Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook277 pages4 hours
Cosmopolitan: Bartender's Life
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
3/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Cosmopolitan: A Bartender's Life is a memoir of the bartending life structured as a day in the life at Passerby, the bar owned and run by Toby Cecchini. It is, as well, a rich study of human nature—of the sometimes annoying, sometimes outlandish behavior of the human animal under the influence of alcohol, lust, and the sheer desire to bust loose and party. It's not a pretty picture, but it's always compelling through the gimlet-eyed gaze of the author. As his typical day progresses, from the almost pastoral quiet of opening the bar and setting up to the gathering rush of customers dropping in after work to the sheer madness of catering to a crazed crush of funseekers, Toby Cecchini muses over a life spent in the service industry and the fascinating particulars of his chosen profession. Topics touched on include dealing with regulars, both welcome and not; sex and the bartender; cocktail connoisseurs (and drinks he refuses to make); learning the bartending ropes of the Odeon when young and newly arrived in New York; the sheer man-killing pace of keeping those drinks coming at flood tide; and the manifold varieties of weirdness and bad behavior that every bartender has to learn how to manage.
Cosmopolitan: A Bartender's Life is the hip, behind-the-scenes look at the frenzied yet undeniably fun atmosphere of that great establishment—the bar—and Toby Cecchini is, by turns, witty, acute, mordant, and lyrical in dealing with the realities of his job, shedding plenty of light on the hidden corners of what people do when they go out at night.
Cosmopolitan: A Bartender's Life is the hip, behind-the-scenes look at the frenzied yet undeniably fun atmosphere of that great establishment—the bar—and Toby Cecchini is, by turns, witty, acute, mordant, and lyrical in dealing with the realities of his job, shedding plenty of light on the hidden corners of what people do when they go out at night.
Unavailable
Related to Cosmopolitan
Related ebooks
Best of Plans Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCastle Keep Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnvarnished: A Gimlet-eyed Look at Life Behind the Bar Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Torches - A Seduction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClosure: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRetribution Lake Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDreux Club Blues: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Bohemia: Scenes from the Life of Williamsburg, Brooklyn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In Solo Time: An Elder Darrow Mystery, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Summer In Paris Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Existential Englishman: Paris Among the Artists Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Bookstore: A Book Club Recommendation! Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Inferno Diary Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn the City of Pigs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEverything Asian: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Quiet Vendetta: A Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Down at the End of the River Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Interview with a Dead Editor: Lucky Lexie Mysteries, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Flank Street Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Visible World: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Heart Laid Bare ebook Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsErrata 2020: Poems of Philadelphia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Folding Star: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Living Inside My Head Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAshlandia Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Transporter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsViolets & Vitriol Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIdeal Cities: Poems Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dark Gods Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gravity of Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Biography & Memoir For You
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Meditations: Complete and Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Taste: My Life Through Food Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mommie Dearest Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Rediscovered Books): A Triumph Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jack Reacher Reading Order: The Complete Lee Child’s Reading List Of Jack Reacher Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Solace of Open Spaces: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Disorganized Mind: Coaching Your ADHD Brain to Take Control of Your Time, Tasks, and Talents Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Cosmopolitan
Rating: 3.0454545727272726 out of 5 stars
3/5
11 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Never been much of a bar guy, and so hearing the master bartender's perspective on what barflies should and shouldn't be ordering and tipping doesn't interest me. But Cecchini writes well and is an entertaining curmudgeon and his attention to the nitty-gritty of bartending as a job makes this a valuable memoir about work.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Am I the only person who has trouble turning off a bad movie or just not finishing a not-so-great book? I always do this to myself; I'll keep plugging through either the film or novel feeling like there has to be something of a redemptive quality lurking somewhere in the end, something to make the mediocrity worth it, make sense, and leave me with something enlightened in the end. By now, I know that nine times out of ten, this never happens; watching Bloodsucking Freaks from start to finish only made me feel worse in the end for wasting all that time.While Cosmopolitan: A Bartender's Life by Toby Cecchini is certainly nowhere near as bad as Bloodsucking Freaks, I really do think that it's time to throw in the towel and move onto something a bit more...well, interesting. I had heard about Cosmopolitan, and I was instantly taken in by the idea - what stories a bartender must be able to tell! I thought, wow, interesting stories, and maybe I'll be able to learn something in the process about alcohol...I must admit that once I win the lottery, I'd love to learn a bit of anything concerning mixology (and really should know more about wine). Even cooler - Cecchini had originally published parts of his memoirs in Slate Magazine, which is where David Plotz, the author of The Genius Factory, is from.Cecchini can write, arguably better than Plotz. The main difference, however, is that Plotz kept my attention. Cecchini - not so much.While I'm sure Cecchini did fabulous on his SAT's and can mix a great drink (he reinvented the Cosmopolitan as we know it, hence the title), his "stories" blend from one to the next and all in all just aren't very interesting and come across as horribly pretentious. I'm made it to page 105 and have been through his "learning to tend bar" days, his fascination with hotel-bars, obnoxious American drinking habits...and I just can't help but wonder: what the hell is he going to talk about up to page 238? I'm not even half way done?Insofar as learning about drinks? My best bet is the five-drink recipe appendix. Otherwise, I saw and then instantly forgot lots of expensive, French, no-so-typical wine names.The overwhelming majority of user-written reviews on Amazon and Barnes and Noble seem to mirror my complaints (pretentious, monotonous, dull, and tepid, yet well written), with a few people particularly enamored of the novel, for whatever reason. I do not think that I would recommend that anyone run out and buy Cosmopolitan, but I wouldn't necessarily crinkle up my nose and/or roll my eyes if you said you were reading it. I think that the time has come for me to move onto something else.