Book Inspirations part IV.
The beauty of hospitality.
In the bar game, hospitality is the secret sauce. Bartenders who know how to host and create a unique vibe build lasting connections, keeping guests coming back for that extra dose of good times. It's all about crafting an atmosphere that feels like home, where patrons become part of the family.
So here are a few tips for the books, that are enriching for you, if you are interested in hospitality, bartending, and creating unique experiences. These books can help you to understand all the work behind the bar and inspired me to write the book The Cocktail Balance:
Handbook for Hosts
by Esquire’s
A must-have for every party-giver, Esquire's Handbook for Hosts is a time-honored guide on eating, drinking, and being merry with inimitable style. It offers the secrets of the perfect cocktail party with the tradition, excitement, and hosting flair of the postwar heydays. Each of the three main sections, "Eat," "Drink" and "Be Merry," offers a wealth of ideas: delicious main courses and hours d'oeuvres, refined serving suggestions, and tasty cocktails. Amusing party games, tricks, and puzzles from exotic poker games to bar tricks (suitably called "Checkpayers") break the ice. The more you browse, the more great information you'll find - all vintage 1950s, when the perfect host was king. Complete with party themes, directions on how to stock the bar, tips on making conversation, and clothing advice, this book is a delightful reminder that even the most hopeless host can give a fabulous and memorable party.
Work Clean
by Dan Charnas
Every day, chefs across the globe churn out enormous amounts of high-quality work with efficiency using a system called mise-en-place—a French culinary term that means “putting in place” and signifies an entire lifestyle of readiness and engagement. In Work Clean, Dan Charnas reveals how to apply mise-en-place outside the kitchen, in any kind of work.
Culled from dozens of interviews with culinary professionals and executives, including world-renowned chefs like Thomas Keller and Alfred Portale, this essential guide offers a simple system to focus your actions and accomplish your work. Charnas spells out the 10 major principles of mise-en-place for chefs and non-chefs alike: (1) planning is prime; (2) arranging spaces and perfecting movements; (3) cleaning as you go; (4) making first moves; (5) finishing actions; (6) slowing down to speed up; (7) call and callback; (8) open ears and eyes; (9) inspect and correct; (10) total utilization. This journey into the world of chefs and cooks shows you how each principle works in the kitchen, office, home, and virtually any other setting.
Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business
by Danny Meyer
Seventy-five percent of all new restaurant ventures fail, and of those that do stick around, only a few become icons. Danny Meyer started Union Square Cafe when he was 27, with a good idea and hopeful investors. He is now the co-owner of a restaurant empire. How did he do it? How did he beat the odds in one of the toughest trades around? In this landmark book, Danny shares the lessons he learned developing the dynamic philosophy he calls Enlightened Hospitality. The tenets of that philosophy, which emphasize strong in-house relationships as well as customer satisfaction, are applicable to anyone who works in any business. Whether you are a manager, an executive, or a waiter, Danny’s story and philosophy will help you become more effective and productive, while deepening your understanding and appreciation of a job well done.
Setting the Table is a landmark, a motivational work from one of our era’s most gifted and insightful business leaders.
5 Star Service
by Michael Heppell
This is the book that will show you how to ensure customers are raving about your products and services and come back for more. Five Star Service 2nd edition is an easy-read, high-impact title from the bestselling author of How to Be Brilliant, Michael Heppell. In this book, he gives you over 100 instant tips, 50 examples of the best practices, over a dozen brand-new techniques, and multiple strategies to equip you with a winning edge to knock out your customers. It is also a guide that will help you to delight your guests every time, deliver remarkable results and keep them coming back, win new guests without spending a fortune, and more.
Paparazzi Bar Book
by Stanislav Vadrna & Barbora Urbanová
A unique book combining an impressive cocktail menu and the story of one of the most famous Slovak bars. The authors of the book are Stanislav Vadrna, the world-famous bartender, who gave the Paparazzi bar his handwriting and soul, and the Czech publicist Barbora Urbanová. She wrote down his talks and memories into an impressive bar story and manual in one – the first part of the book is The Fine Art of Tending the Bar. The second part of the book is the Bar Menu itself, which has an ambition to follow up its precursors – the cocktail menus that have been awarded at the most prestigious world competitions.
Unreasonable Hospitality
by Will Guidara
Today, every business can choose to be a hospitality business—and we can all transform ordinary transactions into extraordinary experiences. Featuring sparkling stories of his journey through restaurants, with the industry’s most famous players like Daniel Boulud and Danny Meyer, Guidara urges us all to find the magic in what we do—for ourselves, the people we work with, and the people we serve.
Essential lessons in hospitality for every business, from the former co-owner of legendary restaurant Eleven Madison Park. Will Guidara was twenty-six when he took the helm of Eleven Madison Park, a struggling two-star brasserie that had never quite lived up to its majestic room. Eleven years later, EMP was named the best restaurant in the world.
