Comments on: Book Review: Straight Up or On the Rocks

By: Kim da Cook

Kim da Cook — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:43:47 +0000

This sounds like a great book something to give a man who has everything

By: keith waldbauer

keith waldbauer — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 20:18:54 +0000

The best book of its kind, perhaps the only one of its kind. I’ve read it three times already (not such a stupendous feat). And some great recipes in the back to boot.

By: Gabriel

Gabriel — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:36:14 +0000

Hey Michael! I tried to be careful by saying ‘listed on the cover as…’ since I was unaware of his current status when I wrote this up. So yeah, folks, he’s not there in that capacity anymore, so stop calling him that!

Good point on the need for a revision and that’s one of the reasons, besides it not being the perfect book for me , that I gave it four-and-a-half versus five stars.

By: Michael Dietsch

Michael Dietsch — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:23:57 +0000

Great book. I’d consider it an essential part of any cocktail library, in fact.

And just to touch on a minor point from your review; what you’ve reviewed is a revised edition and, at the time the revision was published, Grimes was restaurant critic at the Times. He no longer writes in that capacity; now he’s a book reviewer for the paper.

I just want to forestall anyone from misunderstanding your review and therefore attributing the book to “Times food critic William Grimes,” since he ain’t such no more.

I would actually like to see another revision since some of the ingredients he mentions as unavailable (orange bitters, for example) have come back on the market.