Shanna Farrell | An Island Press author | Photo credit: Nicola Parisi

Shanna Farrell

Shanna Farrell is an interviewer, writer, and audio producer. She is an interviewer at UC Berkeley's Oral History Center, where she works on a wide variety of projects and specializes in contemporary cocktail culture. She is the author of Bay Area Cocktails: A History of Culture, Community, and Craft. Her writing has appeared in Imbibe magazine, Life & ThymePUNCH, Distilled Stories, The San Francisco Chronicle, Edible San Francisco, Edible East Bay, Berkeley side Nosh, and the Oral History Review. You can occasionally hear her on the airwaves on shows like Gravy and The Prix Fixe.

A Good Drink | Island Press

A Good Drink

In Pursuit of Sustainable Spirits

“Insightful tour de force… Farrell’s writing is as informative as it is intoxicating”  -- Publishers Weekly


Shanna Farrell loves a good drink. As a bartender, she not only poured spirits, but learned their stories—who made them and how. Living in San Francisco, surrounded by farm-to-table restaurants and high-end bars, she wondered why the eco-consciousness devoted to food didn’t extend to drinks.   

The short answer is that we don’t think of spirits as food.