6 Father’s Day Books for the Dad Who Likes a Good Drink

The PDT Cocktail Book, by Jim Meehan
If you’ve never had to walk through a phone booth in a hot dog joint to get an expertly handcrafted cocktail, then you’re missing out. PDT (short for Please Don’t Tell) is the formerly top-secret speakeasy hidden inside Crif Dogs in New York City’s East Village. In his book, PDT’s mastermind and top mixologist, Jim Meehan, takes you behind the scenes and deep into the bar’s drink menu. In addition to the 304 cocktail recipes, you’ll find original Crif’s hot dog recipes (they serve the dogs at the bar through a window between the two establishments) and pro tips on bar design, technique, and barroom etiquette.

The World Atlas of Wine, by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson
When a book goes into its seventh edition in 42 years, you know it’s indispensable. The world of wine is so wide and deep, you need an exhaustively researched reference guide like this one to approach it in earnest. With markets growing, tastes changing, and new varietals and growing regions gaining traction every year, Johnson and Robinson had their work cut out for them. Taking the “landscape of the vine” and the “link between fruit and soil” as its inspiration, the atlas is organized by region and subregion, with sophisticated, highly readable text and detailed maps highlighting notable producers and other sites of oenophilic interest.

Shake: A New Perspective on Cocktails, by Eric Prum and Josh Williams
Shake’s authors created the Mason jar cocktail shaker from a Kickstarter campaign. That same laid-back, can-do attitude extends to their new book, whose motto is, “Cocktails should be fun. Cocktails should be simple. Cocktails should be social.” To bring recipes from the lounge to your living room—or picnic blanket— Prum and Williams keep it easy (a maximum of five ingredients) and pictorial (because it’s hard to read when you’re two Cucumber Rickeys deep). After a brief intro on stocking a bar and mastering cocktail basics, recipes are grouped by Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, encouraging use of seasonal, local ingredients.

American Whiskey, Bourbon & Rye: A Guide to the Nation’s Favorite Spirit, by Clay Risen
Baseball, apple pie, whiskey: all classic American pleasures, and now Risen, a New York Times editor, has written a reference guide devoted solely to domestic expressions of the third, America’s favorite spirit. Encyclopedic assessments of over 200 brands, from grocery store labels to the most rarefied small batches available, include personal and often amusing tasting notes (“It has power, but it’s gentle, like Muhammad Ali petting a kitten”) aimed at the curious as much as the connoisseur. All is grounded in an introductory lesson in whiskey’s history, production, and tasting.

Bitters: A Spirited History of a Class Cure-All, by Brad Thomas Parsons
Many bartenders believe bitters (pungent, aromatic liquors flavored with herbs, spices, and botanicals used to enhance cocktails and “aid digestion”) are the difference between a just-okay cocktail and a life-changing cocktail, and after reading this book, you’ll agree. After a “brief” 16-page history of the magical elixir, from its medicinal origins as a hangover cure to its current turn in the foodie spotlight, Parsons offers over a dozen bitters recipes, an abundance of cocktail recipes, ways to use bitters in the kitchen, and more suggested reading.

Kevin Zraly Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: 30th Anniversary Edition, by Kevin Zraly
Cellar master Kevin Zraly opened his Windows on the World Wine School in the eponymous restaurant on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center in 1976. That famed restaurant did not survive the 2001 terrorist attacks, but Zraly, his school, and his book, originally published in 1985, did. Now, he’s updated it for a new generation. Divided into eight “classes” dedicated to red or white and classic wine-growing regions, he starts readers with the bare basics and builds knowledge from there. Included are almost 300 new recommendations for wines under $30 and smartphone tags allowing users to watch video clips, so you never have to mispronounce Gewürztraminer again.
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