Cocktail Hour: Authentic Recipes and Illustrations from 1920-1960

"Waiter, I'll have another."

Another cocktail, that is. Or, on second thought, make it a hundred of them. In this bright, sprightly sequel to their immensely popular Vintage Cocktails (1999), authors Susan Waggoner and Robert Markel serve up authentic recipes for more than 100 fresh classics from the golden age of libation.

Lavishly illustrated with full-color vintage art, garnished with quotes, and studded with anecdotes and cocktail histories from the era, Cocktail Hour also features lively sidebars that offer both practical advice (such as pointers for throwing a perfectly swank cocktail party) and fascinating bits of cocktail lore. Readers learn what Frank Sinatra wrote on invitations to Rat Pack parties ("Black Tie and Sunglasses Required"), which movie offers a glimpse of the Brown Derby's original bar (Mildred Pierce), and what Cab Calloway may have been drinking the night he covered a memory lapse by singing "hi-de-ho" in the midst of a song (a Harlem cocktail, the signature drink of the Cotton Club).

With completely new-but still classic-drinks, illustrations, and anecdotal material, Cocktail Hour is a must-have for buyers of the first book as well as a fine stand-alone volume for drink lovers of all varieties.