Mike Wolf’s Cheer Offers Stories and Recipes for the Season

We thought last year was going to be the year. The year when our holiday gatherings were going to be back to “normal.” Of course, Omicron had other plans. And as a result, many of us scaled back our holiday parties.

But 2022 is looking like our year. Perhaps, decked out in velvet and sequins, we can safely toast each other in person, and maybe even stand under the mistletoe.

All this delayed merriment may be leading to some societal pressure. If you’re getting ready to host a party and want to show off your pandemic-honed cocktail-making skills (or mix drinks worthy of your friends and family who upped their cocktail game in the past two years), don’t worry — Nashville’s Mike Wolf has your back. On Nov. 15 the prolific bartender, podcaster and author will publish Cheer: A Liquid Gold Holiday Drinking Guide. Covering every possible opportunity to celebrate between October and Dry January, this seasonally focused book will get you in the mood for holiday entertaining.

“I’m hoping it is a book that will get dirty on the countertop,” Wolf says, explaining that the 387-page book is designed to have stories that are read, told and retold, and recipes that are experimented with and spilled on.

Fans of Wolf’s previous books — Garden to Glass: Grow Your Drinks From the Ground Up, Lost Spring and Barantined: Cocktail Recipes, Tips and Stories to Enjoy at Home — will find some familiar territory in Cheer. The book includes more than 125 seasonal recipes, from classics like hot buttered rum to twists like the persimmon-spice Old Fashioned. There are plenty of drinks that can be served in a punch bowl, perfect for a party. Check out the suggestion for adding a light, dry rosé to your cranberries at Thanksgiving. And, yes, there are some seasonal movie and music pairings suggested to accompany your drink of choice. Nonalcoholic recipes for Dry January — or any other time you don’t want booze in your beverage — are also included.

Fans of Wolf’s Liquid Gold podcast — co-hosted by Kenneth Dedmon and Jessica Backhus, both of whom are featured in the book — will find the familiar spirit-centric trivia they love to share. The first popular eggnog recipe? That came from George Washington. The fruit on which Lewis and Clark subsisted on their trek west? Pawpaw. You’ll learn to make pawpaw bitters and cordials and even get to read about craft beer and pawpaws. 

Wolf fans are in for a new treat, too. Cheer features several fictional short stories he wrote, a nod to what he hopes will be his next book — a novel.

Because Wolf thinks Cheer will be his last cocktail book as he pursues fiction, he really packed it all in this one (to the point where his editor kindly told him he could stop). Featuring lovely photos from Christine Souder (Wolf’s sister-in-law) and illustrations by Audrey’s Jenna Pearl Leonard, Cheer might feel like a manual for how to be a little extra at the holidays. It’s tempting to run out and buy star anise pods, Proper Sake, elderflower liqueur and every other ingredient lovingly mentioned in order to have anything a guest’s heart desires. If that’s you, you’re not alone, Wolf writes: “It’s our nature, as humans and Americans want to ‘up the game’ and make every year the most epic celebration ever.”

To save your sanity and your budget, Wolf suggests picking just one specialty drink for your event, making that the evening’s signature drink, and then having a few other classic spirits (he suggests tequila, gin and whiskey) on hand for alternatives. Wolf’s a fan of recipes that make life easier. He’s a proponent of batch cocktails such as martinis that can be stored in the freezer or Old Fashioneds that can hang out in the fridge, so you don’t spend your time at your party making drinks and instead can spend time talking to your guests. Blended drinks and aged eggnog are other do-ahead suggestions.

“I like it when people look at a book and say, ‘Well, I’m not necessarily going to make this like the thing that he made, but it’s inspiring me to do something else with it.’ I’m all about using what’s around you, using what’s growing, using stuff that’s in season. So one of my goals is to inspire people to do their own thing, and I’m just giving them the ratios and the base knowledge to be able to do that.”

Cheer, which also features a foreword by local pastry icon and food writer Lisa Donovan, will be available at bookstores across town, including The Bookshop and Parnassus Books. Wolf is planning an event with The Bookshop and Peninsula on Nov. 16, plus some other events around town in December.