Saved by the Bellini: & Other 90s-Inspired Cocktails

by John deBary, Tiffani Thiessen (Foreword by)

Overview

Whether you were born in the ’90s or are longing for them, this themed cocktail book by acclaimed bartender John deBary is the perfect ’90s nostalgia gift for yourself or anyone else. Plus, it features a foreword by Saved by the Bell star Tiffani Thiessen, certifying Saved by the Bellini as a true testament to the decade! 

Get ready to stir up memories—and some hella delicious drinks. This cocktail book has 65+ awesome recipes that celebrate the decade’s greatest pop culture moments, from cassette tape tunes and video game consoles to after-school snacks and OMG-it’s-back-again fashion. Sip on the Gusher Crusher, down the Away Message, serve up the Heart of the Ocean, and finish it all with the Waterfall Chaser. Only in this ’90s book does TGIF stand for Thank God It’s Fizzy! Throwbacks to Pogs, the slap bracelet, Reebok Pumps, and even the ubiquitous “Got Milk?” ads are accompanied by spunky, funky pop-art illustrations that are so sick, you might want to tear out the pages to hang next to your Tiger Beat JTT posters. As if!  

It’s time to dust off your ’90s party decorations, stock up your liquor cabinet, mix up something delicious, and take a walk down memory lane with a cocktail recipe book that truly is da bomb!  

  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781454947080
Publisher:	Union Square & Co.
Publication date:	04/25/2023
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	103,747
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

John deBary is a PDT and Momofuku alum who was actually able to pull off a bowl cut for much of the ’90s. He writes about drinks for Bon Appétit, Thrillist, and Food Network, and has an ongoing video series with Food52. He’s also the cofounder of Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation, whose mission is to improve the quality of life of workers in the hospitality industry. Saved by the Bellini is deBary’s second cocktail recipes book; Drink What You Want: The Subjective Guide to Making Objectively Delicious Cocktails, his previous mixology book, was named one of the best of the year by Epicurious. He lives in Manhattan’s Lower East Side with his husband and two cats. 

Read an Excerpt

Foreword by Tiffani Thiessen

Ahhhhhh, the ’90s. Or, as I tell my kids, the glorious days of stone-washed denim, see-through phones that plugged directly into the wall, and the best compact music machine ever created: the Walkman.

Between the music, the movies, the fashion, and THE HAIR!, the ’90s feel like they were a lifetime ago, and yet so much of what we love from then seems like it never went away. It was an iconic decade for a lot of reasons, and I love any chance to revisit it. The ’90s have an extra-special place in my heart. I think it’s because our generation is obsessed with nostalgia. I am, too—and that’s why I’m so into this book!

I’m delighted that people like John deBary are paying such loving tribute to the ’90s, even thirty years later. It is a joy to revisit this magical decade in the form of these clever, delicious (and hilarious!) cocktail recipes.

I love using food and drinks to connect: with friends, family—even with ourselves. I’ve loved cooking and entertaining ever since I was little. I always made feasts and baked during the holidays with my mom and all the women in my family. Years later I had the opportunity to take the leap into unscripted television. My show Dinner at Tiffani’s was unlike anything I’d ever done before, but it showcased how I really love to spend my time—and heck, I got paid for it, too! I was honored to write my first cookbook, Pull Up a Chair, to be able to share my love of cooking with even more people. The book has a whole chapter on no-sweat entertaining. Particularly when it comes to cocktails, I’m inspired by the classics, but I’m also constantly thinking of ways I can reinvent them for fun occasions.

So you can see how Saved by the Bellini is a unique blend of my interests!

This book is a brilliant walk down memory lane, from the shows and movies we were watching to the games we were playing to the clothes we were sporting and even to the snacks we were eating after school. If you didn’t get your straw stuck in your CapriSun pouch, were you even a kid in the ’90s? The idea of being able to share these memories with an entirely new set of people today is wild—and super fun!

The Saved by the Bellini drink is my favorite, for obvious reasons, but the Ultra-Cosmopolitan brings me to a certain time and place, too. I am tempted to batch up the Ay Mockarena mocktail to start educating my kids on all these awesome references! The amazingly creative cocktails throughout this book make it clear that John loves the ’90s just as much as I do—and I bet you do, too. It’s kind of crazy to think that we all grew up in different places and had different experiences in our childhoods, but these shared pop culture experiences bring us all together.

My best advice would be to keep your special moments in the ol’ memory bank, because you’ll never know when you’ll want to cash them in later.

—Tiffani Thiessen

Editorial Reviews

Readers won’t be disappointed by the ’90s nostalgia the book evokes alongside top-notch drink-making techniques.” —Library Journal 

“Saved by the Bellini takes a playful dive into ’90s nostalgia and demonstrates deBary’s chops for original drink creation.” —Imbibe Magazine

“A surprisingly delicious way to relive '90s childhood memories.”— Daily Meal

 

From the Publisher

03/17/2023

This fun walk down memory lane from deBary (Drink What You Want) starts with a foreword by none other than Tiffani Thiessen from Saved by the Bell. As a cocktail guide, it naturally starts by providing all of the basics of getting a home bar up to speed. Liquors, mixers, and garnishes are all explained, along with the proper tools and basic steps on making drinks. Those who grew up in the '90s will likely recognize many of the references in the book, which is divided into drinks based on entertainment, toys and technology, music, fashion, and food and drinks that all saw their heyday in that era. Each recipe features a clever, informative write-up along with an illustration, though no actual pictures of finished cocktails. VERDICT Whether one decides to make the Sanderson Sister Sour (based on the 1993 classic film Hocus Pocus), the Apple Mac-Tini, the Salt-n-Pepa Lemonade, the Pumps (inspired by Marty McFly's sneakers in Back to the Future 2), or the Yabba Dabba Doo (a Flintstones Push Up drink), readers won't be disappointed by the '90s nostalgia the book evokes alongside top-notch drink-making techniques.—Whitney Bates-Gomez

Library Journal