Talking "Tiny Cocktails" with Tyler Zielinski
Size Matters: Big Drinks Come in Small Glasses
Size Matters: Big Drinks Come in Small Glasses
An American expat in London, Tyler Zielinski’s passion for bars and cocktails led the multi-faceted drinks professional on a spirited career as a bartender, journalist, consultant, and influential content creator. And now, with the release this week of his debut book, Tiny Cocktails: The Art of Miniature Mixology, he’s added author to his CV.
The globe-trotting Zielinski has been keeping tabs as bartenders embraced the art of serving small drinks in miniature-sized glasses, typically employed as a welcome drink to guests or as part of a cocktail tasting flight. These small pours come packed with the same flavor of their regular-sized counterparts, but in a serving size that keeps overindulgence in check without having to call it a night after just a few drinks. This may have caught hold as an extension of the pursuit of more conscious drinking, but at many bars now include tiny drinks as a signature part of their beverage programs.
With Tiny Cocktails, Zielinski shares his expertise on the subject along with pro tips on essential barware, mixing drinks, sourcing glassware, as well as guiding at-home cocktail enthusiasts through more advanced bartending techniques that take inspiration from the culinary world, such as flavored syrups, fat-washing, infusing, and acid-adjusting citrus. Beautifully photographed by Eric Medsker, the small-in-stature but complex-in-flavor cocktails—like the Tropical Garibaldi, Naked and Infamous, and Baby Brooklynite—are broken out into Amuse-Bouches, Nightcaps, and Little Luxuries. The 60 recipes in the book may be tiny, but they’re anything but twee.
Last fall at Caffe Dante I was sipping a bambino version of their signature Garibaldi when Zielinski, who had spotted me across the room, came over to say hello. Two years ago when the publisher Clarkson Potter had approached him to write a book on tiny cocktails, he reached out to me seeking advice on finding a literary agent and I played a “tiny” role connecting him with the David Black Literary Agency, who represent me, and now also Zielinski. He thanked me in person for the introduction, and as he was settling his tab I arranged to send over a bambino Grasshopper in a mini-coupe glass as a proper send-off.
In the midst of a very busy official publication week, I caught up with Zielinski in London via WhatsApp to talk about Tiny Cocktails and what’s behind the allure of small-size serves, along with his thoughts on some of his favorite bars, how New York compares to the London cocktails scene, his always growing miniature glass collection, and much more. Read on for our full interview and enjoy three featured recipes from the book to shake and stir up on your own this weekend.
Talking Tiny Cocktails with Tyler Zielinski
As a self-described "multidisciplinary drinks professional," how would you delineate your career path in the world of bars, spirits, and drinks?