Grimes, William “Biff”
From The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails
(1950–), is an American journalist and the author of the influential Straight Up or on the Rocks: The Story of the American Cocktail (1993, 2002), the first accurate history of the American school of drinking, and three other books on food and drink. Since 1989, he has worked for the New York Times as a magazine writer, culture reporter, theater columnist, restaurant critic, book reviewer, and, most recently, obituary writer. Former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller said that Grimes’s byline “carries a signature, a blend (or call it a cocktail—Biff wrote a book about drinks) of gentle wit, graceful style and wide-ranging erudition.”
Grimes, William. Straight Up or on the Rocks: The Story of the American Cocktail. Rev. ed. New York: North Point, 2001.
Koblin, John. “William Grimes Is New Obit Writer for the Times.” Observer, March 7, 2008. http://observer.com/2008/03/william-grimes-is-new-obit-writer-for-the-itimesi/ (accessed February 12, 2021).
By: Lauren Clark
This definition is from The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails, edited by David Wondrich (Editor-in-Chief) and Noah Rothbaum (Associate Editor).