Dallas Bartender Jason Kosmas Debuts New Book, Speakeasy

Jason Kosmas calls himself a bartender, but he’s far more than that. Mixologist, trendsetter, restaurateur, cocktail chef, speaker, author–they’re all appropriate titles for a young guy who helped introduce Manhattan — and now Dallas — to the modern cocktail culture.

Kosmas, who directs the beverage program and tends bar at Neighborhood Services Tavern, has teamed with his NYC business partner, Dushan Zaric, to author Speakeasy: Classic Cocktails Reimagined.”

Kosmas and Zaric founded Employee’s Only a decade ago, a West Village bar and restaurant in New York that drew crowds and critical praise for its imaginative cocktails based on the classics and enhanced with fresh fruits, herbs, homemade infusions and syrups that nod to seasonal flavors.

The book traces the current trend toward fresh ingredients and housemade mixers, meanders through thoughtful recipes and compelling stories, then ends with a note from David Wondrich, the Grand Poobah of modern mixology, who compares Kosmas and Zaric to those great bartenders our fathers loved, “before such creatures as ‘bar chefs,’ ‘celebrity mixologists,’ and ‘brand ambassadors,'” bartenders who befriended their customers and knew the value of service.

If you’ve met — or even talked to — Kosmas, you know he’s passionate about cocktails. So I still trust him when he says of the West Side cocktail, “we are witnessing the end of the reign of vodka,” then gives a recipe for lemon-infused vodka, lemon juice, simple syrup, mint and club soda that has became a new favorite at my home.

And when he tells me to make a Gin Julep using not just one spirit, as with most cocktails, but two–Bols Genever gin and Plymouth gin–I head to the store to round them up. It was worth it.

Speakeasy is a recipe book with personality. With a fall chill in the air, I’m hard-pressed to think of a better book to curl up with by a fire pit. (The recipe for a Calvados sidecar is on page 105.)

Speakeasy: The Employees Only Guide to Classic Cocktails Reimagined