So we stopped for dinner at a Red Lobster tonight. I ordered my usual cocktail – martini, Bombay Sapphire, straight up, with olives.
It seemed to take quite a while to get my drink. Our table was in the bar area, so I know the bartender wasn’t very busy. When our server sets it on the table, it’s in a martini glass, has olives, but is brown – the color of a pretty strong whiskey-and-water.
This is not a martini, I tell the server. Off she goes to consult with the bartender. “Yes, it’s a martini,” she tells me. “That’s the vermouth.”
“It’s supposed to be dry vermouth, which is colorless,” I tell her. “He must have used sweet vermouth.” I didn’t want to complicate the issue by explaining that he must have used as much vermouth as gin to get that color.
Some more discussion between server and bartender which I can’t really hear. When she comes back, the glass is about a third full of colorless liquid. I taste it, and am a bit surprised that it is indeed Bombay Sapphire. I am less surprised by the fact that it’s room temperature.
I know that martini aficionados can be pretty picky. We can discuss at great length the proper proportion of vermouth to gin, from “just pass the vermouth cork across the glass” to the full 1/6th as much vermouth as gin – but we all agree that it’s dry vermouth (and substantially less in volume than the gin). We can strongly aver that the drink should be “shaken, not stirred” or vice versa – but we all agree that a martini should be chilled.
A martini is one of the most straightforward and iconic cocktails there is. What the hell kind of bartender can’t make one?
A dumb one. I made Martinis for my Daddy when I was 10yo. If you get the ratio/mix right it’s very easy to make.
And yes it should be chilled, not frozen.
An idiot. It should be a requirement. I haven’t drank in 6 years and haven’t had one in 8 and I still remember.
How can someone not know? You can watch assorted movies and learn it.
Not playing Devil’s advocate with the moron but some really low rent shitty dry vermouth actually does have a yellow hue to it… like dirty brake fluid or pee. But FFS just read the bottle!
It is not as if being a bartender is rocket surgery.
EDIT: Just reread the above and realized this foolery took place at Red Slobster, that explains it, actually.
I think what confuses many young bartenders is the suffux “–tini.”
In a world where we have appletinis, crantinis, and chocolatinis, together with their necessary mixes which are not necessarily dry vermouth; I’m not surprised that a bartender would be confused by a classic martini. “You want just gin and dry vermouth; you don’t want cranberry juice or creme de cacao or …?”
Even worse, are the places that equate “martini” with vodka. Years ago, I ordered a Bombay Sapphire martini in a place that should have known better. The young lady waitress returned to the table and said, “I’m sorry sir; the barman says that we don’t have any vodka called ‘Bombay Sapphire’.” :rolleyes:
I ordered a martini in a fairly upscale restaurant in Goiânia, Brazil, and it arrived at the table half-and-half vermouth to gin, at room temperature, in a glass that was warm to the touch. I politely requested that it be chilled (relayed through my wife, to ensure no language-barrier misunderstanding) and it was redelivered with ice cubes floating in it. I didn’t order martinis in Brazil after that.
I’ve never had a martini in my life (not much of a drinker, hate gin, prefer beer or whiskies), and never mixed a drink. But I could make a better one than at least one bartender out there. Wow.
Seriously, it’s so easy and straight-forward that it’s something a person of ordinary intelligence has picked up just through osmosis (from movies and TV, and being around people).
Okay, I’ll try it off the cuff. I know that you put gin or vodka in a shaker with a little dry vermouth, shake or stir it with ice (shake it for Mr. Bond), and strain it into a glass. A martini glass… with an olive and/or pearl onion for garnish. A dry martini would have less vermouth, a dirty martini would have some of the juice from the olive jar.
But if I was even applying for a bartender job, I’d be studying the 50 most-ordered drinks. If I got the job, and started Monday, I’d memorize the top 100 and be practicing on my friends all weekend. And what kind of place hires someone and gives them zero training?
How many bartenders are actual bartenders? I would guess 99% of “bartending” at Red Lobster is serving beer or wine.
At my local bars, I don’t think I would ever ask them to make a drink with more than 2 ingredients, at least not after the Gimlet (2 ingredients, 3 if fancy) with 7-Up.
Even decades ago, there were books with drink recipes one could refer to. Today, one could use the internet, perhaps even look at a video demonstration.
A few years ago I was at the Hakkasan club in Las Vegas. They charge $26(!) for my when I was still drinking favorite drink- a dry, dirty Sapphire martini. I’d have been upset if they couldn’t do it for that price, but no, they did it exactly right. Even gave me the shaker with the extra gin to top myself off. I still remember sipping on that one in that crazy club, a prelude to what turned out to be quite a night.
You got totally hosed, OP. You deserve better. This is just a reminder that the art of the martini is not lost in the world.
Maybe. But they have a menu on each table that includes a variety of cocktails, most way more complex than a martini. I’d never order a Strawberry Mojito or Tropical Treasure, but Red Lobster touts them.
Interestingly, that menu has a section of martinis, which of course includes the classic one. It even has a picture of a basic martini.
One of my favorite local restaurants charges (I think) $14 for a Bombay Sapphire martini. If you like bleu cheese olives as I do, they stuff them on site. The martini glass is about 1/3 full of a well-mixed cocktail, and comes with a “side car” – an ice-filled brandy snifter which holds a carafe with the rest of the drink. So after you’ve sipped the glass empty you replenish it with cold martini.
It’s not an everyday indulgence, but man, that’s one good martini.
I remember reading a criticism of that movie (Cocktail, starring Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown) when it came out. Someone pointed out that bartending is a volume business and no bartender is going to spend so much time on showmanship and acrobatics, since it would slow them down, reducing the number of tips.
Red Lobster ? Its a kid working in a place that probably has a section in the drink menu labelled ‘martinis’ - sweet colourful beverages in cool little conical glasses that never contain gin.
I like martinis, but here in Alberta I am hard pressed to think of anyone I know who drinks them besides me. They are much more of an American thing, and good on you. I see specials for ‘martinis’ but they are almost never for actual Martinis. That being said mixology seems to be popular with the young beardlings. I have had several young bartender that were eager to mix one up and discuss preferences.
