Sasha Petraske's Legendary Cocktails: A Guide from the Master Bartender

Daniel Muse: This book is so carefully put together, that even a complete novice can make speakeasy-caliber cocktails. I've made about half the entries in the book and haven't found a single dud. The specific details are all there... the glassware, the ingredients, the tools, even the type of ice and the shaking technique. If you can follow basic instructions you will get excellent results.

I love the narrative style of the book as well. As a big fan of speakeasy bars and cocktail lounges, it is super enjoyable reading the notes from all of these notable bartenders at the heart of the movement. You learn about the cocktails themselves, how they came to be, and a lot about the ideals and philosophies of each bartender and their relationship with Sasha. This book is an excellent tribute and an instant classic.

United States on Apr 10, 2021

Andrzej Bedekier: My boyfriend has worked in the hospitality industry for years and is very passionate about cocktail making. I bought him this book for Christmas to add to his collection of cocktail books and he loved it. A great buy, very pleased.

United Kingdom on Dec 31, 2020

Derek PfluegerDerek Pflueger: As I gingerly reclined in my hammock, Regarding Cocktails in hand, I anticipated getting through a few chapters of what I thought to be a cocktail encyclopedia of sorts. I quickly realized I was reading a romance novel. This wonderful book is a portrayal of the the love Sacha had for his craft, his bar family and his patrons. Every foreword of each cocktail recipe speaks volumes of the love his bar family had for Sacha and Georgette. Finally, throughout this book Georgette’s love for Sacha drips from every page. I read this book from cover to cover, anticipating the new page like a 10 year old boy waiting for Christmas morning. As a mixologist and aspiring bar owner, I will treasure this masterpiece and Sacha’s Rules will govern my future chapter of my entrepreneurial endeavors. Cheers 🥂

United States on Jul 24, 2020

Vincent Roy: Great and easy cocktail, intresting to read, hard cover, real gentlemen book

Canada on Jun 09, 2020

A.R.: Anyone lucky enough to have gone to Milk & Honey in Eldridge St in NYC back in the day will appreciate the wonderful Sasha Petraske (who died tragically young). It's well written and entertaining, and the passion and attention to detail shine through. (There is a chapter dedicated exclusively to ice, in a hipster artisan way rather than a Diffords Guide way.) It's also a great looking book that feels good in the hand. Perfect gift for the cocktail lover in your life.

United Kingdom on May 17, 2020

Amazon Customer: Just yes, yes! The problem isn't the book, it's resources. But if you're looking for a reason to stock your home bar, this is it!

Canada on Apr 21, 2020

William Capodanno: Over the last two years, I've begun to spend a lot of time as a self-taught mixologist at home and purchased most of the highly rated and recommended cocktail books. This has without a doubt become my favorite and go to book when I'm looking to make a new cocktail. I recently hosted a cocktail party and of the nine drinks on my menu, 6 of them came from this book. While a lot of other books rely on glossy pictures, this is a welcome change, focused on the recipes and brief descriptions from Sasha's wife and friends about the impetus behind each cocktail. One thing that I really appreciate is the fact that this book doesn't include tons of recipes requiring a lot of miscellaneous or unique items to make. If you have a fairly well stocked home bar, you can make almost anything in here.

United States on Jan 02, 2018

hblnk: This tribute to the owner of the mythical cocktail bar Milk and Honey is a very useful book. It is also beautifully designed.
However the editing is imprecise and sloppy. Just too many recipes suffer from poor proofreading. One recipe mixes up tequila and mezcal, another leaves out a key ingredient. The conversion of metric volumes and ounces is wrong in the fundamentally important chapter on ice and water dilution.
One typo had me spooked: it calls for range slices, which should be orange slices.
Maybe buyers should wait for an improved edition and stick meanwhile with the iPhone app that explains the same recipes.
But still, very few books are as eloquent on civilized appreciation of alcohol.

Germany on Mar 03, 2017

TheNecromancer: "Recalling certain gentlemen of other days, who made of drinking one of the pleasures of life - not one of its evils..."
This inscription, borrowed (I believe) from The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book and hung in the M&H restroom, summarizes the halcyon days of one of the Great Spaces in NYC.
While this book does capture some of that magic, it is equally exceptional in the brilliant simplicity of its recipes. Unlike many cocktail tomes available, the recipes in Regarding Cocktails are almost all accommodated by a well-stocked home bar and competent tender. Buy the other books for the coffee table, but keep this one at the bar.
For those of you who had the Pleasure of hours spent in the low lights and easy conversations of M&H and "proved able to carry it" join me in a toast of thanks to Georgette,Dale, Robert and the rest who contributed.
To Sasha: your example is commended to your posterity. RIP.

United States on Dec 15, 2016

Thomas C.: No name-dropping, no star f-cking.

If those words carry meaning for you, then so too do the drink recipes in this book. If not yet, for the reader of this book they soon will. Here, at last, is Milk & Honey resurrected on the page. One can, if they were lucky, recall the short, candlelit bar and the quiet excitement of ducking in off of a Chinatown street and being served essentially the perfect drink for whatever your palate in what was the most exciting bar in the world during its time. The book is not just Milk & Honey, of course. It is Little Branch and the John Dory Oyster Bar and Dutch Kills and White Star and everywhere he touched and everyone he worked with gathered up in a collection of recipes and elegiac words.
Sasha Petraske left the world too young, but as an old soul he left behind an entire culture of service and drink preparation that lives on in his many acolytes. This book collects, essentially, the favorite recipes of Sasha and those who worked with and for him, each introduced with a short paragraph explaining the drinks background and meaning and seasonality. The framing idea of the book is the framing idea of mixology as Sasha and his...

United States on Oct 26, 2016