Unvarnished by Eric Alperin and Deborah Stoll

This book is an interesting behind-the-scenes look at bartending, but also gives great recipes and methodologies to please even the most sophisticated drinkers.

I’ve often fantasized or thought that if I wasn’t one of North America’s largest builders, I would’ve been a bartender. Anthony Bourdain sidetracked me for a short bit, thinking I might become a famous chef, but I was too loose with a knife and figured I would cut my fingers off eventually.

Well, there is some slicing and dicing in bartending but it’s more about the right amount of cursing, conversing, and flirting. Anyway, I think I would have been OK at it but probably would have lived a much shorter life.