"Saved by the Bellini" from Eat Your Words

This summer we're presenting something special on the Eat Your Words feed. 

Over the course of the this 7 episode series, we're going deep with one author and their most recent work. Our host is John deBary, semi-retired bartender and author of Drink What You Want. His latest cocktail book, Saved by the Bellini, pulls inspiration from the nineties and uses the magic of cocktails to explore this totally tubular decade. Saved by the Bellini: The Podcast invites you behind-the-scenes into creating a book. Each episode features John interviewing an integral member of the book writing process - including his editor, illustrator, historians, and even some people who tended bar in the 90's. So join John for a radical ride back through this super sweet decade.

Subscribe to the Eat Your Words feed now to get the episodes as they launch! (Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS).

COMING SOON: SAVED BY THE BELLINI - Hear a preview of what's to come on Saved by the Bellini

Eps. 1: ILLUSTRATOR CLARA KIRKPATRICK - In the premiere episode, John chats with Saved by the Bellini illustrator Clara Kirkpatrick to get the 411 on how the book’s radically 90s-themed artwork came to be. Hear them get nerdy about Clara’s process, why some of the the drinks in the book have arms and just what the hell “line boil” is.

Eps. 2: BARTENDER TOBY CECCHINI - John’s exploration of the world of Saved by the Bellini takes a turn towards drinks this episode with a conversation with legendary bartender Toby Cecchini, the inventor of the iconic Cosmopolitan recipe. Hear them chat about the wild backstory of the Comopolitan’s disputed authorship, Madonna’s nickname for him, and what bartending was actually like in the 1990s.

Eps. 3: AUTHOR BRIAN RAFTERY - A significant portion of Saved by the Bellini is devoted to the iconic movies that defined the decade. A few years before writing Saved by the Bellini, John read Best. Movie. Year. Ever: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen by journalist Brian Raftery. Listen to hear just how much of an impact Brian’s book had on John’s writing process, Brian’s reflections on journalism in the 90s, and why 1999 is the most “90s” year of the 90s. 

Eps. 4: ARTIST MEL CHIN - One of the most interesting references in Saved by the Bellini is to Melrose Place, the Beverly Hills 90210 spinoff that was one of the first primetime network shows to feature a gay character. Unbeknownst to many viewers at the time, Mel Chin led a group of conceptual artists to quietly install props into the show that referenced various societal issues like racism, alcohol use, and reproductive health. Here John interviews Mel about the origin story of the project and how it was a preview of our current easter egg-obsessed media habits. 

Eps. 5: BAR ICON JULIE REINER - Julie Reiner is one of John’s bar heroes. Although he never formally worked for her, she had a tremendous impact on his career. In the course of his research for Saved by the Bellini, he came across a New York Times article from 2000 in which Julie was quoted for her Appletini recipe. Listen to them chat about Julie’s favorite Appletini spec and dive deeper into the actual bartending conditions in the 90s. (Spoiler alert: they weren’t as bad as everyone thinks!)

Eps. 6: EDITOR AMANDA ENGLANDER - Editors are the unseen heroes of the publishing world, offering critical behind-the-scenes feedback that can take an author’s work from good to spectacular. Amanda has not only been John’s editor for both Saved by the Bellini and Drink What You Want, she’s also a dear friend. Here they chat about Amanda’s start in publishing, her editing process, and why she chose to focus on cookbooks. 

Eps. 7: BAR ICON JIM MEEHAN - When John got started in the cocktail world, Jim Meehan was his first boss at the acclaimed neo-speakeasy, PDT (Please Don’t Tell). Jim also wrote the foreword to John’s first book, Drink What You Want. The finale of this miniseries, this is a touching interview between two longtime friends and colleague, and ultimately ends up being as much of an interview of John as it is of Jim.