Bartending for Dummies 
"A must for all the 'do it yourself' bartenders."-Charles Chop, United States Bartenders Guild
"Who better to write Bartending For Dummies than America's best known and funniest bartender, Ray Foley."-Bill Samuels Jr., President of Maker's Mark Distillery
First published in 1997, Bartending For Dummies has helped hundreds of thousands solve the mysteries of mixology-and remains one of the top-selling bartending guides, week after week. Now, bartender extraordinaire Ray Foley has updated his classic guide, making it even more essential to anyone who entertains. This updated edition now offers recipes for today's trendiest cocktails, such as the Metropolitan and the Apple Martini. It features the latest drinks with flavored vodkas and rums. And it delivers expanded coverage of single-malt Scotch whiskies and wines from around the world. Best of all, the book continues to include all the features that have made it so popular over the years: an A-to-Z recipe guide to nearly 1,000 cocktails and shooters, unbeatable tips on outfitting a home bar and mixing cocktails like a pro, and savvy guidance on selecting liquors, wines, and other libations. It's just what people need to mix up great drinks and have a blast!
Ray Foley (Basking Ridge, NJ) has been a bartender for more than 20 years. He is the Publisher and founder of Bartender magazine (150,000 circulation) and Bartender.com (2.5 million hits per month) and is the author of The Ultimate Cocktail Book, The Ultimate Cocktail Book II, The Ultimate Little Shooter Book, and The Ultimate Little Martini Book, among others.
Reviews
When I throw a party, and our college parties are usually big with 65 or more people, we go all out and things get hectic behind the bar with dozens of people all clamoring for something different. Bartending for Dummies really comes in handy time after time, with many of the most popular drink recipes available at a moment's glace, in logical, alphabetized order. The look-up is fast and quick, and the instructions are quite easy to follow. This is especially useful for when you have dozens of people throughout the night who, when asked what they want, simply reply with, "I don't know," or, "Make me something that tastes good." While these responses are aggravating, and totally unproductive, this book serves as a great reference of on-the-fly drinks to make for these indecisive individuals.
For pre-party preparations, the front of the book is filled with information on everything from cutting limes the proper way to buying enough rum, or vodka for a predetermined number of guests. The numbers, math, and money tabulations I have found to be accurate enough to swear by, and often helpful in a myriad of party-planning adventures. The book also has a number of charts depicting types of alcoholic volumes, what some of the terminology means, and even an informative list of calories per kind of alcoholic beverage.
The book has a couple drawbacks, as almost everything does. For one thing, the author tends to use a few lower-quality alcohols in certain popular drinks that should never be used. Using these lower qualities, and sub-par products detract from the eminence of an otherwise first-rate beverage. A second criticism is that some of the drink recipes are not what the vast majority of the world believes them to be. Slight variations in amount, sequence of mixing, and kinds of alcohol used within these drinks I find suspect.
However, the information on the main categories of alcohols, their history, production methods, place of origin, and most popular nomenclature I found to be quite fascinating. The research seemed impeccable, with well-documented and respectable sources. The chapter on kinds of glassware and their uses provided a layman with tons of useful facts to help them make informed decisions on what kinds of glasses to stock your bar with and serve different drinks within.
While Bartending for Dummies may be considered light reading, inconsequential, and contrived to experts in the field, this demographic is hardly this book's intended audience. I, a nonprofessional and do-it-myselfer, have found the book to be a boon time and again, at party after party. Its setup is easy to follow, coherent and consistent, with humor at times, and an all-round indispensable tool for any home-bartender.
A lot of the recipes given were incorrect. Certain drinks like an Old-fashioned, and a Sex on the Beach should not be wrong. Also, I noticed that he had ten or fifteen drinks featuring Absolut Vodka. Absolut Vodka is a very low-rated vodka, and should never be involved in a recipe for a good drink. Crystal Palace or 5 o'clock vodka would have sufficed just fine.
Half of the book has bar recipes, but you can easily find those on the internet. On the other hand, they are all conglomerately there and easy to flip through. Foley does spend some time on the history of the "well liquors" and that's kind of neat to know about that.
My recommedation: buy it if you're starting your own bar, but wait until the price drops. Don't if you've worked in or around a bar. Take it from an expert...