Gary Regan

cocktail columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle

After being raised in British pubs in Lancashire, gaz regan, the bartender formerly known as Gary Regan, emigrated to New York City in 1973 when he was just 22 years old. For over two decades he tended bar at a variety of bars in Manhattan, and in 1990 he started to write about spirits and cocktails in various trade and consumer magazines. His first book, The Bartender’s Bible, was published in 1991

Between 1995 and 1998, gaz co-authored Book of Bourbon and Other Fine American Whiskey , The Bourbon Companion, New Classic Cocktails, and The Martini Companion. Since then gaz has written The Joy of Mixology, 2003, the bartender’s GIN compendium, 2009, and The Cocktailian Chronicles, 2010. His next book, gaz regan’s Annual Manual for Bartenders, is due to be released in Spring, 2011.

gaz writes The Cocktailian, a bi-weekly column, for The San Francisco Chronicle, and over the years written many articles for publications such as Food & Wine, Gourmet, The Wine Enthusiast, Wine & Spirits, The Malt Advocate, Nation's Restaurant News, Cheers Magazine, and Imbibe. His work is also published in magazines in the U.K., Australia, Austria, China, the Czech Republic, Germany, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Slovakia, South Africa, Switzerland, and Russia

gaz hosts www.ardentspirits.com, publishes three free, weekly e-mail newsletters, and he heads up the Worldwide Bartender Database, a community that serves to put spirits companies in touch with bartenders all over the world. Although approximately 80% of the members of this organization are in the USA and the UK, the database also has members in Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Brasil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Quatar, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates.

When he isn’t writing, gaz is usually on the road conducting workshops in France, the U.K., the USA, Australia, and anywhere else he’s allowed to travel to…