Harry Johnson’s Bartenders’ Manual

Harry Johnson’s Bartenders’ Manual (a reproduction of the 1900 edition) with a new introduction by Robert Hess.Softcover 288 pages.

Harry Johnson was a professional bartender for most of his life and along with Jerry Thomas was one of the first to write about his trade. Harry’s rather opinionated thoughts on the bartending profession and how to run a bar, which takes up the first third of the book, make for a fascinating insight in to the world of nineteenth century bars. He wasn’t afraid of boasting, describing one of his bars as “what was generally recognized to be the largest and finest establishment of the kind in this country”, but the advice is clearly spoken from the heart about a profession he really believes in.

The remainder of the book lists cocktail recipes in no real order, with an index of drinks by name thankfully appearing near the start should you want to quickly find a drink. Some of the recipes Harry chooses to list, like the “Brandy Straight”, don’t really require much more information than that in the title of the drink, but there are also plenty of very interesting sounding cocktails as well as classics like the Manhattan and Martini.

The quality of the reprint is excellent with every page of the original book reproduced without alteration, including the original cover and spine which lists a price of $1.00 for the book. The only additions are a few pages at the back advertising The Bitter Truth, Drinkology and Le Lion in Hamburg, all of which are well designed to match the style of the adverts from 1900.
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NOTE: This book is in extremely limited supply!