Author of the week: Rosie Schaap

last updated 8 January 2015

Rosie Schaap probably could get away with taking a swig or two on the job, said Molly Fischer in The New York Observer. In addition to writing “Drink,” a column in The New York Times Magazine, she is practically the resident bartender of New York’s book industry, frequently mixing cocktails for publishers’ holiday parties. But you won’t find any bottles on her desk. “For me, drinking and writing have never gone together that well,” says Schaap, whose new memoir, Drinking With Men, explores the camaraderie she’s enjoyed among fellow tipplers in various pubs throughout the world. “A glass of wine to calm my poor nerves and loosen me up a little is fine, but that’s about all I can manage and still get work done.”

Schaap has learned how to fend off unwanted attention when she goes to a bar alone, said Claire Zulkey in WBEZ.org. “If a ‘friendly’ man is too persistently friendly,” she says, “I find that saying something like, ‘Nice meeting you, but I’ve had a long day and need to spend a little quiet time with my book and my drink’ usually works fine.” Schaap prides herself on being an adventurous barfly, traveling to unfamiliar cities and following her own instincts to locate the best places in town—even if it’s the bar car on a commuter train. She draws the line, though, at one drink in particular: the mixture of whiskey and pickle juice known as a pickleback. “I like pickles. I like bars. And I like delicatessens. But pickle juice makes a bar smell like a deli, which just isn’t right.”