Shaken and Stirred: Through the Martini Glass and Other Drinking Adventures

By William L. Hamilton

William L. Hamilton loves a good gimlet. Rose's and lime. Straight up. Perfectly iced. Make the glass pretty too. "It ruined my reputation for thinking before I speak," he writes of that love. "I accept the trade-off." Like Lewis Carroll's Alice, when Hamilton sees it, he drinks it -- and tells the incredible tale.

In "Shaken and Stirred," his biweekly Sunday Styles column, now an original book of his drinking adventures, the intrepid New York Times reporter offers a gimlet-eyed look at contemporary culture through the panoptic view of a cocktail glass. From the venerable martini to the young Dirty Jane, Hamilton shares his tip on the sip.

You hold in your hands a guide to "how it goes down." Not a cocktail manual or a Baedeker to the bar scene but a drinker's guide to drinking. These are four-ounce adventures of cocktails and the people who make them, from the bartenders and chefs to the patrons, the politicians and the power players of the liquor industry.

There are tales of the Champagne high life, the Long Island Iced Tea low life; men like Dr. Brown and his celery soda, and women like Eve and her Apple Martini. Hamilton's weekly Runyanesque rounds cover all the watering holes and their poisons, from the East Side's Southside to the Incredible Hulk in the Bronx, and monitors the latest trends, from the ultra-premium vodka wars to the Red Bull market. Shaken and Stirred is a report on a popular culture that comes alive after five, when the mood turns social and the moment is sweet (or sour, or bitter, or dry).

Hamilton has also picked up the best (or the most unbelievable) cocktail recipes from bars, lounges and restaurants in New York City and beyond. There is common sense and creativity in the classics, and new inventions with their eye on the prize, such as the Huckleberry Ginn and the Bleeding Heart."drink me," said the bottle in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Hamilton has, in every instance, and bottled his thoughts in sixty-four essays that are as readable as they are drinkable. Mix a gimlet, or a Minnesota Anti-Freeze, or a Gibson or a Bone. And spend a night in, on the town.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060740442
• ISBN13: 9780060740443
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Rye coctails, with a twist

This is a lovely little book. In just a few, briskly-written pages Mr. Hamilton delivers a heady cocktail of information. He gives us many wonderful (and often exclusive) drink recipes, a guided tour of the contemporary bar scene around New York, and wonderful slice-of-time reflection on the people who make it all happen.

Shaken, not stirred

A post-election bonanza. Bring on the swizzle sticks and the shaker. We're gonna' need this. I've been clipping Mr. Hamilton's pieces for a couple of years and this is a welcomed compilation of his best offerings. He has a yen for the art of the bar and a true sense of elagance. This is a winner. I plan to work my way through the volume with dispatch. Now all I need are some accompanying lines; "Come here often", "You look familiar", "My, what an elegant cocktail", etc. Sidle up to the bar and enjoy. And make it a double.

How to Face the Next Four Years

What could be more perfect? A book you can drink and read at the same time! What Susan Orlean found in Orchids, NY TIMES columnist Hamilton has found in the perfect Gimlet: the meaning of life. Even better than Hamilton's dry and dirty war/bar stories from his New York City beat is the childish glee you'll get while mixing mysterious potions made from all those odd liquor bottles you've never bought before. Way more fun than popping a cork! The enlightenment that comes from reading Hamilton's saucy prose and sipping your new cocktail is not sanctioned by the Religious Right, AA, or Mr. Rogers, but who's to say in this topsy turvy world that a well-made, well-shared cocktail may not be one of the few answers we have?