• NOTE
  Funding is successful, thank you all! Everything that comes in after this point will help make the project better: a larger print run, better-quality rewards, and promotional expenses. :) Come on board, the party's just getting started!

Home Bar Basics (and Not-So-Basics) is a concise, pocket-sized, 110-page guide to setting up a home cocktail bar with an emphasis on history, quality, and craft. The book includes twenty-five recipes ranging from standards (Old Fashioned, Sazerac, Mint Julep) to tiki classics (Zombie, Navy Grog, Mai Tai) to today's exciting craft cocktails (Southern Exposure, Penicillin). Tips and techniques cover everything from storing ice to how to pick the best citrus.

The tone is punchy yet pulls no punches. You won't find Vodka, Red Bull, or Slippery Nipples here. Only the best – because goddamnit, you deserve it!

Features original illustrations, handy checklists, and easy-to-read instructions that break down these fine libations into foolproof steps.

Home Bar Basics (and Not-So-Basics) is spiral-bound for easy lay-flat reading and is professionally litho printed in full color on water-resistant, tear-resistant synthetic paper for durability.

- - - Authentic • Practical • No Bullshit - - -

WHY KICKSTARTER?

There's a hell of a party going on lately with a focus on quality cocktails in innovative bars around the country. I'd like to invite everyone to that party - but not everyone is lucky enough to have a great bar nearby, or maybe can't afford to go out often. Home Bar Basics (and Not-So-Basics) will help bridge that gap, bringing a taste of elegance within reach. 

There's no book like this out there at the moment. Seems there's three kinds of cocktail books: (1) huge encyclopedic cover-everything doorstops, (2) intro-to-drinkmaking books full of bad advice and mediocre-at-best recipes, and (3) niche specialty books that are well-written with great recipes, but don't cover the basics. Home Bar Basics (and Not-So-Basics) aims to fill that space on the bookshelf in an approachable way.

The book is already researched, written, designed, and illustrated. I've solicited advice from cocktail cognoscenti. It's been professionally proofed and edited by a veteran journalist. I have printing quotes from established lithographers who know book printing and specifically, printing on this specialty waterproof paper stock: a key reason-to-exist for this book. Simply running off copies at Lulu or Blurb won't cut it for this particular title. (The book you see in the video is a hand-printed, hand-trimmed mockup cheaply bound at Kinko's.)

Now, I could go to established book publishers with this little gem, but you know as well as I do what would happen: they'd put pressure on me to play it safe, shoot for the middle, don't piss anyone off. Water it down, essentially. F that noise! I'd rather get it out there on my own (with your help, of course) and do it right.

So this is where you come in. Self-publishing takes a great concept, solid writing, creativity, ambition, and cash. I'll cover the first four if you can help with the last one.

Your contributions will provide funding for the first printed edition of the book and will cover promotional and distribution expenses. A book of this quality is unusual and costly - but is also much more valuable because of that. Insisting on features like sturdy spiral binding and water-resistant paper adds value beyond the content of the book itself.

Remember, if the project budget isn't met 100%, no one pays. If the budget is met, the project goes forward and everyone gets something nice. Thanks for your time and consideration. Pass it along.

Cheers!

-- Dave Stolte
Author and Illustrator, Home Bar Basics (and Not-So-Basics)