Cosmopolitan (2003)

If nothing else, Cecchini's absorbing, amusingly misanthropic tale of life behind bars should ensure that its readers treat the men and women who mix their drinks with new respect. In literate, occasionally overmannered prose, Cecchini (part owner of New York City's Passerby and inventor of the cosmo as we now know it) shares harrowing, ''Kitchen Confidential''-style stories of wreaking vengeance on poor tippers, heaping disdain on appletini fans, and dodging sloppy, slutty drunks. But he also writes eloquently of the melancholy and loneliness of the bartending life, as well as its pleasures, which include learning to make what one regular calls the best Manhattan in Manhattan.