The American Bar

The classic bar guide that launched a generation of cocktail lovers is back—completely updated.

With its cloth binding evoking a Jazz Age guide to speakeasies and its charming illustrations that could have come from a period magazine, this most influential cocktail book is reissued in a newly updated edition. Spanning the cocktail spectrum from classic to contemporary, it includes all the information the cocktail lover or mixologist needs to create the perfect drink in a stylishly retro package, making it an elegant, sophisticated gift as well as an indispensable companion for home or professional entertaining.

With 500 recipes and an easy-to-use index arranged by drink categories, this bar book is replete with fascinating stories behind the genesis of each cocktail, its creators, and component liquors—as well as a guide to bartending equipment and a glossary of bar terms and measurements.

Charles Schumann, whose appreciation of design and drinks is legendary, is the ideal guide to the perfect drink. Based on the menus at his iconic establishments—Harry’s New York Bar, then Schumann’s American Bar, which later became simply Schumann’sBar—each recipe focuses on quality and balance.

With over 500 drinks, listed alphabetically, along with an easy-to-use drink index arranged by drink categories, it truly belongs in every mixologists collection and is an indispensable companion to entertaining.

Previous edition published by Abbeville in 1995 and won the New York Book Show Award and sold over 200,000 copies

Illustrated with hundreds of delightful vintage style line drawings with a carefully designed retro package that makes it handsome as well as a pleasure to peruse

Includes fascinating histories and names cocktails and their components, a handy guide to bartending equipment, as well as a glossary of international bar terms and measurements

Charles Schumann is an icon, and is very promotable and recognizable. He has also worked as a model for Yohji Yamamoto, Comme des Garçons, and Baldessarini, Hugo Boss’s luxury men’s-wear line, and he is very much part of the constellation of Rizzoli fashion, lifestyle, and celebrity authors