Stocking The Bar

by Toby Cecchini

Toby Cecchini's Case Study blog for New York Times Magazine took a look at putting together a home kit for cocktail enthusiasts.

There’s a funny kind of inverse haughtiness to the tools that bartenders actually use behind their bars. It’s much like in professional kitchens, where rather than a shiny copper Mauviel batterie de cuisine, you’ll usually find dented and flame-charred steel pans and aluminum sizzle platters being banged around the stove. Most bartenders and cocktail geeks I know are, like me, collectors of the trade. We all have Japanese spoons and heavy French hotel shakers and filigreed little vintage silver-plated strainers we’ve bid ferociously for on eBay. But what do we use in our work every night? Cheap, stainless-steel Boston shakers, heavy pint mixing glasses, strainers and spoons available in bulk from restaurant wholesalers and supply Web sites. Why? Because in the trenches, you don’t care about matte finishes and sleek lines; you use what works better.

[Continue reading at: New York Times]