Cosmopolitan, Toby Cecchini
Cosmopolitan, Toby Cecchini
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Cosmopolitan
A Bartender's Life

Author: Toby Cecchini

Narrator: Toby Cecchini

Abridged: 2 hr 28 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/07/2003

Synopsis

Cosmopolitan is a memoir of the bartending life structured as a day in the life of Passerby, the bar owned and run by Toby Cecchini. It is, as well, a rich study of human nature—of the outlandish behavior of the human animal under the influence of alcohol, of lust, and of the sheer desire to bust loose and party. As the typical day progresses, Cecchini muses over a life spent in the service industry and the fascinating particulars of his chosen profession. He is by turns witty, acute, mordant, and lyrical in dealing with the realities of his profession, shedding plenty of light on the hidden corners of what people do when they go out at night.

About The Author

TOBY CECCHINI is part owner of the bar Passerby, located in New York’s far-west Chelsea neighborhood. He began his bartending career in the mid-eighties at New York’s fabled bar and restaurant Odeon, where he began the Cosmopolitan cocktail revival. Cecchini has also written for the New York Times Magazine and GQ. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Chad on September 08, 2023

Four Stars. Reading each chapter, it’s clear that these were a collection of essays on the author’s life behind the bar and it feels a little jumbled and jumpy from page to page, but overall I felt it matches my own ten year experience behind the bar. I found myself nodding, shaking my head, smiling......more

Goodreads review by Hairold on December 19, 2024

For an outsider, Cosmopolitan provides a guffawingly-funny, well-written, polysyllabic, enlightening, and endearing look into the gritty world of bartending. The memoir’s enchanting style, weaving in and out of yarns and astute reflections, gives me a newfound appreciation for the trade. Toby is the......more

Goodreads review by Austin on October 03, 2024

Was attracted to book because my shop compared it to Kitchen Confidential, which is a comp I don’t agree with a few of the stories were pretty entertaining and gave a glimpse of life behind the bar, but overall, the stories didn’t flow and feel the same as other memoirs in food and bev.......more

Goodreads review by Aaron on July 06, 2017

Fascinating look into the life and times of a bartender/bar-manager in the early aughts. Toby's sardonic sense of humor and genuine passion for bartending (and storytelling) make for quite an enjoyable read.......more

Goodreads review by Naomi on August 20, 2019

Written well but the casual racism and transphobic language throughout made it much less enjoyable.......more

Quotes

“Marvelous.  Toby Cecchini is no part-time, blender-drink-slinging woo-woo pouring dilettante. He's a professional. A hard, wise, funny, sad and unflinching look at the world from the other side of the bar.  Beautifully written, as fascinating for its backstairs account of hip restaurant/bar/lounge hijinks as it is for its unique perspective on human behavior. New York night life in all its true, hilarious, horrific, poignant and pinheaded glory.”
-Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential

 “Toby Cecchini is something of an expert in creating hospitable environments: for drinkers with his bar, and for readers with this book. He writes with a quiet, lucid style about a profession that is generally loud and chaotic, and he makes almost every aspect of his bartending vocation, including, and perhaps especially, the bad behavior of some of his patrons, totally engaging. He has also captured an essence of New York life in the way that Midwesterners are, for some reason, uniquely able to capture it. Finally, though this book’s title is an overt reference to a particular mixed drink, what it embodies and anatomizes so well is an outlook on the world, in this case from behind a bar.”
-Tom Beller, author of Seduction Theory and The Sleepover Artist

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