Noah Rothbaum

Noah performed on stage at Joe’s Pub in our January 9, 2024 edition of Seriously Entertaining, speaking on the evening’s theme, “A Long Story Short.”

Noah Rothbaum is one of the world’s leading cocktails and spirits authorities. He is the author of The Art of American Whiskey: A Visual History of the Nation’s Most Storied Spirit, through 100 Iconic Labels and the forthcoming Whiskey Bible. In addition, he is the associate editor of the Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails, which the Washington Post called “the drinking buddy you’ve been waiting for.” It won the American Library Association’s prestigious Dartmouth Medal for the best reference book of 2021 and the 2022 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for Best New Book on Drinks Culture, History, or Spirits. His first book, The Business of Spirits: How Savvy Marketers, Innovative Distillers, and Entrepreneurs Changed How We Drink, was published in 2007.

Previously, he was the editor of the Daily Beast’s Half Full section. Under his leadership, the site won the 2018 and the 2020 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for Best Cocktail & Spirits Publication. He also was co-host of the podcast Life Behind Bars, which won the 2018 and the 2021 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for Best Podcast Series.

Rothbaum was the founding editor-in-chief of Liquor.com, where he won a 2013 James Beard Award for executive producing its “How to Cocktail” video series.

According to Chicago magazine’s former chief dining critic, Jeff Ruby, “Rothbaum knows drinking like Newton knew gravity, but he’s not all high and mighty about it, creating laws and whatnot.”

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