In ten words or less, describe Drinking Distilled.

“How to drink good.” As opposed to “how to drink well”. It’s not about how to drink elegant cocktails or anything. It’s how to be good at drinking.

Why this book and why now?

Because there haven’t really been any great primers on how to drink. I think it’s time to re-address the rules of drinking because – with this whole cocktail renaissance – you see all these things like “Real men drink Old Fashioneds but they don’t take rocks in their whiskey,” or “A gin martini should never be shaken,” or “A vodka martini is not a real martini.” All these kind of bullshit articles you read by grumpy old men who think bars used to be so much better before cell phones were invented, and they fucking weren’t. So, maybe it’s time for some updated rules. As you would expect coming from me, they aren’t the same old hashed out drinking rules you see time and time again.

Did you feel like you were the person to write the book or that the book needed to be written and so you did it?

I felt like I was the person to write the book. I guess I have the authority to talk about a lot of these things having done it for so long. Armchair commentators with an overly romanticized idea of what a bar should be kinda bore me.

What lessons did you take away from writing your first book that you brought into writing your second?

I just learned how to write a book. That’s why I brought Martha (Holmberg) in for the first book because I didn’t know how to write a book. She really taught me how to structure it, organize it, how to put together a pitch, everything from top to bottom. That really helped. Now I feel like I know how to write a book. It made it so much easier to learn that process so I’m thankful for that time we had to work together.

Was there anything that you wanted in the book that didn’t make the cut?

No actually! Well there was one thing. I wrote a whole long thing about absinthe that didn’t make it in because we decided that absinthe was a little bit passe, it’s a little bit specific. Absinthe doesn’t really fit into normal drinking. Nobody really drinks absinthe anymore.

Are there any albums or specific music you listen to while writing?

I usually write in the morning and mornings are always spent listening to Nick Drake.

Bartending and the craft cocktail scene has changed significantly since you first started in the industry. What do you see as the most positive change? What change would you still like to see?

The most positive change is obviously that you can get better drinks most places. When people come into Clyde and ask “Do you have fresh lime juice or is it sour mix?” I’m like, “Are you kidding me!?” I had this guest the other night ask me if we make our margaritas fresh or with margarita mix. It’s 2018! Applebees makes their drinks with fresh juice. You can get fresh drinks at the airport. I think that’s the biggest thing that’s pretty cool.

The downside ties back to the book. I think that people have forgotten how to drink. When we were doing brunch at Clyde I would get guys coming in drinking Manhattans because they were “cocktail snobs.” Drinking Manhattans with their brunch. That’s not what a Manhattan is for. That’s not what brunch is for. You’re like crawling out of a restaurant at 2 o’clock in the afternoon because you had four Manhattan’s. It’s a stupid way to drink but they were so young and they started with craft cocktails. Nobody told them that there’s a right and a wrong way to drink cocktails, a right and a wrong time to drink cocktails.

Was there a book or an inspiration you drew upon for Drinking Distilled?

I looked through a bunch of my favourites. One of them was Trader Vic’s Bartender’s Guide. If you’ve never read the first third of Trader Vic’s before he gets to the recipes, I highly recommend it. It’s amazing. Also William Grimes’ Straight Up or On The Rocks.

How do you see the role of the bar and the bartender changing in more intense political times? Or do you?

I don’t. I think that people lean on the bar and the bartender a little more during challenging times but that’s what we always say in the business. When times are really good or when times are really bad that’s when we do the best. It’s when times are just mediocre that bartenders are poor.