View from Behind the Bar

A bartender who spent much of his working life at New York's trendy Odeon—where he helped to revive the cocktail known as the Cosmopolitan—has sold the story of life behind the bar to editorial director Gerry Howard at Broadway. He is Toby Cecchini, and agent Bill Clegg sold his book Cosmopolitan: A Bartender's Life at auction for a low- to mid-six figures, North American rights and audio. Cecchini first came to Howard's attention when he wrote a series of diaries for the online magazine Slate about his bartender life. "He's his own man, a terrific writer," said Howard, who thinks he can make the kind of splash for bartending that Anthony Bourdain did for the restaurant kitchen in Kitchen Confidential.