BAR BOOKS

Seventy years ago, precisely on April 13, 1953, Ian Fleming’s novel Casino Royale appeared on the shelves of bookstores in the United Kingdom. In it, the author introduced James Bond to the world, whom he characterized a few years later as: ‘A tough guy. Secret agent. A man who is merely a silhouette.’ 007 continues […] More

I need to remind you again that the title of this cycle of reviews is a paraphrase of the unforgettable book by Ladislav Mnacko, “Delayed Reports”. Why do I need to do that? Because this time, we’re reviewing a quite recent publication. Jim Meehan, known to many readers as a bartender at Pegu Club and […] More

Gary “Gaz” Regan (1951 – 2019) used the definite article “the” in the title of his subtle monograph about one of the two most beloved cocktails among bartenders, The Negroni. This is unusual; the overwhelming majority of cocktails do without it. While we can’t ask Gaz about his choice, the cocktail’s longstanding global popularity likely […] More

The TV series “Downton Abbey,” a British-American production comprising fifty-two episodes across six seasons, captivated audiences from September 2010 to Christmas 2015 (followed by two standalone films, with the latter premiering in Slovak cinemas around April this year). It narrates the tale of Abbey estate owners, their staff, and friends from 1912 to 1926. Considering […] More

Imbibe!, penned by David Wondrich, was released in the United States in November 2007. Initially added to my library shortly after, I promised myself to delve into it soon. However, perhaps the title – IMBIBE! – deterred me, as the figurative meaning of the word escaped me. I now lean towards the belief that the […] More

The flood of popular instructional guides within the cocktail culture bifurcates into two noticeably asymmetrical streams. The first, substantially dominant, is characterized by an almost tiresomely uniform pattern: brief mentions of tools (typically without detailed usage instructions), concise descriptions of key ingredients, a few words on cocktail optics, and then a list of recipes supplemented […] More