How I Got My Job: From Bartending to Building a Drinks Company and Founding a Nonprofit

https://www.eater.com/22766102/john-debary-interview-proteau-non-alcoholic-cocktails-bartending-drinks-writing

“Now, deBary has taken his expertise beyond the bar with Proteau, a nonalcoholic botanical aperitif designed to be drunk straight out of the bottle. He also co-founded a nonprofit, Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation, that became a major crisis relief organization during the pandemic. On top of it all, deBary authored the cocktail book Drink What You Want: The Subjective Guide to Making Objectively Delicious Cocktails and continues to write about drinks for publications like Food52 and Punch. In the following interview, deBary explains how he fortuitously ended up working at the best bar in the country and details his unexpected current situation.”

Bon Appetit - The Weird, Winding History of Blue Drinks, a.k.a. the Drinks I Love Most

Bartenders like John deBary, author of the aptly-named Drink What You Want, recognize that quality drinks can also be vividly colored, elaborately adorned, and utterly biteless. When deBary first created his creamy, umbrella-garnished cocktail, ‘The Shark,’he realized blueness could be used not just as a gimmick, but as an active aesthetic choice: “It’s not subversively blue; it’s intuitively blue,” he wrote in Punch. “It’s better because it’s blue.”

Bon Appetit - For the Sake of Baristas and Bartenders Everywhere, Don’t Dump Sugar Into Your Cold Drinks

“Many recipes will have you stirring sugar into room temperature water periodically over the course of 10–15 minutes, but Drink What You Want author John deBary swears by an unconventional cold process: busting out the blender.

“I usually need to use [simple syrup] right away,” deBary says, “but that’s hard when it’s hot!” Blending sugar and room temperature water together on high for a full minute, then allowing it to settle for another full minute, makes for simple syrup that can be used in an instant.”