A COCKTAIL OF AUTHORS: Readings by Three Best-Selling Writers About Booze!

New York Times editor and Larchmont resident Steve Reddicliffe, author of the best selling book, The Essential New York Times Book of Cocktails (Cider Mill Press, October 2015), will lead a panel discussion and reading at the Larchmont Public Library about cocktails. Reddicliffe will be joined on the panel by Robert Simonson, author of A Proper Drink (Ten Speed Press, September, 2016), and Frank Caiafa, author of The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book (Penguin Books, May, 2016). Don’t miss this unusual opportunity to sample the best writing about mixed drinks, bar culture, and the food that goes best with your spirits!

Sunday, November 20, at 4:00pm, in the Larchmont Village Center located directly behind the Larchmont Public Library at 121 Larchmont Avenue. Refreshments will be available at 3:30pm and cocktails will be served at the conclusion of the program. The program is made possible by the Friends of the Larchmont Public Library.

The cocktail hour is once again one of America’s most popular pastimes and one of our favorite ways to entertain. In The Essential New York Times Book of Cocktails, Steve Reddicliffe, the “Quiet Drink” columnist for The New York Times, brings his signature voice and expertise to a collection of delicious recipes from bartenders from everywhere, especially New York City. Classics like the Martini, the Old-Fashioned, the Manhattan, the French 75, the Negroni, as well as favorites from the new generation of elixirs borne of the craft-distilling boom.

In addition to the "Quiet Drink" column, Reddicliffe is also The New York Times deputy Travel editor. Before joining The Times in 2004, he was the editor-in-chief of TV Guide and Parenting magazines. He also has been an editor at Entertainment Weekly, Self and Us. A resident of Larchmont, he is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin.

Robert Simonson’s, A Proper Drink, is the first-ever book to tell the full, unflinching story of the contemporary craft cocktail revival. An award-winning writer, Robert Simonson interviewed more than 200 key players from around the world, and the result is a rollicking (if slightly tipsy) story of the characters--bars, bartenders, patrons, and visionaries--who in the last 25 years have changed the course of modern drink-making. The book also features a curated list of about 40 cocktails--25 modern classics, plus an additional 15 to 20 rediscovered classics and classic contenders--to emerge from the movement.

Simonson, journalist and author, is one of the leading authorities on spirits and cocktail culture in the United States. Called “our man in the liquor-soaked trenches” by the New York Times, he has written extensively about cocktails, spirits, bars, and bartenders for the Times, as well as GQ, Wine Enthusiast, Wine Advocate, Imbibe, Edible Manhattan and Edible Brooklyn, and Time Out New York. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Frank Caiafa—bar manager of the legendary Peacock Alley bar in the Waldorf Astoria, which opened in 1893—stirs in recipes, history, and how-to while serving up a heady mix of the world’s greatest cocktails. In The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book, you’ll learn to easily prepare pre-Prohibition classics such as the original Manhattan, or daiquiris just as Hemingway preferred them. Caiafa also introduces his own award-winning creations, including the Cole Porter, an enhanced whiskey sour named for the famous Waldorf resident.

Frank Caiafa has been an integral part of the Waldorf Astoria since its restoration in 2005. His inventive use of house-made infusions, liqueurs and fresh ingredients was a forerunner of cocktail culture in NYC. Caiafa’s hospitality consulting and management enterprise, Handle Bars NYC Inc., has been called upon for its expertise in projects both in New York City and nationwide. His creative cocktail recipes have been published in the New York Times, Wine Enthusiast, Time Out New York, The Bartender’s Gin Compendium, The Annual Manual for Bartenders, and 901 Very Good Cocktails, among other publications.