When Micah LeMon titled his 2017 mixology manual, The Imbible: A Cocktail Guide for Beginning and Home Bartenders, he wasn’t expecting a lawsuit. After nearly two decades behind the bar, a master’s in linguistics, an abandoned Ph.D., a Hollywood stint, and being part of the opening team at the James Beard-nominated Alley Light restaurant, LeMon felt ready to share his cocktail philosophy. In fact, when UVA Press approached him about writing a book, he already had a manuscript.
“I think they were surprised I had something to say, that I had a theoretical approach to making balanced cocktails,” he says.
His fascination with drinks began in an unlikely place: Liberty University, where alcohol was forbidden for students. LeMon and a few friends took jobs bussing tables at a country club run by a Liberty alum and, before long, he found himself working at the bar. “It was a bizarre experience for us,” he said. “We didn’t understand why people drank things we thought were gross and disgusting.” That experience sparked a curiosity that still drives LeMon to this day: “Why do people drink alcohol? Is it possible to make it good? If so, how?” Named one of the country’s top 100 bartenders in 2022 by the U.S. Bartenders’ Guild—and with one of his drinks on the cover of Garden & Gun in 2021—he’s found some answers.
LeMon saw The Imbible as a nod to his Pentecostal upbringing and Liberty roots. “Bibles are handbooks for doing things the right way,” he says. And he tried to do things the right way when he realized a Broadway play had the same title: The Imbible: A Spirited History of Drinking. LeMon flagged it to UVA Press, even suggesting they check with the play’s creator. “They were like, ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s a play. This is a book. It’s not a big deal,’” LeMon remembers.
It turned out to be a big deal.
The book hit shelves just in time for the December holidays, and it sold well. Hoping for a James Beard Award nomination, LeMon hired a publicist, inspired by mentors like José de Brito (The Alley Light, The Inn at Little Washington, Fleurie) and Ian Boden (The Shack, Maude & The Bear).
Then, the obstacles started piling up. Once the first print run sold out, bookstores weren’t restocking. “University presses are quirky publishers,” LeMon says. “They’re attached to institutions of learning, which means that quite frequently, they are not beholden to some kind of, like, profit incentive.” When the press head LeMon worked with died suddenly, so did the press’s interest in drink-related books.
Then came the lawsuit. In 2019, the creators of the Broadway play sued LeMon, his photographer, and UVA Press for “defrauding customers of the lawful Imbible materials.” UVA settled and, according to LeMon, the settlement cost was enough to deter them from reprinting his book. Also, if he wanted to publish another edition, it had to be under a different title.
Shortly after, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. At-home mixologists were thirsty for in-depth manuals like LeMon’s, but couldn’t get their hands on a copy. “I really wanted to have it be successful, and hopefully have it be some kind of launch pad to some larger career developments in my life,” says LeMon. Beaten, but not broken, he spent four years fighting to regain the rights to his book. In 2024, when new press director Eric Brandt took over, LeMon finally got them back.
On the advice of a friend of an Alley Light regular who happened to know the head of Oxford University Press’s North American branch, LeMon decided to self-publish on Amazon. His book, now titled Ounces, Drops, & Dashes, went up for sale at the end of 2024.
“The moral of the story for me,” LeMon says, “is learning how university presses work, understanding the economics of food celebrity in the U.S., and realizing it’s probably better to be really good at your job than to have a bunch of books.”
But why not both? In addition to continuing to craft inventive cocktails with foraged regional ingredients—pawpaws, maypops, sassafras, black birch, spruce tips, black walnuts, hardy oranges, ramps, and wormwood—LeMon is already working on another book. He’s in no rush. “I’m hoping it’s just a fun thing I get into over the next couple of years.”
Known for his foraging cocktail practices, Micah LeMon pushed through various branches of law and bureaucracy to regain the rights to his book. It has been republished as Ounces, Drops, & Dashes. Photo: Tristan Williams.
