5 Books to Read this Month: January 2025
by David Klemt
Our January book selections focus on changing the way we approach hospitality, mastering the fundamentals, America cuisine, bourbon, and more.
To review the book recommendations from December 2024, click here.
Let’s jump in!
Doug Radkey‘s followup book to Bar Hacks! The world around us has changed. The food and beverage industry has changed. The hospitality industry has changed. But will some ways of life change for the better? Will perhaps the restaurant, bar, and hospitality industry come out even stronger? With the right changes to the previous status quo, it is possible. There’s no question, resets are major undertakings, but a major reset will provide us with a clean start and that’s what this industry needs.
From Amazon: “Whether or not you’re a hotelier, restaurateur, bar owner or a front-line staff member—this book will position you for success in the new normal. With a spotlight on hybrid business models, real estate, profit margins, technology, guest experiences, culture, diversity, and mindset, Hacking the New Normal is the guidance you need.
It’s the last book roundup of the year and yes, I’m taking the opportunity to recommend KRG president and principal consultant Doug Radkey’s first book. In his this book he explains the importance of nailing the fundamentals in order to:
- start your operator journey in the best possible position;
- stabilize your business; and
- scale when the time comes, if that’s what you want.
From Amazon: “This informative and conversational book is the perfect read for aspiring or seasoned bar, pub, lounge, or even restaurant owners, operators, and managers looking for that competitive edge in operations! If you’re looking for both fundamental and in-depth planning methods, strategies, and industry focused insight to either start or grow a scalable, sustainable, memorable, profitable, and consistent venue in today’s cut-throat industry–Bar Hacks is written just for you!”
Click here to get your copy today!
We find inspiration everywhere at KRG Hospitality. As important to us is sharing that inspiration to help our clients, partners, and readers hone their vision for hospitality concepts. This book, Let There Be Havens, is a look at “gentle hospitality,” an approach to providing impactful hospitality to those who visit your home. Operators and front- and back-of-house teams welcome guests to their “other” home every shift, and this book can improve every professional’s approach to service and hospitality.
From Amazon: “When one person reaches for another, makes an offering, and believes we all hold such worth. No matter what we have in our pockets or where we’ve been up until now, we take care of each other―whether we’re strangers on a sidewalk or families around a table. Each day, we create trails of beauty and connection. One open door opens the next. And then it happens: our streets fill with lamplight, our lives lift with spirit, and our homes become circles of gold.”
Click here to order the hardcover.
Chef Edward Lee’s favorite spirit is bourbon. While this book, Best New Cookbook of Spring 2024 by Eater, Epicurious, and Food & Wine, dives into bourbon’s history, how to taste it, and famous distilleries, there’s another key element that should motivate you to buy it. Namely, how to cook with bourbon, and 50 accompanying recipes.
From Amazon: “Knowledgeable, entertaining, and more than a little infatuated with his subject, award-winning food writer and chef Edward Lee gives us his insight into bourbon, telling us everything we should know about the mellow honey-brown treasure that’s put Kentucky on the global map: How bourbon is made. Its history. How to read a label. A look inside the famous distilleries. The influence of oak. Tours of Kentucky’s bourbon regions. How to taste bourbon like a professional.”
Oh, Chef Lee is also an award-winning writer. In 2019, his book Buttermilk Graffiti won the James Beard Award for Best Book of the Year in Writing. It was also nominated for other awards. Chef Lee traveled the US, learned the personal and food stories of the people he encountered, and shared more than a dozen of those stories in this book, which also includes 40 recipes.
From Amazon: “American food is the story of mash-ups. Immigrants arrive, cultures collide, and out of the push-pull come exciting new dishes and flavors. But for Edward Lee, who, like Anthony Bourdain or Gabrielle Hamilton, is as much a writer as he is a chef, that first surprising bite is just the beginning. What about the people behind the food? What about the traditions, the innovations, the memories?”
Follow this link to buy your copy.
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