GREG BOEHM was galled when prices of out-of-print cocktail books skyrocketed along with the popularity of cocktails, a familiar gripe of any drink enthusiast who has been ensnared by the anachronistic charm of old bar books. “Online auction sites have gone insane, to the point where it wasn’t really fun anymore,” he said. “I’ve watched prices for old cocktail books double in the last year. I’ve seen books that are not good, are not in good condition, aren’t first editions and aren’t hard to find sell for four or five hundred dollars. I found it upsetting.” But rather than cry into his Corpse Reviver over the scarcity of these classics, Mr. Boehm decided to do something about it. He is producing facsimiles of the books himself...(story continued) Image courtesy of the New York Times

Cocktails of yore; It's not that they don't make tomato wine like they used to--it's that they don't make it at all. Now, the lack of a good recipe can no longer be an excuse National Post Wednesday, July 30, 2008 Page: AL6 Section: Arts & Life Byline: Adam McDowell Source: National Post Greg Boehm is reminded of a lost world as he strolls along Broadway between 21st and 22nd streets, near New York's Flatiron Building, on his way to work. "My office is one-and-a-half blocks from Harry Johnson's original bar, and I walk past it every morning," says Boehm, owner of Mud Puddle Books. "Since I've spent so much time with these books, looking at the drawings and reading the recipes, I don't think I've ever walked by it without thinking about what that bar would have been like." By "these books," Boehm means his collection of 1,200 vintage cocktail and bartending manuals, including multiple copies. This month, his company revived and republished five of them, to the benefit of cocktail enthusiasts everywhere. The faithful facsimiles, which copy the books down to the cover textures and advertisements for old-timey mixological implements, range in age from O. H. Byron's 1884 The Modern Bartender's Guide to Harry McElhone's 1927 Barflies and Cocktails. Mud Puddle plans to continue the series, with at least a dozen more books on the way, including Jerry Thomas's seminal 1862 The Bartender's Guide, which should arrive in October. Johnson's bar, which was in business around the turn of the last century, is long gone, but thanks to Boehm's company, it is not completely lost. Using the books to fuel your imagination, you can visualize a visit to a cocktail bar a century ago as a curious concoction of the familiar and the alien. You could order a Manhattan and be served more or less what you'd get today; however, tipplers also enjoyed such libations as the golden slipper, which featured a raw egg yolk floating midway down the glass. Harry Johnson's Bartenders' Manual from 1900 -- as much a guide to the business of slinging drinks as it is a list of recipes -- advises bar managers to stock Canadian Club whisky, but also reminds them to keep pigs' feet around (presumably for making gelatin). Also, your bartender would have had a moustache. Facial hair and vegan-unfriendly recipes aside, Boehm says today's bartenders still have much to learn from the pre-Prohibition golden age. "I wanted to make the information in the hands of people who can start making new cocktails based on tradition," Boehm says. "As bartending is again becoming a respected profession, as it was back in the day, it's nice to have these." The books are especially timely today, when retro cocktail culture flourishes in bars that can only be called neo-speakeasies, especially in big U. S. cities. Boehm started to become aware of the appetite for antiquated hooch after he sold an original volume to Audrey Saunders, owner of New York's Pegu Club (a pilgrimage destination for those seeking a taste of the oldfashioned). "A lot of the top bartenders stop by my office to use the books for research," Boehm says. Now professional and amateur barkeeps can keep the pocket-sized reproduction books nearby as they whip up such nuggets as the "whiskey and glycerine" ( The Mixicologist, p. 21) without worrying about spilling on a valuable antique. However, Mud Puddle's oldfashioned cocktail books aren't entirely user-friendly. They use outmoded measuring systems. Many recipes call for ingredients that are no longer produced anywhere, such as Boker's bitters, and others that Canadians will have an especially hard time tracking down (sweetened "Old Tom" gin, for example). Some recipes, therefore, call for improvisation. Incidentally, the retro cocktail revival may have come too late to rescue Harry Johnson's Little Jumbo Saloon. Today, Boehm reports, "It's a Restoration Hardware." - To order the books, visit cocktailkingdom.com. amcdowell@nationalpost.com

For a culinary movement taking place in the digital age, the classic cocktail renaissance is resolutely analog. While online forums and blogs help connect mixological devotees, the richest vein of information comes in the form of vintage bartending manuals - many published before World War II, the oldest predating Appomattox. With recipes calling for such antiquated ingredients as Boker's bitters and Old Tom gin and anthropological insights into the lost world of 19th century saloons, these guides are inspiring cocktail aficionados born generations later... (story continued)