Robert Simonson writes about bars, bartenders, cocktails, spirits and travel for The New York Times, where he has been a contributor since 2000 and the paper’s primary cocktail writer since 2009. He also writes regularly for Imbibe, New York magazine, Vinepair, Esquire and other publications. His books include The Old-Fashioned: The World’s First Classic Cocktail (2014); A Proper Drink (2016), the first history of the cocktail renaissance; 3-Ingredient Cocktails (2017), which was nominated for a 2018 James Beard Award; The Martini Cocktail (2019), which was nominated for a 2020 James Beard Award and won a Spirited Award; Mezcal and Tequila Cocktails (2021), which won a 2022 IACP Award; Modern Classic Cocktails (2022); and, most recently, The Encyclopedia of Cocktails (2023). His writing has been nominated for more than a dozen Spirited Awards and four IACP Awards. He was the recipient of the 2019 Spirited Award for Best Cocktail and Spirits Writer; and the 2021 IACP Award for Narrative Beverage Writing Without Recipes. He is the co-author, with Martini Doudoroff, of two apps, “Modern Classics of the Cocktail Renaissance” and “The Martini Cocktail.” He is also the author of the Substack newsletter “The Mix With Robert Simonson.” A native of Wisconsin, he lives in Brooklyn with his wife Mary Kate.
