For a long time now, people have been proclaiming the death of print but Arion Press refuses to hear that. This press in San Francisco’s Presidio is one of the country’s last truly great bookmakers. They produce nearly everything in house, even going so far as to cast their own metal type for printing. They print on ancient dangerous machines, arrange and bind books by hand and in the end, only make small editions of books. These books though are the kinds of objects that get handed down through the generations and cherished. Everything from the look of the binding to the feel of the paper and even the smell is considered carefully and given appropriate attention.

Anthony Bourdain and The Balvenie (one of our personal favorite scotch whiskys) visited Arion Press for their excellent Raw Craft series and were shown how a book is made, the whole arcane process from casting type to reading it aloud. It’s a mesmerizing process and well worth a look.