flips, and everything in between, Raising the Bar offers the right drink for the right occasion, morning, noon, and night...and the morning after. This is the better drink book that raises the bar with more than 100 colorful photographs and scores of helpful hints that will turn good home bartenders into great ones.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #323790 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Mautone, former manager of New York's Gotham Bar and Grill, and Gramercy Tavern, applies 20 years of fine-dining knowledge to the art of the cocktail, explaining how to perfect the Manhattan and the Martini, and bringing herbs, exotic fruits and other unpredictables into the realm of the highball. Beginning with chapters on bar basics and ingredients, Mautone addresses the science of balancing liquor and mixer, lectures on the proper size of ice cubes, and reveals that homemade grenadine is as simple as sugar, water and pomegranate juice. Fifty-two of the 250-plus offerings fall into the "Favorite Classic Cocktails" section, resplendent with standards like the Old-Fashioned and the Rusty Nail. Thus fortified, the rest of the book strives for, and often attains, a level of Falstaffian bliss. There's a Kaffir Lime Kocktail with honey and tequila, and a Whiskey and Ginger Muddle with dried apricots and fresh ginger awash in bourbon. A section on nogs features eggnog, mulled wines and a Chestnut Hot Chocolate with Frangelico. Experiments with herbs include the Rosmarino, with rosemary-infused vodka, and a Basil Martini, topped with a slice of sun-dried tomato. Wasabi turns up in an Asian Mary, taking the place of a Bloody's traditional horseradish. Mautone includes 15 nonalcoholic ades and punches, as well as snacks like Pumpkin Seed Popcorn and Bourbon-Bacon Bean Dip. Color photos throughout.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
Mautone, former manager of New York's Gotham Bar and Grill, and Gramercy Tavern, applies 20 years of fine-dining knowledge to the art of the cocktail, explaining how to perfect the Manhattan and the Martini, and bringing herbs, exotic fruits and other unpredictables into the realm of the highball. Beginning with chapters on bar basics and ingredients, Mautone addresses the science of balancing liquor and mixer, lectures on the proper size of ice cubes, and reveals that homemade grenadine is as simple as sugar, water and pomegranate juice. Fifty-two of the 250-plus offerings fall into the "Favorite Classic Cocktails" section, resplendent with standards like the Old-Fashioned and the Rusty Nail. Thus fortified, the rest of the book strives for, and often attains, a level of Falstaffian bliss. There's a Kaffir Lime Kocktail with honey and tequila, and a Whiskey and Ginger Muddle with dried apricots and fresh ginger awash in bourbon. A section on nogs features eggnog, mulled wines and a Chestnut Hot Chocolate with Frangelico. Experiments with herbs include the Rosmarino, with rosemary-infused vodka, and a Basil Martini, topped with a slice of sun-dried tomato. Wasabi turns up in an Asian Mary, taking the place of a Bloody's traditional horseradish. Mautone includes 15 nonalcoholic ades and punches, as well as snacks like Pumpkin Seed Popcorn and Bourbon-Bacon Bean Dip. Color photos throughout.
  (Publishers Weekly )

Review
"Readers will have as much fun preparing Nick's inspired creations as guests will have drinking them."

—Alan Katz, publisher, Cargo magazine