These are all by author Barnaby Conrad:
The Martini: An Illustrated History of an American Classic
Ok maybe I want to read these because they are about booze. But I saw Barnaby Conrad on SF local TV talking about these books and they sound really interesting. He has books about a lot of different American (mostly Californian) cultural phenomenon. Cigars, Pan-Am airlines, and more.
I learned that Barbara Streisand started around here in the North Beach area. The club owner said something like “She’s got a nose like a trombone buy boy can she sing.”
Anyway, about the Absinthe book, he talked about going down to the bar / cafe called Absinthe in Hayes Valley where he went recently. I used to love walking past that bar and saying out loud “Oh hey, let’s stop here and get some Absinthe guys! Oh … oh wait we can’t … they don’t actually HAVE any. It’s just called that. Oh … well that’s cool.” I just wanted to see the reaction of the people on the patio. Mostly they were thinking the same thing. But now, Absinthe is legal!
Absinthe is unexplored territory for me. Perhaps it is time.
