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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Author Tamika Hall sits down with the band to talk about the long-lost legacies of Black mixologists old and new.

An overdue episode with noted bartender and newly minted author Toby Maloney. He's here to talk to us about the need for differentiation in the bar world and his new book The Bartender's Manifesto. He also reflects on how he's practically worked at more well-known bars and watering holes than...

Take a splash into HRN’s drinks archive to discover episodes on coffee, cocktails, cider, and more!