Brandy is Dandy -- as our chap above pouring his date a snifter of that aromatic potation is demonstrating -- and liquor is slicker when you serve it from your own home bar. It's downright embarrassing, time-wasting and clumsy to oiler your favorite femme a double martini and have to ransack the entire apartment rounding up glasses, utensils and hooch. And when all the accoutrements are assembled, you've still got to search for counter space -- space that won't stain or scratch -- on which your cocktails to concoct. It all proves, we feel, that a bar just can't be bested as the spot for storing, swizzling and sipping your libations.
A previous Playboy (January 1958) gave the basics of barmanship -- formulas, supplies and utensils -- but we hold it high time to put these in their proper setting, and so have selected the best of the current crop of home bars. The styles vary from stand-up bars (for which you'll want bar stools, of course) to cellarettes: the materials from marble to reed wrap; and the prices from Champale to champagne.
Some, like the bar below, feature matching back bars for extra bottle storage. Several feature horizontal wine storage racks which mitigate the danger of cork dry-outs and evaporation. And some sport self-contained refrigeration units for ice cubes and for imparting that tangy chill to your white wines, champagnes, beers and ales.
They're all delightful centers of good cheer for those Dionysian digs of yours, or, if you're thinking of gifting someone, they're as super for sending as they are for tending.
