For this episode, we’re joined by veteran bartender Kenta Goto, owner of Bar Goto in New York City, and author Noah Rothbaum to dig into their new book, “The Goto Bartender’s Guide.”
Kenta Goto is the owner of Bar Goto in New York City and Bar Goto Niban in Brooklyn, and a veteran of the pioneering cocktail bar Pegu Club. For this episode, we’re joined by Goto and by author Noah Rothbaum to talk about their new book, The Goto Bartender’s Guide: A Philosophy of Cocktails, Hospitality, and How to Make Great Drinks Every Time.
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Paul Clarke
Hey everybody, welcome back to Radio Imbibe from Imbibe Magazine. I'm Paul Clarke, Imbibe's Editor-in-Chief. One of the beautiful things to witness over the past 20 years or so as the craft cocktail renaissance evolved from a small, dedicated group of people into a global phenomenon has been the emergence of talents and personalities in the bar world who are shaping the future of how we drink and how we think about cocktails.
Kenta Goto entered the cocktail world with little experience, but with a lot of curiosity and dedication. Over the years, he made name in the bar world—first during the seven years he spent working at Pegu Club in New York City and, over the past decade plus, with his own bars, Bar Goto in Manhattan and Bar Goto Niban in Brooklyn. Now, Kenta Goto is making his presence known in another way by the publication of his first book, The Goto Bartender's Guide: A Philosophy of Cocktails, Hospitality, and How to Make Great Drinks Every Time. Written with Noah Rothbaum, the book shares many of the lessons, recipes, and painstaking details that Kenta Goto has developed and perfected in his years behind the bar. So, for this episode, we're chatting with Kenta Goto and Noah Rothbaum about their new book, and about the Goto process of making and understanding cocktails.
[music]
Paul Clarke
Kenta, Noah, welcome to Radio Imbibe.
Kenta Goto
Hello, hi guys.
Noah Rothbaum
Thank you for having us.
Paul Clarke
Thanks for taking the time to come on the podcast. I know you're both very busy, but the timing is perfect to have you on because in addition to your usual responsibilities running Bar Goto and Bar Goto Niban for Kenta, and your usual responsibilities putting out massive whiskey books for Noah. You both have the added job right now of promoting a new book, The Goto Bartender's Guide. So first off, congratulations on getting this out there in the world. It's great to see that out there. And you know, I've spent the past few days with it now, and it's absolutely gorgeous, and there's lots to explore there. Before we get into details, what was the impetus for you, Kenta, to do the book now? I mean, you know, Bar Goto opened more than 10 years ago, and you've been bartending for more than 20 years now. Why now? And what seemed to be the right point to get this out there in the world?
Kenta Goto
I mean, I've been fortunate to be asked to do the book in the past too, but just something inside of me have never felt I was totally ready for it. As Bar Goto was year eight, nine, I started thinking about maybe it's a good time to do a book for our 10-year anniversary, which happened to be actually last year, 2025. One thing I didn't know until I started it was that it takes a lot of time to do a book. So we could not drop the book in 2025 as we were celebrating 10 years. Yeah, we were doing it this year, 2026. So to answer your question, approaching 10 years in the business of Bar Goto, I worked with many different bartenders and I got many opportunities to go outside of Bar Goto and work with different bartenders. And basically, my message is always the same. Just want to make sure that very fast, if the customer takes to be as best as possible. And that's what I've been working for. And I just that information into a book.
Paul Clarke
Perfect. And I want to get into a few items about the book because there's a lot here to dig into. You have several dominant themes in the book and in your approach that you come back to repeatedly. And one of those is the importance of consistency in cocktails. And you write in the book, you write having a great recipe to start is, of course, important, but it's useless if you can't execute it consistently. Most cocktail recipes tell you only half the information you actually need to make a drink properly. You focus on this importance of consistency. Why is this such a priority and why is it so important for you to put it right there at the outset and to come back to it several times in the book?
Kenta Goto
There is a trust between bartenders and regular customers or any new customers who hear about you and make a plan to come try your cocktails. I want to be able to have consistency in qualities. But then on Tuesday, make this cocktail and the customer come back on different day and order the same drink. But that's going to be made by a different bartender. But quality should be the same. I used to just create a recipe and simply send the recipe to everybody. And then I thought, all right, life is going to be okay. And then I used to like focus on only creating a recipe. Then as long as each team members memorize it correctly, I thought everything's going to be fine. But what I noticed and what I have been noticing is even everybody study and memorize the recipe precisely, outcome can be so different. Like, dilution can be different, so, like, wash line in the glass is different, so that is always up to, like, how much ice you are putting in the shaker or mixing glass, so how many times you are shaking it or stirring it. Like, every little detail matters, and that becomes apparent at the end. That's how I learned that just sending out a recipe only is not good enough. Since then, yeah, I started sending out a recipe with precise instruction so that there will be no area where team members need to guess. It's almost like a baking cooking book. The instruction is so thorough that as long as you read it and follow it precisely, outcome won't be bad, yeah.
Noah Rothbaum
I think that we wanted to put that up front in the book, right, that this wasn't going to be your normal cocktail book. And, you know, when Kenta and I start talking about writing a book, like, I mean, in some ways it felt almost like working with, like, Julia Child on mastering the art of French cooking, right? Where, like, nobody could tell her, a baguette could never, you know, be done at home, you know? And, you know, she kind of rethought everything. And in some ways I felt when we were working on this book that Kenta had kind of looked at all the details that nobody had ever thought about and had just sort of accepted the way that they'd always been done, whether they were good, bad, precise, not precise, right? And never really thought that, like, okay, we could actually change the way that we make cocktails. So that, from the outset, from the introduction on, we wanted people to know that, like, this was going to be different, right? Like, there were going to be not just ingredient quantities, but even types of ice, the number of times you stir, the size of the mixing glass, of the shaker, because all of these things obviously matter. And if I'm going to be totally honest, I never really thought about a lot of these things until Kenta and I started working on this book together, you know, just like one epiphany after another, right? And it's not just, it would be incredible just to get all of Kenta's amazing recipes down on paper in one book. I mean, I had started out as a loyal customer of Kenta's when he was at running Pegu Club in New York City back in the day and had been blown away by his drinks. And it would have been wonderful just to get all of his drink recipes, right? But it's like so much more in that. I feel like we've really captured why Kenta's one of the best bartenders on earth. And it's all of these small epiphanies that he's had over the years that, to be honest, like, it was like every time it felt like my mind had been blown, you know, in almost every conversation we had.
Paul Clarke
And that's one thing I noticed about the recipes going through this. And we'll dig into this a little in just a moment. But when you get into the recipes before you're even really kind of talking about ingredients or flavors or like what the drink is supposed to come out like, you're talking about process. You're focusing on every individual step from the temperature of the ingredients that you're working with to the strength of the spirit to the order of things that you add to the shaker or to the or to the mixing glass, how many ice cubes you use and all of that. As you started breaking this down for yourself, just for yourself in the bar and for your staff, working through every individual step and looking at every aspect of it, were there things that you learned that challenged that conventional wisdom or that changed the way that you had always been brought up to think about how you make cocktails?
Kenta Goto
First of all, I'm not trying to change the history of cocktails. It's not like that.
Noah Rothbaum
We just want to change the future of cocktail.
Kenta Goto
I mean, my profession is to make something, to make something delicious. So that's my job. I remember at my time at the Pegu club, Audrey used to say that whatever you create, it must something that you want to order something twice. That's been staying in my head. And then basically that is where I always go back to. Even when I create cocktails for Bar Goto or somebody else, or when I train our team members at Bar Goto. I guess I'm constantly thinking what I can do to make it better. And I think that's been just going on for the last 10, 20 years.
Noah Rothbaum
Yeah. I mean, I think it's funny. It's like, I remember years ago asking a bartender who I won't throw under the bus here, like, what should you add first? Like ice? Should you add the other ingredients? They were like, what are you talking about? Like, who cares? Like, add the ice. You know, like, And some people had the ice last, some people had the ice first, you know? And there was like no rhyme or reason, right? And maybe most of the time people liked it the way that it looked, you know, how you were making like a drink, you know, and it looked more impressive to have a shovel full of ice at the end, you know, and a flair of the dramatic, right? And with Kenta, like, you know, there was none of, everything has a reason, right?
Paul Clarke
Like 11 ice cubes, yeah, it's very precise.
Noah Rothbaum
Right. And, and also like, you know, the order of ingredients, obviously you want things to stay at the right temperature, right? If you're making a cold drink, all ingredients should be cold. I mean, it sounds so straightforward, right? And it makes so much sense, but none of these directions are ever like that, right? You want to minimize the ice melting, right? You want to minimize dilution. This is like the core to a drink, and like, what struck me, over and over again, while we were working together on this book. Just Kenta, like, not only had a reason for everything, but a really, really good reason, right?
Kenta Goto
Basically, that goes to make the first step as good as it can be. Customer taking first sip, it's almost kind of like a job interview. You got such a limited amount of time, and you do your best to make a great impression. So hopefully your future might change. So first sip, I find that it's very important. So that's why I pay attention to all details. At the same time, I want to make sure the first sip to be good. If I keep thinking about it, you will start seeing things that makes you wonder. Why don't you do this? Why don't you do that? Then that's how I gradually kind of became how I do things. And at the same time, that's what we share at the Bar Goto, too.
Paul Clarke
And one detail from the recipes I'd like to call out, and I can't recall other, you know, really seeing this a lot in other cocktail books, but you made the decision to present each recipe in two different ways. One for the home bartender and another for professionals. It was kind of painstaking in some ways to do that for every single recipe in the book. Why did you choose to call that out?
Kenta Goto
Yes, it was extra work for us, for sure.
Noah Rothbaum
Absolutely.
Kenta Goto
I mean, I don't have Bar Goto set up at my home kitchen. I don't have commercial ice machine here, just regular ice cube from the freezer. Yeah, I just have to adjust how I do things based on the situation, but still, outcome to be as good as it can be. I cannot just simply apply how I do things at Bar Goto in my kitchen.
Noah Rothbaum
And I think too many cookbooks or cocktail books, the people writing them, they're testing the drinks or the dishes like in a professional environment, right? They're, it's their recipe, but it's the way that they make it at their bar, And they have, as Kenta said, high-grade ice from a professional machine that acts differently, right? Than an ice cube at home, right? And so most people buy a cocktail book, they make the recipe, and then they're like, wait, this doesn't taste like it does at the bar. Like, what did I do wrong? I mean, they blame themselves, right? They're like, I must have done something, I must have skipped the ingredient. And the worst possible outcome is that they never make another cocktail from the book, right? They think, oh, no, like, my skill level is not good enough, right? In reality, it has nothing to do with your skill level, but it really has to do with things like literally the type of ice that you're using or the order of ingredients that you're adding or the size of your shaker and your mixing glass and how many times you stir, right? And all of these things, while they sound really insignificant, can have incredible effect on the outcome of a drink. The point was, is that, like, let's stop pretending that professional-grade recipes are going to work at home, right? If we really want people to make incredible drinks at their home bar, we've got to give them different measurements. We've got to give them the advice that they need to do that. And then for folks who have professional-grade ice, we have that side, right? Because trying to please both sides, and that was kind of our thought here with all of Kenta's amazing recipes, let's make this as approachable as possible from these two distinct camps. And to be honest, hopefully this will lead to other books doing this. Because, I mean, to your earlier point, Paul, I don't think we've thought about writing down the art of writing recipes since Jerry Thomas wrote a recipe in the 1860s. Like, nothing has changed, right? The whole world has changed. Has changed completely. And one of the things that's never changed is how we write a cocktail recipe and it's 2026. It's like time that we really rethought how we communicate this information.
Kenta Goto
Yeah, so, yeah, once again, I mean, having a great recipe that's really balanced is, of course, very important. But if you cannot execute it, then it's not good enough. so that's why we introduce in two ways, professional bath setting way and also in your kitchen home use way. Whatever the situation you are in, you just have to think of what you can do to make sure that the first step is as good as it can be. So therefore you need to pay attention to all details and you make adjustments accordingly.
Paul Clarke
You know, we talked about dominant themes earlier, starting with consistency and there's another related theme that you've come back to time and again in the book. And that's measurements. I mean, everybody knows it's important to measure the ingredients that goes into a cocktail. That's all kind of ingrained in all of this, but you take that several steps further. I mean, you practically wax poetic about measuring spoons. And you talk more about the importance and the utility of measuring spoons than really any cocktail book I can ever think of that I've seen. How essential are these tools and why was it so important to you to factor this in to say this is something that you really need to include in your tool kit if you love cocktails?
Noah Rothbaum
How much time do we have here, Paul, because I think this could be several hours.
Kenta Goto
So I like to use adjustable measuring spoons. First of all, so we have been using jiggers and jiggers give you the measurement starting like quarter ounce, half ounce, three quarter, one ounce and up to two ounces. So between zero and two ounces, you get eight choices of measurement. And that's what I was working with when I first started bartending. But then I came across so many moments that, you know, if lime juice. So if it's only half ounce of a lime juice, feel like we need a little more sour. But if we put the three quarter, then I feel it becomes a little too much. Now I know that nowadays, people talk about acid adjustment type of technique. But I'm just going with that, looking into the measurement between half ounce and three quarter. And what allows me to do that is just measuring spoon. I will keep using jiggers, but in addition to jiggers, I started using measuring spoons. So with measuring spoons, and the one that I use gives me half teaspoon increment. So you get 24 choices of measurement between zero and two And two ounces. That's already like three times choices. So if I have 24 choices, chances for me to get flavor that I want becomes much more promising. And especially lemon juice and lemon juice. But at the same time, as a Japanese, I mean, I often use ingredients like sake or shochu that are like a lower proof than the spirits that we are used to. So those little more nuanced flavor.
You have to use like the flavor that you want to add to the flavor that you want when you have only like eight choices of measurement. So that's why I started using adjustable measuring spoon. And also like some ingredients like maraschino liqueur or creme de violette. Those are very powerful. Well, when I use those powerful ingredients, I even go further than I even use one eighth of teaspoon or one sixteenth of teaspoons. because tiny difference makes a huge outcome. So even like some drinks like aviation and you put them maraschino or violette, one sixteenth or one eighth of difference, which is like even smaller than your pinky nail, but you will taste the difference. So that's why I really utilize teaspoons.
Noah Rothbaum
I mean, I also think that, you know, can do saying that normal jiggers, you know, eight possible jiggers between zero and two ounces. Right. And but most people have like maybe one jigger or two jiggers or even most bars have one or two jiggers. Right. So we tell an anecdote where kent is working at Audrey Saunders, amazing pioneering bar, Pegu Club. And I think it's what, you needed like a quarter of an ounce in a drink, but there's no quarter of an ounce jigger, right? So everybody on a busy, dark night is trying to split a half an ounce jigger perfectly in half, right? Which is, I mean, even for me, pun intended, a recipe for disaster, right? Where, you know...
Kenta Goto
That was, that was right before, like, this skinny Japanese jigger started going up, and we were using only, like, made in USA, American jiggers.
Noah Rothbaum
Right. right, so, I mean, you need a quarter of an ounce, you're now trying to split a half an ounce jigger, which, I mean, especially, you know, you're at home, you're in a bar, you're never gonna make that drink exactly the same more than once, right? So everybody has a set of teaspoons and tablespoons in their house, right? So it's like, if anything, for writing the recipes, it's more precise, right? Instead of being like, we need, like, a good quarter ounce in this drink, you can give somebody a precise measurement. And as Kenta has said before, it's cocktail making, it's kind of like, more like baking, right? So pull out the teaspoons, pull out the tablespoons. It's way more efficient. And, I mean, it sounds ridiculous, but in fact, most people only have one or two jiggers at home or even bars. So most people have a set of teaspoons, put them to use, right? So, yeah. So, you know, your drinks are gonna be a lot more precise and you're actually gonna be able to replicate them over and over again. You're actually gonna be able to make complicated drinks. I would never make an aviation on my own. But now, like, using Kenta is a recipe but also teaspoons is actually doable, right? I mean, with all these super potent ingredients that really do make a huge difference, whether we're talking about the last word, the aviation, you know, all of these things.
Paul Clarke
And, and that's a really good point. I want to get into that, because there are a couple of different directions that you go, several different directions you go with the cocktails in the book, and I want to start with the classic cocktails for a moment because, as we mentioned before, you, you came in a Pegu Club, and I know classic cocktails are very much, you know, a hallmark there, and it's something that we kind of all understand and all kind of have our, have our approaches to. We also have, kind of our, our rule of thumb notions for making classic cocktails. Like, you know, two parts whiskey, one part sweet vermouth. Boom! You got a Manhattan dash of bitters. Through your experience, though, you've adjusted these standards to produce a more desirable result. And in particular, the examples I'm thinking of are for your sours, like the gimlet or the daiquiri recipes that you have in the book. What was your process in determining these new standards? And how did you get to that point where you said, the notion that we've always had of like the, the way they always make a daiquiri, it could be adjusted to make a more pleasant drink.
Kenta Goto
Yeah, something like Gimlet or daiquiri. I think in USA, I think the most common spec would be two ounces, spirits, and three-quarter, sour and three-quarter sweet. So maybe some people do a two, three-quarter half, or maybe two, three-quarter one, but depends. But, but usually one of those spec, sometimes it works. And there's just so many brands out there. And some brands, maybe just utilize one of those most common spec. But at the same time, there are many moments that I thought, hmm, I'm trying to make daiquiri, but just, and then this just feels like kind of lemonade with a lime, lime kind of. Yes. Then also, at the end of the day, if I'm making a drink for the customer, I want that first sip to be as good as it can be. You know, I'm in a job interview. So, I got the one chance to make a first great impression. So, so that's why I started adjusting the amount of sweet and sour by reducing or increasing by half teaspoon, sometimes one teaspoon. But you will be surprised what half teaspoon difference can make. So, so in the book. book, I am using flow de caña extra dry white rum. So with the rum that I use for my daiquiri, I prefer reducing sweet and sour a little bit by half teaspoon each. And to me, lemonade cocktail becomes now a drink that you can truly enjoy every single ingredient. You get rum, you get rum, lime, and simple.
Noah Rothbaum
I mean, I think it's also, again, one of these things where, you know, if you ask somebody, oh, how do you make a Manhattan? They give you the specs that you gave, right? The 212, which is obviously the Original area code from Manhattan, which is super easy to remember. But like again, I mean, almost in like an Anthony Bourdain like move, Kenta was brave enough to share that most professional bartenders in bars have their own specs for all the classics, right? That the Negroni, yeah, on paper, it's always equal parts, but most bars aren't gonna make it in equal parts, right? Most bars are going to have their own specs for Manhattan. So yeah, like that's what we, that's what we tell each other or we tell, you know, readers like, yes, it's always 2-1-2, but in reality, every bartender has their own specs, right? And which again was, I mean, I, it was something that I always thought was going on, but like never actually had proof that was going on. So the fact that Kenta like validated that theory was, was fascinating itself. And also just, it's somewhat freeing, right? To say, look, like this is the traditional and where we, where we varied from the traditional, we usually said, look, the traditional is 2-1-2 or two parts or one and a half parts alcohol, one part sour, one part sweet. This is what we're freeing, but again, like it's kind of freeing to say to people, look, if you want more citrus flavor, add a little bit more citrus. Like you want it a little bit sweeter, add a little bit of sweetness, right? Like dial it up and down. You have the controls. You are the bartender. Tailor it to your own taste, right? Just like a cookbook. You want a little bit more salt? You want a little bit more hot pepper? Go for it. Like this is what we're doing, but also like even some of Kenta's like personal recipes even blew my mind because, you know, he's talking about things like split bases, right? Which sounds like a, like, I don't know, like some punk band from Seattle. No offense, Paul. Or, you know, some kind of science term. But really like, I mean, in some ways it's very fascinating to use two different types of bourbons in Manhattan or bourbon or rye or two types of rum. This is next level. Like this is why Kenta's drinks are so good, right? Because I, for my whole life, I've just been using one rum or one bourbon or one rye. And it's like, like I could take two different spirits and put them together and the sum is greater than the parts. And even that with classics, I was like, this is an incredible technique, right? To make something that's not only delicious, but something that's like totally different than what I had been making already, right? And I thought my daiquiri is pretty good or my banana was pretty good. But Kenta's ones are better. And that's one of the reasons why.
Kenta Goto
Like combining two different brands and use it as a main ingredient. I mean, these are kind of preference. I mean, you can do it. You don't have to do it. But what needs to happen is that also what we always make sure to buy a bottle, too. Just pay attention to the proof so that you can make adjustment accordingly. Like, let's say, amount of citrus or sweet. If it's some kind of Manhattan-ish drink, then all right. What type of vermouth you want to use. Bigger flavor or more like a kind of clean flavor. Then that goes to how many times we should stir. Yeah. Even classic cocktails. I mean, everybody has classic cocktail recipe. It depends on what spirits you use. And pay attention to the proof. Not only characteristic, but just pay attention to the proof and you make adjustment accordingly.
Paul Clarke
And I wanted to touch on your original cocktails because you've got a number of those recipes in the book as well. For your Sakura Martini, the Ume Paloma, Yuzu Calpico Fizz, and so on. And you provide an example when you're talking about the Far East Side that you've been revisiting this recipe for many years now. And you recently updated your technique in making the drink. Do you have a process for continually revisiting and reevaluating all of the drinks that you make and even ones that have been on your menu for many years? And why is it so important for you to always kind of be asking that question?
Kenta Goto
Yeah. It's not like I have a kind of set schedule to revisit each drink. But in general, I'm always thinking, is there anything I can do to make it better? Then, for instance, Far East Side, which happened to be very popular at Bar Goto. But it's basically a kind of sake-based mojito-ish drink. So it's a mojito drink. So it's a basic sour-style cocktail where there's sake and there's sweet and sour. Very first time I was creating this drink, I was shaking it. like you'd shake any other sauer-style cocktail. But I realized that sake is not only lower-proof but very delicate in flavor. So shaking it, this aeration from shaking, it's completely masking the flavor and texture of sake in the drink. Although it is a sour-style drink, and I'm supposed to shake it, but I decided to start it. So that there won't be any aeration, and then I could notice that you will get more flavor and even aroma of sake than the one that was shaken. So that's how I kind of keep tweaking it, keep tweaking it, and then one day I just... Then we were starting far east side for like five or six years, and then I'm burned. I just... At one point I felt like I'm still not doing justice for sake. Then I started throwing it. Then I, like, you decant the wine, exposing the sake to the air. Then I noticed that, oh, you get even more, better texture and aroma of sake than the one that was stirred. So I'm just constantly thinking if there is any room to make things better. And I do that to all other characters too. Yeah.
Noah Rothbaum
Which was awesome as we were trying to finalize this book, and Kenta was like, wait, wait, like, I've got a new recipe for... And, you know, like... And I was always like, absolutely, like, whatever the latest version is, let's get it into the book. And if our publisher yells at us, they yell at us. But like, I want these to be the best that they can be. So whatever you want, Kenta, like, we'll slide them in. I mean, I think this obsessive nature probably comes from Audrey Saunders at Pegu Club. I mean, that was so much of that DNA of working and working and reworking and working these drinks until they were, you know, you know, they were buffed until they were shiny, right? Like, to make them the most perfect that they possibly could be.
And that continues, that legacy continues, I think, through Kenta and his bars, right? And this idea that, you know, things are never done. Obviously, ingredients change over time, even the fruit, other things, right? Techniques come in. How do we make things? New ingredients come along. How do we improve these things? I think one of the great fallacies or myths in cocktails and whiskey is that everything is literally set in stone, right? Like, these things are chiseled into a Mount Rushmore of recipes somewhere. I don't know where that would be. But, you know, you know, bartenders, consumers have this idea that nothing can be changed, right? Everything is fixed. And, like, obviously nothing that's not true for anything. Everything is always evolving and changing. And that, you know, I, you know, with Kenta, I think, proves that, like, things can be always made better. You know, I mean, I think that's what makes it fun, that it's, you know, it's nothing static here.
Kenta Goto
Yeah, even, like, I thought I finalized one recipe and the season changes and then, yeah. Yeah, let's say, like, some cucumbers and, like one season, it's really, really green, almost like so vegetal. And one season, it might be, you know, very watery. So, based on what you have, you just have to make adjustments so that, yeah, your brand, your quality of drink is always the same.
Paul Clarke
Right. And I want to talk briefly about inspiration because this is also something that you do focus on in the book. And, you know, bartenders love to talk about inspiration, share talk about inspiration by the cocktails. But for you, for inspiration, you say that, you know that perhaps most of your inspiration comes from being in the supermarket. So, talk a little bit about your creative process. What gets things started for you in terms of developing a new cocktail? And how do you then assemble those flavors and textures and aromas all together to get to your goal?
Kenta Goto
I mean, I'm not, like, some kind of, I'm not, like, some kind of, you know, genius. I'm not just, I'm just a regular person going to a supermarket, then wondering what I'm going to make tonight. Then I'm just, as, walking through the aisle and I start seeing things and then, yeah, it's, like, exactly the same way that you wonder, all right, what I'm going to make for tomorrow, what's my dinner tonight? And, oh, look at this melon, look at this cilantro, what can I do, what can I do with this? And that's how, that's usually the starting point. So, I mean, of course, I go travel, then I see things in different settings that inspires me. Sometimes I'm watching a cooking show on Netflix and that might inspire me too. Um, I mean, yeah, inspiration just kind of everywhere. Yeah,
Noah Rothbaum
well, I, I mean, I think Kenta is like obviously way too humble, right? I mean, he's one of the only people on earth who's ever made a delicious cocktail using, um, Slivovitz, the Eastern European, you know, uh, fire water. And yeah, I mean, I, I mean, in some ways I think it's like a lot of the ingredients are out there, right? They're at the supermarket, they're on shows, but then it's like, how do you feature them and, and how do you showcase them to reveal their best side? And I think that's, you know, Kenta may be coming to this after growing up in his mother's restaurant, right? Like being exposed to the fashion world, like his father ran a kimono company, right? Studying fashion, right? Coming to this with like a little bit of an outsider's perspective of seeing color and fashion and design and flavors like in a different way. Right. And, and to be honest, that's the heart of this whole book, right? Is that I think Kenta approaches things in a very unique and interesting manner, right? And if he had grown up maybe working in a bar since he was 10 or 12 or whatever, 16, that like, you know, he wouldn't see these differences, right? Like you wouldn't have this outsider perspective, but coming to it with this like wealth of other experiences, I think gave him a really unique perspective. And sometimes like, and sometimes like, and sometimes like, see stuff that nobody else sees because like, we were just so conditioned to accepting what it is that we don't think that there's another way or that it could ever, you could ever use some of it in a cocktail. Like, I certainly would never have done that or a lot of the ingredients in this book, you know, showcase that like, or prove that you actually can make like a wider variety of drinks than ever before. You know, like, just make them, like just make them but make fabulous drinks that taste delicious, right? So, I mean, I think that's Kenta's real skill is that like, seeing something and seeing the beauty in that ingredient and seeing the beauty in the flavor and showing that best side and coaxing that flavor out, right? That's the hardest thing. And the different means, sometimes it has to do with speed. Sometimes it's temperature, sometimes it's alcohol, all of these things. So using different levers that have all been hiding in plain sight that nobody uses, right? Except for Kenta. So like to reveal all of that in one book is, is really, you know, I felt very honored to be able to, to share all these epiphanies.
Paul Clarke
You know, we could go on and on about the book because there's so much in here to explore, but we're not going to do that. Because, because we all have other things we need to be doing today. Before we head out the door, are there any final thoughts you'd like to share about the book or how it came together or how readers should approach it?
Kenta Goto
So, drink making is something very enjoyable. And you don't, I mean, you could go really like high-tech and super geeky about it too. That's, that's, that's also fun too. But you can do a lot of things to make up your drink game. Just pay attention to various basic details. Obviously you have to, your measurement needs to be accurate. But at the same time you pay attention to the dilution. because you don't want the drink to be too light or too stiff. You want like just, almost like a Suntory whiskey commercial, like nothing less, nothing more. Just, just right. And then, then I even just some simple drink like, yeah, like let's say a gin and tonic. So, if your gin is at the room temperature, most likely the moment you pour gin, ice is going to start melting. So, you might want to start pouring cold tonic water first. Then you add the room temperature gin at the very end. So that dilution will be less. So, a little small details that you just simply just pay attention to it. And that will go a long way. And I think drink making, first of all, you're going to witness that your drink is tasty. And you're going to really find drink making enjoyable. And I hope that this book will be very useful for many people.
Noah Rothbaum
I mean, I would say dig out those teaspoons from your drawer, your kitchen drawer. Buy an adjustable teaspoon, like the one that Kenta loves using. You can buy them anywhere, they're not very expensive.
All the recipes have photos from the incredible, legendary Eric Medsker, you know, top photographer. In cocktails and drinks today, it was important to Kenta and I that, like, you actually saw, like, what you were making, right? So that you would have a visual reference, and I think Eric was able to capture the essence of, of, of these drinks and, and, and Kenta's magic. Um, you know, we hope you enjoy the book and that this sort of demystifies making cocktails at home and also improves cocktails and And, you know, I guess, reach out, eh'. Let us know if you like the book, you know.
Kenta Goto
In addition to fantastic Eric's photograph, uh, photography, yeah, the illustration was done by my wife Sarah.
Noah Rothbaum
Who we could not have done this project without, so Sarah played an integral role in this book and, and her beautiful illustrations, which adorn, starting with the spine of the which is one of my favorite parts of this book all the way through it, so.
Paul Clarke
That's amazing. That's, that's great. Well, Kenta, now thanks again so much for sharing all of this with us. Congratulations again for getting this book out there in the world. I've got to get back to New York soon. It's been way too long since I've sat at your bar.
Kenta Goto
Yeah, door's always open for you, Paul. So, thank you.
Noah Rothbaum
Thank you, Paul.
[music]
Paul Clarke
Head to kentagoto.com to find out more about Kenta Goto and his bars. The Goto Bartender's Guide, written by Kenta Goto and Noah Rothbaum, is out now. You can find a link to purchase that book in this episode's note.
And that's it for this episode. Subscribe to Radio Imbibe on your favorite podcast app to keep up with all our future episodes. We've got tons of recipes and articles for you online at our website, imbibemagazine.com. Follow us on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Threads for all our day-to-day coverage. And if you're not already a subscriber to the print and/or digital issues of Imbibe, then here's your opportunity to get on board. Just follow the link in this episode's notes and we'll be happy to help you out. I'm Paul Clarke. This is Radio Imbibe. Catch you next time.