Est. 2015
A Spot at the Bar, or Welcome to the Everleigh, The Art of Drinking in 300 recipes is a hardback book by Michael Madrusan and Zara Young well suited to the home bar.
A Spot at the Bar – by Michael Madrusan and Zara Young
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Michael Madrusan is the founder of The Everleigh, The Elk Room and more recently Bar Margaux. He was recently awarded the number one position in Bartender Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential 2019. After bartending in London and New York including New York’s Milk & Honey, Little Branch and PDT, he returned to Australia to open the country’s first and only outpost of the Milk & Honey family. He later opened Heartbreaker in Melbourne, The Everleigh Bottling Co in 2015 and Bar Margaux in 2019. Zara Young, with a background in immersive events and the relationship between hospitality and the arts industry, left London in 2013 and began working with Michael on the growth and development of The Everleigh family.
The cocktail recipes are divided into categories rather than spirit types: Aperitif Hour, Beer, Wine, Savoury Drinks, Bartender’s Choice, Digestifs, Nightcaps and The Morning After. Simply choose the type of drink you’re in the mood for and peruse the recipes. With home bartending and cocktails at home a growing trend, you’ll find The Everleigh at Home, a section dedicated to hosting a cocktail party most useful with tips on social etiquette, light food and making punches for a crowd.
While the book comes with generic photographs and beautiful vintage cards with hand-written cocktail recipes, there are no photographs of the cocktails to accompany the recipes aside from the odd image like the one on the book cover above.
If you’re into home bartending or simply into cocktail culture, you’d want to own a copy of the book. The cocktail ingredients are easy to come by, the spirits are not brand-focussed, the measurements come in both metric and imperial, and the instructions are simple and easy to follow. If you’ve been to The Everleigh in Melbourne, A Spot at the Bar is an extension of that experience.
A Spot at the Bar by Michael Madrusan and Zara Young is published by Hardie Grant Books and is available from Amazon.
“A Spot at the Bar” book review is part of the ‘Looking Back’ series and is based on an article originally published on our sister website Gourmantic.
