Thursday, July 01, 2004

Signs on the Road to the Apocalypse

I’ve been on the road a lot lately, most recently to San Antonio, TX but in the last couple of months I’ve also been to Toronto, ON, Clinton, MS, and the Washington DC area.  They all have one thing in common - not one knows how to mix a proper Martini.

This is real hardship folks.  I’ll admit, just last night I was bemused by a comely young bartender who when I asked her for a dry Martini and began to specify what I wanted, she retorted, “I know what that means.” Her indigant - almost wounded pride - caused me to respond with an “Oh do you?” before I even thought about it.  OK, a touch harsh, even arrogant on my part, but when she explained, it turned out she really didn’t know what I wanted.

It’s typical.  These days, bartenders are mostly in a defensive mode.  People have lost the art of a dry Martini; they think Sir Winston Churchill’s recipe was the right one (not that most know of Churchill’s recipe but bear with me): fill a glass with gin and then glance briefly at a bottle of vermouth across the room.  That, dear readers, is gin in a glass.

And it’s what’s being served in bars in California, Texas, Virginia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Kansas, New Jersey, Georgia, Illinois, New York, and Ontario.  And for all I know, in every other state and province north of the Rio Grande.  Some bartenders know better, but a shocking number do not.  Just so we’re clear, I posted the proper recipe for a perfect Martini here.

The way I need to order a Martini in order to get it right bemuses friends and colleagues, annoys bartenders, and causes unnecessary confusion.  Hear my plea, let the word go forth:

Gin in a glass doth not a Martini make.

Thanks, I feel better now.

Posted by Matt on 07/01 at 07:17 PM
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