The Canon Cocktail Book: Recipes from the Award-Winning Bar

Even by the impractical, labor-of-love standards of the world's great cocktail bars, Canon is an ambitious place. Boudreau's Seattle bar boasts more than 3,500 bottles of spirits on the shelves and offers a 100-page leather-bound tome for a menu, which is all the more remarkable given that the establishment is a tiny, 32-seat space: the tip of a very boozy iceberg. This book is for those who are up for a challenge, offering some blunt, if not especially original, advice for anyone inspired to open a bar of their own. Its compendium of 100 recipes will stretch enthusiasts beyond the usual retreads of the classics. To make Canon's signature drink, whip up a foam of bloomed gelatin, egg whites, and citrus, and layer on top of a Manhattan variation of rye and vermouth. The complexity and creativity of the drinks is offset by Boudreau's straightforward writing and explanations of the fundamentals, such as his "Golden Ratio"—a safe structure of spirit, vermouth, liqueur, and bitters that allows his bartenders, and now readers, to riff almost endlessly. Once that's been mastered, it's a matter of creativity and amassing that library of booze.