The Bar Book / The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip
Issue No. 139
THE BAR BOOK GIVES YOU A 360-DEGREE EDUCATION IN BARCRAFT
The Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique
by Jeffrey Morgenthaler (author) and Alanna Hale (photographer)
Chronicle Books
2014, 288 pages, 7 x 9.5 x 1 inches
As someone who spent many misguided years of my youth drinking poorly-eyeballed gin and tonics out of coffee mugs, I never really understood: How exactly can you make cocktails “well” or “poorly”? Isn’t it a simple matter of ratios – of pouring the right amount of the right things into a glass, chucking in an ice cube or two and calling it a day? Where is the mysterious opportunity in that simple process to either mess it up or do it exceptionally well? Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s The Bar Book is a masterclass on that very subject.
The Bar Book is not a recipe book. Instead, it is a techniques book. Morgenthaler elevates making cocktails into a craft, focusing on finding the right recipe, using the best ingredients, and executing it all using effective techniques. While the author does include expertly curated recipes for some must-know cocktails, instead of focusing on what to mix (which can always be found with a quick Google of “how to make a Cosmopolitan”), it focuses on how, why, and when to mix it. He gives you a 360-degree education in barcraft, from what shapes cocktail shakers come in and what the differences mean to why the shape and size of your ice is important and how to make it so that it comes out of the tray clear and beautiful. He’s a big proponent of making things like mixers, garnishes and even liqueurs from scratch, so the book offers up recipes for making things like flavored syrups, infusions, and even tonic water. Even if you’re not the type who relishes taking the time to create something you can easily buy from a store, seeing and understanding the DIY processes behind these ingredients is fascinating and demystifying.
The book is peppered with stories, some steeped in niche-y barcraft history and delightful tradition, some from Morgenthaler’s own bartending days. Striking, minimalist photography guides you from the easiest recipes to the most hardcore. A perfect blend of science, theory, philosophy, history, and personality, The Bar Book is a must-read material for anyone who wants a deeper look at what exactly it means to be a good bartender. – Michelle Kaatz
THE VERY PERSISTENT GAPPERS OF FRIP – CREEPY MULTI-EYED CREATURES TORMENT A VILLAGE
The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip
by George Saunders (author) and Lane Smith (illustrator)
Random House
2015, 96 pages, 5.8 x 9.6 x 0.5 inches
Gappers are creepy little orange, multi-eyed, round creatures that love nothing more than to hang out on or near goats, shrieking all the while. As you might imagine, this is very stressful to the goats. They stop eating; they stop giving milk. If your family gets its livelihood from that milk, you’re in bad shape when the gappers are around. They emerge from the ocean, find the goats, and wreak their shrieking havoc.
The village of Frip is made up of three ocean-side shacks. The girl Capable and her widowed father live in one. Mrs. Romo and her sons live in the second. Sid and Carol Ronson and their daughters (who “sometimes stood completely motionless in order to look somewhat pretty”) lived in the third. In Frip, the children must check on the goats eight times per day in order to remove the gappers and return them to the sea (from which they will reemerge again and again).
The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip is a fable about the perils of putting oneself before the community and the ultimate merits of sharing amongst a community. The gappers have bothered the three families’ goats equally for ages, until one of the smarter gappers realizes that Capable’s goats are slightly closer than the others. Once the gappers converge, Capable is unable to keep them away. She asks for help, but she is refused:
“We feel strongly that, once you rid your goats of gappers, as we have, you will feel better about yourself, and also, we will feel better about you. Not that we’re saying we’re better than you, necessarily, it’s just that, since gappers are bad, and since you alone now have them, it only stands to reason that you are not, perhaps, quite as good as us.”
Capable is, in fact, quite capable – she takes care of those around her and solves problems for herself. The illustrations are lush and whimsical. The book is a lovely parable for children, but the tale and visuals are engaging for readers of any age. – Meagan Rodgers
Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.
10/13/26
