The Dead Rabbit Drinks Manual

September 7, 2015
No animals were harmed in the creation of this collection of classically inspired nogs, fizzes, smashes, and toddies. Dead Rabbit is a downtown Manhattan drinking establishment, considered by many critics to be one of the world’s best places to sip a flip. The name comes from the Irish gang that once controlled that neighborhood, and Muldoon, the bar’s founder, and McGarry, its manager and bartender, hail from Belfast, Ireland, where they ran the prestigious Merchant Bar. The first 50 pages of this collection are given over to their story of learning the ropes, making it big, and risking it all in America. If it is not quite Angela’s Ashes, it is a compelling read for bar-history aficionados. The drink recipes are all original variations of old-timey potables, broken out into 11 chapters that follow a time line across the mid-19th and early-20th centuries. They range from a low-key communal punch to a highfalutin gin and vermouth bijou with a couple dashes of absinthe. Despite all the European influence and Americana, the ingredient lists are often vast and obscure. For instance, an 1862 mix of hard cider and rum known as a stone fence is reimagined here with Calvados, bitters, crème de poire, green chartreuse, and cidre bouché. But for dedicated mixologists, this will only serve to encourage. Agent: Allen O’Shea Literary Agency.

Starred review from August 1, 2015

Muldoon, Jack McGarry, and Ben Schaffer's manual begins with the story of Muldoon's unlikely journey from pulling pints in rough Belfast pubs to the vanguard of the craft-cocktail renaissance. Along with McGarry, whom he met at his award-winning Merchant Hotel bar in Belfast, Muldoon crossed the ocean to open the Dead Rabbit in New York in 2013, with the bar named for the gang that once prowled the local lower Manhattan neighborhood. Despite the seriousness of the cocktail talent, both bar and book feel relaxed. Many familiar elements of modern cocktail books are here, from the photographs of drinks streaming from a frosty shaker to the notes on glassware and ingredients. But the glasses are a clue that this is no simple retread of the classics; alongside rocks, glasses, and coupes, the Dead Rabbit's shelves contain porcelain cups, punch bowls, and proper Irish coffee glasses (six ounces, tulip-shaped, no handle.) The drinks are historic with a twist, adventurous, and clearly described, and the chapters make a poetic list: "Fixes and Daisies," "Cups and Cobblers," "Juleps and Smashes," "Flips," "Possets," and "Nogs." VERDICT Like the best Irish bartender, this book is warm, welcoming, full of great stories, and dedicated to excellent drinks.--Joanna Scutts, Astoria, NY

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2015
Some say boozing has this in common with sex: doing it is best, but there's also talking about it, thinking about it, and reading about it. These three guysthe mind, money, and muscle behind the Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog, Manhattan's well-reviewed two-story watering holeat least offer the chance to read about it. For most of us, what else can we do with drink recipes that require vanilla-bean soda and aveze gentiane? This is a drinks manual in the grandand, till lately, dormanttradition of romantic drink books like The Gentleman's Companion from 1939. There's a pattern: the mixologist's struggle to establish himself, some engaging history (Robert Herrick wrote a poem about the ale-based lambswool wassail ), and then the intricate recipes. Most home bartenders will read it, dream of drinks like the Baltimore eggnog and the porterberry, but stall at the elaborate preparations and outre ingredients. Some, like the homemaker confronting a recipe calling for Moroccan radish-root, will seek to adapt. The book's real function, though, is as a fantasy. Like the Playboy Bartender's Guide. Or Playboy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)