There it is. The new Bar Regular wall. Amazing! Thank you for supporting what we do here. As A. J. Liebling said, “Freedom of the press is confined to the people who own one.” And, while Liebling was referring to the big boys in the press game, that maxim applies equally to the scrappy small fry as well. That means that, here at The Mix, we can write whatever we want, free of interference from sponsors or advertisers, because you, the independent readers, help us keep our little independent press going. Thank you!
If you don’t see your name on the wall and think it should be there, please let us know! Everyone should be there, except our newest Bar Regular, Logan Talbot. (Logan, we’ll get you in the next round!)
And thanks again to The Mix’s designer, Mark Ward, for setting up the new virtual wall!
Please remember what happens when you join this group:
In addition to your name proudly displayed in an engraved virtual brass plaque on the virtual Mix bar wall:
New Bar Regulars will get a copy of my new book, The Encyclopedia of Cocktails and renewing Bar Regulars can choose a signed copy of any book in my catalog. That includes The Old-Fashioned, A Proper Drink, 3-Ingredient Cocktails, The Martini Cocktail and Mezcal and Tequila Cocktails. Or, you can have an additional signed copy of Modern Classic Cocktails or The Encyclopedia of Cocktails, if you like. And you don’t have to wait for the release date. You can ask for your book as soon as you renew!
We are also into our third month of a new 2024 feature called “Regular Recipes.” These will be cocktail recipes only accessible to Bar Regulars. The recipes will be for new, original cocktails drawn from the best bars in the world. In all or most cases, they will be appearing for the first time ever in The Mix. “Regularly Recipes” will appear randomly, but at least 12 times a year. (The next one will go out this week!)
At a pre-arranged date in 2024, there will be a live Bar Regular get-together, where Bar Regulars are invited to join me for cocktail hour at a bar to be named later. I will give you plenty of advance notice of this, just in case any Bar Regulars who live outside the New York area want to make the trip in for the event. More details coming soon!
Thank you again, for joining us!
-Robert and Mary Kate
Looking back to our first post of the year, on January 2nd, I wrote:
While we’re on the subject of Martinis, I came up against an odd phenomenon during my recent bar-hopping. At two separate midtown Manhattan cocktail bars—bars of established reputation—Mary Kate found herself unable to order a 3-to-1 gin Martini. On both occasions, the bartender or server said such a ratio was impossible, because the house Martini measured 3 ounces, so the drink could be 2-to-1 (that is, 2 ounces gin, one ounce dry vermouth), but not 3-to-1. The idea that the Martini could be measured out as 2 1/4 ounces gin and 3/4 ounce vermouth seemed beyond their ken. (We finally went to one of our locals, Grand Army, where we successfully scored a 3-1 Gin Martini with no muss, no fuss.)
This dumbfounded me. We are living in a great Martini era in which the cocktail is more popular than ever. Personal gin-vermouth ratios have always been something every bartender has had to deal with and master. I’ve never encountered a situation where I was told I couldn’t have the ratio I wanted. After thinking it over a while, it occurred to me that one or more of the following things is going on:
Modern bars want you to order their house Martini variations, not the Martini recipe you want.
Because many new bars have house Martini variations on the menu which they promote, bartenders are taught to make those, and are less skilled in making other standard Martinis.
Many Martinis at modern bars are pre-batched and simply poured out a refrigerated bottle. They are thus impossible to customize to a patron’s specific preferences.
Younger customers don’t think as much about “their” Martini as older patrons used to in the past. They simply order the Martini variation that is on the menu.
People aren’t as adept at math as they used to be.
Since then, I’ve located two bars that offer an antidote to these Martini vaguaries. Both Metropolis, the new restaurant inside the Perelman Performing Arts Center, and Tigre, the new ‘70s-themed cocktail lounge on the Lower East Side, sell custom house Martinis, just like every other bar these days. However, they are also prepared to mix you up a classic Martini to your exact specifications!
At Tigre, the Martini menu offers these ratios:
04-to-1
08-to-1
12-to-1
16-to-1
01-to-Nothing
Now, I don’t know if that means you can’t get a 3-to-1 or 10-to-1 Martini—all of these options many be pre-batched—but those are a lot of choices. (I personally would add the so-called “Montgomery” Martini, at 15-to-1. I do realized that ratio is a bitch, but for history’s sake…)
Metropolis gets into the nitty-gritty even more. Under a heading titled “Bespoke Martinis” there is this:
Step 1 - Choose Your Spirit & Preparation:
50/50 - Half and HalfWet - I said I liked Vermouth
Classic - Some Vermouth
Dry - Less Vermouth
Extra Dry - A Hint of Vermouth
Bone Dry - No Vermouth!
Perfect - w/both Sweet and Dry Vermouth
Variations of Dirty - Light, Regular, Extra
Step 2 - Choose Your Accompaniments:
Lemon Twist, Grapefruit Twist, Gordal Olive, Blue Cheese Olive, Pickled Onion, Gilda (+2.5)Really Love Olives? Add Extra!
Additional Gordal Olives +1
Additional Blue Cheese Olives +2
I would like to see more cocktail bars offer this kind of Martini service. Since we can no longer count on “having it our way” Martini-wise, it’s good for people on both sides of the bar to have these ratios as menu options.
Has anyone out there seen this sort of thing at other bars? If so, please leave a comment below.
—Robert
Remember—The Mix is a reader supported publication. In return, we strive to create a safe space here for our readers. So, like your favorite bar, “we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone” who jeopardizes that safety.
Now you have to take me to both those places! Sorry Simonson! 🍸🍸👻
Robert & Mark Kate - First, I am so very honored to be among that incredible list of names; thank you both for having me. I am sorry I did not see this post two weeks ago. On the subject of "having it your way," I have long given up on the notion that even particularly good restaurant bars (where we find ourselves more often than fine craft cocktail bars despite living downtown) will make my very specific 3 to 1 martini the way I make it at home, which is Beefeater (I know you are not a fan of post-covid Beefeater, but I still like its flavor profile more than its other London Dry contemporaries), Dolin or Noilly Prat, and Regan's or Fees. For years I tried to request ratios to no avail, but what I have found is that in better restaurant bars the standard martini is essentially 3-3.5 ounces of gin and .25 to .50 ounces dry vermouth; few servers or bartenders know what "wet" means, but if I really want my home martini in a place like this I'll have to request "wet" and see what happens, which will usually mean 1 ounce of vermouth, but no more, like at the bar at Nick and Toni's when we're out east (that is, by the way, despite the scene and obscene price point, one of the best restaurant bars in the Hamptons). In steakhouses or older school restaurants, 6 ounces of gin, period. In all scenarios, sans bitters. Oddly enough, not getting it the way I want for so many years has caused me to more and more enjoy the latter - all gin - and to just order my gin martini (as long as it's Beefeater, Tangueray, or Bombay - I'll even do "Bombay Blue" as my wife calls it) and see what happens. My favorite place in New York for 5-6 ounces of ice-cold gin is Wollensky Grill (more for the atmosphere, limit to 1 or at most 2 of these monsters). When at real cocktail bars, I tend to go for things I don't normally drink, which means whiskey-based cocktails. That said, I basically love stirred, strong, rich things, and have a very narrow palette. So, at Overstory earlier in the week, I had a few surprisingly very good takes on the De La Louisiane and even an interesting Creole Cocktail with Amaro Meletti to sub the Picon. Anyway, too much - sorry!