Beachbum Berry's Sippin' Safari: In Search of the Great "Lost Tropical Drink Recipes and the People Behind Them"

Description

The new book by the author of The Grog Log, Intoxica and Taboo Table. Beach Bum Berry, as he is better known, is America's leading authority on tropical drinks and polynesian pop culture. In this all new book, Berry not only offers up tantilizing new drink recipes, but tells stories about some of the most famous figures of their time. The Bum applies the same dogged research to the untold stories of the people behind the drinks. Stories culled from over 100 interviews with those who actually created the mid-century Tiki scene ― people as colorful as the drinks they invented, or served, or simply drank. People like: Leon Lontoc, the Don The Beachcomber's waiter who served Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando by night, and acted in their movies by day; Henry Riddle, the Malibu Seacomber bartender who fed items about his famous customers to infamous gossip columnist Louella Parsons, till the day Howard Hughes found him out; and Duke Kamanamoku, whose manager turned him from Olympic champion into reluctant restaurateur. Review: Great book, bad packaging. - The book arrived damaged! I'm not going to send it back because it took me ages to get it and the overall quality is okay. Pictures, recipes and descriptions are great in my opinion. Packaging could be much better and secure. Review: Yo Ho Ho And A Bottle Of... - Exhaustively researched but far from exhausting to read, Sippin' Safari is simply pure pleasure from cover to cover! Written by the world's foremost expert on exotic mixology and its extremely colorful history, it's just that history which Jeff "Beachbum" Berry so enjoyably chronicles in this small but gorgeously produced volume. Most chapters concentrate on the vivid personal history of someone who had a vital role in the Polynesian Pop restaurant and exotic "tropical" cocktail craze of the late 40's through early 70's (and its current resurgence of popularity). And, as a result, this book is an addictive series of rollicking incredible-but-true adventures punctuated by remarkable drink recipes resurrected from the alcoholic ether by Berry, thanks to his own diligent detective work and the generosity of some of those characters whose lives he covers in such colorful detail. And his chapter of the history of the Zombie is a classic in itself! Reading this tome for the fourth time now, I find that I keep coming back to it the way one keeps returning to a favorite restaurant or watering hole -- once is simply not enough! The only real problem with Jeff's book is that between his mouth-watering descriptions of the full-rainbow-spectrum of delightful drinks on display and the almost pornographically alluring photos of those drinks by the talented Jonpaul Balak, I find myself DYING to sample every luscious libation I encounter! And it drives me NUTS! (But in a GOOD way!) Cheers & Bottoms Up!