Interesting website:

http://www.rdwarf.com/users/mink/martinifaq.html#what

A month ago I got together with a couple of other FTers at G Lounge in NYC. I remember thinking everything was perfect at that moment. A Grey Goose Martini with tiny little ice crystals, and two new friends!

A Vote for "The Vault Martini Bar" in Portland, OR
 

Had a wonderful Kettle One Vodka Martini with Stuffed Blue Cheese olives here!

http://www.vault-martini.com/

SQ F (okay, J!) on a non-busy flight into SIN, from somewhere with a faintly colonial history... with at least 2hrs before descent, enjoying the drink while someone is at the ready to serve up another. :p


(Re-booting this thread so that today's thread can be merged into this one!)

PS. Sydney's Shangri La bar, Blu Horizon, makes some good cocktails, especially if you like vodka. Worth a try - and the best view for anyone here for a quick visit - unless you bridge climb. :D

Most bars at expensive hotels in Japan make excellent martinis. And you never have to tell them to stay the hell away from the vodka;)

Martini-no vermouth?
 

I have ordered (gin) martinis at a number of bars-including Cruise Bar suppposedly Denver's top bar per Denver Magazine-each time I had to ask for some vermouth.
What is going on and since when has this been happening?
After all a martini by definition is gin+vermouth

Wirelessly posted (Nokia N97 / Palm TX: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D050; Blazer/4.3) 16;320x448)

shaken or stirred.....?

So if they didn't give you vermouth what did they put into the Martini or did they give you plain Gin :confused: .

There is a wide variety of opinions on the proper amount of vermouth to put in a martini. I believe the original ratio of gin to vermouth was something approaching 1:1, but the trend in recent years has been towards smaller amounts of vermouth, with some people (myself included) preferring a drink that might better be described as "cold gin in a glass". With an olive.

I've seen more than one bartender rinse the inside of a martini glass with vermouth, dump it out, then shake the gin with ice and pour it into the glass. I tend to favor this technique.

It's probably best to give the bartender some direction as to the amount of vermouth you want, since there seems to be no real standard.

In fact, I was informed by one bartender that this is a martini with a vermouth splash

"So if they didn't give you vermouth what did they put into the Martini or did they give you plain Gin . "



plain gin (shaken) with a twist

Many bartenders today think they are show business personalities and not simple alcoholic drink providers. Many mix a drink so fast they have no idea of the normal ingredient proportions, the amount of actual alcohol poured (eg 90% of the time it is light) and sometimes the ingredients. I hate those cheating speed merchants and remember the service at tip time.

MisterNice

It's better than places where all drinks are measured before being served. You rarely get less than "one drink" when things aren't measured.

Didn’t Winston Churchill once say that the perfect martini was drinking cold gin while looking at a bottle of vermouth?

Hawkeye Pierce said something similar.