Tale of Two Hotel Lounges
Ian, a former bartender, leaves in the comments an interesting and well-reasoned case for including frou-frou concoctions in the “martini” category. His argument is that highballs are a category of drink based on the type of glass, so we should be willing to consider things in a martini glass to be a martini.
I’d put the etymological emphasis elsewhere. On one hand, the highball has come to be a whiskey and ginger ale, but from what I gather it was originally scotch and soda. So it’s been a fairly generic term for a while – and while we classify screwdrivers and vodka-tonics as highballs, people don’t usually order them that way. On the other hand, even the Pop Rocks martini at Match (the place T-Rage so expertly reviewed) references the very drink it’s supplanting. The martini (originally the “martini cocktail”) derives from Martini & Rossi vermouth. Earlier versions may well have been sweeter than the idealized dry martini we have in our heads today. But they, too, had vermouth as a component.
Certainly, it’s a purist stance. I should probably have Ian’s understanding and live-let-live attitude. But I don’t. Especially when I read stuff like this:
You may not notice the narrow Charlesmark Hotel façade as you walk down Boylston Street, but it’s most certainly worth stopping for. In fact, the tiramisu martini alone merits a drop-in. A brilliant concoction of vanilla vodka, Baileys, amaretto, sugar, spice, and everything nice, this drink eats like a meal — a delicious pastry-like meal. The Key-lime martini tastes like liquefied pie (in a good and alcoholic way, of course)
I’ve been to the Charlesmark Lounge (655 Boylson St., near Copley) and liked it as a bar. It was an undiscovered little spot on the edge of Back Bay (let’s see how long that lasts), with a nice slender layout. The service was subpar, but sometimes even that’s OK, especially since the bartender was capable enough with the vodka martinis and cosmos. But tiramisu? Key lime pie? If I want these desserts – I often do – I’ll eat tiramisu or key lime pie. There’s such a wonderful world of spirits out there, I don’t see the point of bothering with ersatz food.
Meanwhile, this weekend I visited Encore Lounge (275 Tremont Street, next to the Roxy) which is the antidote to Trendy Bar Syndrome. For starters, it’s a cabaret bar, and on open-mic nights patrons belt out show tunes and songbook favorites to piano accompaniment. The clientele, unsurprisingly, leans heavily gay and older, though on Saturday night there really was a cross section of people, women and men, straight and gay, young and old. The ethos is pure hotel bar: round black-lacquer tables, votive candles, dim lighting. Sure, it looked and felt like a Billy Joel video, but I was into it as a refreshing change. I’m not even a showtunes or cabaret fan, but the fun people were having was infectious.
Service was attentive, but the bartending was more miss than hit. My friends ordering mixed drinks complained of watering-down and ended up resorting to the drastic measure of taking their next vodka neat. The server confided that one should order manhattans from him, since the bartender didn’t know how to make a good one and he did. It was all right, but I’ve had plenty better. One cosmo arrived without the cranberry juice (!); instead of taking it back to remake it, the server brought out a plastic shot of cranberry juice to add in. Granted it was a busy Saturday night for the staff. But if they’re charging Theatre District prices (11 bucks a cocktail), one expects better.
By the way, if you make it to Encore take a minute to peek into the Marriott lobby. It’s grandeur of the sort you just don’t see much these days.
I certainly respect your purist stance towards martinis, but I do want to correct one factual error: the martini is not named after Martini and Rossi vermouth.
It’s far from clear exactly what it IS named after, but the “martini”, as a drink, predates Martini and Rossi as a brand and as a name.
However, you are quite correct that, from the beginning, everything that is a decent contender for being the original “martini” has featured vermouth.
The frontrunner for the role of “the orginal martini” is the Martinez cocktail, developed by Jerry Thomas (May His Name Be Hallowed), the father of modern bartending, back in 1862:
Boker’s Bitters hasn’t been made in the past hundred years, but it’s supposed to have been somwhat cardamom flavored. Maraschino is probably about the same as it is today. Old Tom gin is sweetened, and sweet genevier is probably as close as we can come to it, today. The vermouth that Jerry Thomas (All Hallow His Name) is talking about is sweet vermouth, not dry vermouth. And gum syrup is what we’d now call simple syrup.
So we’re dealing with a cocktail which the LEAST sweet ingredient is Maraschino.
You can approximate it, today, with Bol’s Genevier, if you can find it (Kappy’s on Rte 1 often has random weird stuff like that, as does Marty’s Liquors in Brookline), sweet vermouth, Maraschino liqueur, and Angastura bitters. I’m drinking one right now, and it’s pretty good.
But it’s NOTHING like a martini in the modern sense. The modern martini wasn’t REALLY developed until, well, after Prohibition, I guess. I mean, you can chart its development as time goes on and all, and you can see how it changed from the sweet dessert-like cocktail that Jerry Thomas (All Must Worship And Hallow His Name) made to the drink that Winston Churchill made by saluting the vermouth from across the room — but I think that it’s not until after Prohibition that you’ve really got the turning point where, if someone gave you something that they called a “martini”, you’d actually get what you were expecting.
Also — just to make sure that we’re clear on this — as much as I HAVE come to terms with “martini” being used as a general category, if I order a martini, I want four parts gin to one part vermouth, shaken with ice, and served with two green olives on a skewer.
However, I am NOT totally unreasonable — I’m willing to accept the olives either with OR without pimentos.
Thanks for the detailed response. I stand corrected.
I’ll have to try a Martinez. I’ve not actually had Dutch gin.