Book of the week

Straight Up by Joel Harrison and Neil Ridley (Hachette) $35

Best described as a Lonely Planet guide for bars, Straight Up isa compendium of the best drinking dens in the world.

Destined for the coffee table, it’s elegant and contemporary if a bit muddled.

Researched and written by Brits Joel Harrison and Neil Ridley, global drinks experts who run the World of Spirits website, it focuses on select cities on every continent.

It’s packed full of mixologist profiles, advice on how to explore a city in a day, and lists of must-see venues.

Having propped up fair few bars while working as a journo in London (who happened to write a lot about said bars), and having a fair bit of the old wanderlust myself, I would say that this collection is spot on. Mostly.

Happily, Tokyo’s Ben Fiddich, London’s Nightjar, and Melbourne haunt The Everleigh are just a few of my personal favourites that make the cut.

However, almost predictably, New Zealand seems like an afterthought. There are only two bars highlighted, and they’re squished in under the ‘‘Australia’’ banner (nope), listed next to Tasmania.

While New Zealand isn’t exactly a cocktail mecca, it is somewhat frustrating to see glaring omissions in this collection. Most notably, Hawthorn Lounge in Wellington and Queenstown’s Little Blackwood deserved a spot.

That said, it’s an admirably ambitious project, brimming with information.

But such fervour makes for a messy read. Only two pages into browsing the London hit-list, you hit a misplaced feature. Then you

Having propped up fair few bars while working as a journo in London, and having a fair bit of the old wanderlust myself, I would say that this collection is spot on.

find a bartender (jarringly called a ‘‘startender’’) profile a couple pages along. It gives the impression that the book couldn’t settle on one angle, so decided to be everything.

The interviews and talent showcases could have been streamlined to make way for more noteworthy bars – which is what we all really came to see.

Regardless of these gripes though, Straight Up could make a winning Christmas gift if you happen to have a drinks geek or a globetrotting cocktail aficionado in your life.

– Janan Jay