Join us for The Comic Book History of the Cocktail: Five Centuries of Mixing Drinks and Carrying On by David Wondrich in conversation with Jim Meehan
About The Comic Book History of the Cocktail
David Wondrich, widely considered to be one of the world's foremost authorities on cocktails, teamed up with comics artist Dean Kotz to trace the evolution of the cocktail. Beginning with the ancient days of wassail and hypocras (mixed drinks based on wine and beer), they narrate a tumultuous and vibrant history. This illustrated history stretches through the Age of Exploration, the boozier parts of the Enlightenment and America’s hurly-burly nineteenth century, to the disco years, the Cosmo years, and the modern cocktail revolution.
Kotz’s intricate, masterful drawings illustrate stories that have never been properly told and introduce key characters who haven’t yet received their due. Nearly thirty recipes round out this spirited account, featuring accurate versions of old classics and a generous selection of secret weapons from the mixologist’s vest pocket.
As the drinks columnist for Esquire from 2000 to 2016 and the Daily Beast from 2016 to 2022, David Wondrich was perfectly placed not only to observe the modern cocktail revolution, but also to help push it along. A former English professor with a PhD in comparative literature, he turned his studies to good use in writing books such as the James Beard Award–winning Imbibe!, a biography-with-recipes of pioneering bartender Jerry Thomas, and editing The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, which the American Library Association deemed the best reference book of 2021.
Wondrich has trained thousands of bartenders, appeared on Conan O’Brien, The Colbert Report, and The Rachel Maddow Show; collaborated in developing several award-winning spirits (along with his own barware line); and was voted the #3 most influential person in the bar world by a thousand of his peers. He divides his time between Brooklyn, New York, and Trieste, Italy.
Bartender, journalist, and author of The PDT Cocktail Book, Meehan’s Bartender Manual and The Bartender’s Pantry, Meehan has worked in nearly every capacity of the hospitality industry for over 40-plus years.
A Chicago-area native educated in Wisconsin, Meehan achieved acclaim for his work behind the bar in New York City and now resides in Portland, Oregon