Gary “gaz” Regan

1951–2019

Anticipated the Cocktail Renaissance and was, with Dale DeGroff, its early leader; wrote The Joy of Mixology

Gary Regan was a veteran New York bartender and one of the early leaders (and writers) of the Cocktail Renaissance. As a bartender, Regan worked The North Star Pub, Drake’s Drum, Ichabod’s, Rathbones and other bars in the 1970s and 1980s. Regan pivoted to writing in the 1990s, and published extensively. “The Book of Bourbon” and “The Joy of Mixology” are two of his key publications, but “New Classic Cocktails” was also quite influential in the early days of the Cocktail Renaissance. After developing tongue cancer in the 2000s, Gary Regan re-invented himself as “gaz” and focused on teaching “mindful bartending”, a distinctive, highly successful role of his own invention, that significantly increased his international stature.