Hemingway once said that the best way to make a Martini was to let a ray of sun pass through the vermouth and hit the gin.
This literary-inspired description is simply proof of the fascination this drink holds for many people. Churchill and F.D. Roosevelt were both fond of it. The former liked it “naked”; the latter sipped the drink mixed with Argentine vermouth and spiked with olive juice (today called the “dirty Martini”).
With so many variations of the popular martini being created and served in hotel lounges and bars around the world, the original recipe is becoming somewhat of an anomaly for the “old school”.
In the book, The World’s Drinks and How to Mix Them, written in 1907 by William T. Boothby, the recipe for Dry Martini Cocktail instructs: “into a mixing glass place some cracked ice, two dashes of orange bitters, half a jigger of (dry) French vermouth, and half a jigger of dry English gin. Stir well until thoroughly chilled, strain into a stem cocktail-glass, squeeze a piece of lemon peel over the top and serve with an olive.” Other than the bitters and the ratio of vermouth to gin, this is remarkably similar to a modern martini cocktail.
William Grimes, restaurant critic for the New York Times claims (in Straight Up or On the Rocks: the Story of the American Cocktail) that the dry martini was invented at the Knickerbocker Hotel, in New York, in 1912.
Celebrities and the city?s elite flocked to the hotel, drawn both by its luxurious rooms and its world-class restaurant bar. That bar is where, in 1912, an immigrant bartender named Martini di Arma di Taggia allegedly mixed gin and dry vermouth, perfecting the martini. One of his first tasters was John D. Rockefeller, who liked it so much that he recommended it to all his Wall Street buddies, and the drink quickly became a national favorite.
Today the Knickerbocker Hotel is an office & retail complex simply named 6 Times Square and no longer entertains hotel guests at all. But when it opened in 1905, the Knickerbocker was one of midtown?s premier hotels, and one of the tallest buildings on Times Square.
Editor: When I lived in New York City near Washington Square, I used to head over to the “Knickerbocker Restaurant & Bar” where I would get to hear countless stories of the “old days” at the former hotel. The bartender at the restaurant used to work at the hotel when he was a kid.
Check out the Knickerbocker [Emporis]
Read about the origins of the Martini [Wikipedia]
