Review by Booklist Review
Bartending was always supposed to be a temporary job: a way to distract Sam from her racing thoughts and disastrous love life, and something to look back on with wonder and appreciation. Plus, it came with an entire built-in culture--all the bottles and measurements and traditions. As Sam gets acquainted with the people, the rules, and the stories behind Joe's Apothecary, a charming Brooklyn bar, she begins to question her plans for the future. Career bartenders can make good money--should she defer law school and wring every last drop out of the experience? Bartender-writer Straton invites the reader to belly up to Joe's polished brass bar and learn how to mix cocktails, stay out of the weeds, and get to know the nightwalking crowd alongside Sam. Compelling and informative, this sure-bet read-alike for Stephanie Danler's Sweetbitter (2016) looks head-on at the physical, mental, and emotional toll of working in the hospitality industry, as it blends Sam's internal struggles with the joy she finds in mixology, in equal parts.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Straton's lethargic debut follows a recent college grad who unexpectedly finds purpose and community as a bartender. Sam Fisher has deferred her lifelong dream of attending Harvard Law after some mental health setbacks. To make ends meet, she takes a job as a bartender at Joe's Apothecary, a swanky bar in Brooklyn's Bed-Stuy neighborhood that is serious about its cocktail menu. As she falls into the rhythms of bar life and starts dating one of her regulars, she grows increasingly uncertain of her future and must decide if she still wants to become a lawyer or if her bartending gig has become more than a way to pay the bills. Straton begins each chapter with recipes for classic cocktails such as Manhattans, French 75s, and negronis, and the narrative is peppered with asides on bar vocabulary and trivia, including tangents on tipping, cocktail history, and whether it's "whiskey" or "whisky." Straton's descriptions of service industry culture and boozy folklore entertain, but the low stakes make this feel a bit light, while Sam's constant ambivalence about her relationship and attending law school sap the momentum. The result is less than intoxicating. (June)
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Review by Library Journal Review
After personal crisis in San Francisco, Samantha Fisher moves cross-country and takes what she sees as a stop-gap job as a bartender in Brooklyn. Soon, though, she begins enjoying the job, the customers, and the staff and even finds a new love interest. Should she stay, or should she return to her old dreams? From Brooklyn bartender Straton; with a 100,000-copy first printing.
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A 24-year-old California girl on her way to Harvard Law stops off behind a bar in Brooklyn. Straton's debut is two books in one--a thoroughly researched and mostly charming compendium of information about bartending and recipes for cocktails and a rather lugubrious account of her narrator Samantha "Sam" Fisher's gap year employment at a drinking establishment called Joe's Apothecary. Sam is at a low point emotionally and financially as she heads in for her interview, a long shot since women are rarely seen behind a bar. Sure enough, the place is staffed by three men, all named Dan, one of whom she had a messy encounter with a while back, but they decide to give her a chance. This Columbia graduate is nothing if not a dedicated student, and if her boring love life and slowly revealed traumatic backstory aren't sufficient to shake together a compelling plot, she will certainly find out what goes in a Negroni and a sidecar, and how and why and where and when as well. Each chapter opens with a cocktail recipe and is stuffed with trivia and lore--the purpose of the Snaiquiri (a minidaquiri shared at the beginning of a bar shift), the possible origins of the word cocktail (ginger stuffed up a horse's behind?), backstory on the original Trader Vic's tiki bar (shut down due to tackiness by Donald Trump), and much more. Sometimes she goes further than strictly necessary--dictionary definition of mocktail, anyone?--but her tips on effective Instagram posts are worth bookmarking. This novel is a close cousin of Stephanie Danler's bestselling Sweetbitter, but the characters don't have as much star power, and the will to educate is more dominant. Tics in the storytelling voice--endless clauses strung together with and, endless asides beginning with "Once upon a time"--become annoying in the absence of narrative momentum. This illuminating paean to mixology is best read at your favorite bar or with ingredients nearby. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
