An American invention, the cocktail fluctuated in popularity following Prohibition and had firmly taken root in the culinary landscape by the 1990s. The Bay Area played a significant role in reviving it—as much as New York and London. From the distillers who pioneered craft spirits and Alice Waters' revolutionary take on simple, fresh food at Chez Panisse to the bartenders who cared enough to grow a dedicated cocktail community, this is the story of how the Bay Area shaped the art of elevated drinking in America. Through oral history interviews and recipes, author Shanna Farrell chronicles the narrative history of the modern cocktail renaissance.
Shanna Farrell is an oral historian with the Oral History Center at the University of California–Berkeley. She holds an MA in interdisciplinary studies from New York University and an MA in oral history from Columbia University. She lives in San Francisco, California.