"I recently turned to my business partner and was like, ‘I guess we’re just a martini bar now.’ I watch these kids hammering martinis and I’m like, good Lord.... I think it is a perfect pressure valve for everything people are feeling. Everywhere you look you see war, you hear ‘keep your mask on,’ or ‘don’t keep your mask on’ — people are tired of toeing lines. They’re just like, 'Give me something that transgresses the bounds'.... The martini harkens back to so many things that were so solid and representationally correct. You don’t have to think about it. It’s a big solid punch in the face and sometimes that’s just what you need."
Said Brooklyn bar owner Toby Cecchini, quoted in "Wellness Is Dead. Long Live the Martini. 'I watch these kids hammering martinis and I’m like, good Lord'" (NY Magazine).
1. If you'd told me 50 years ago that in 2022, young people, wanting to transgress the bounds, will do what my parents did — sit around drinking martinis — I'd have cued up "America Drinks and Goes Home" and cried.
2. Cecchini has a way with words, but it's "harks back," not "harkens back," and how you transgress by doing what is solid and representationally correct? It sounds cool though, and it gives you something to think about, but then so does a big solid punch in the face.
3. Is "wellness" dead? Ironic if all these precautions in the name of health led to a higher and higher tolerance for alcohol.
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46 comments:
Everything old is new again.
Vodka Martini, shaken, not stirred. I like mine very dry, up with a twist. :)
Are they also bringing back the three Martini lunch?
No sugar in a martini
History and fashion have a way of repeating and revisiting old standards. Time and a new generation makes everything fresh again.
However, returning to old styles may further evidence of a conservative cultural swing. [I'm not sure if there's logically further left than where the left is now.]
Skip the vermouth, just drink straight gin. Probably cheaper.
Or maybe fentanyl instead of booze for those needing toxins
John LGKTQ Henry
Martinis were big in the Sixties (shaken, not stirred). Every twenty years or so there's an effort to bring them back -- around 1980, around 2000, now. The first time it was a return to earlier ideas of civilization or sophistication, James Bond somehow being taken as civilized and sophisticated, rather than just a thug. Then it was a return to the big, sprawling, ambitious sloppy world of swingers, Frank Sinatra being seen as cooler and more with it and more substantial than end of the millennium culture. Now, I guess it's throwing restraints, constraints, and restrictions to the wind, something that would have appalled the first generation of martini revivalists.
Healthism isn't dead. In modern culture there's long been a coexistence of obsessing about health and engaging in dangerous behavior. Cigarettes make you slimmer. Tanning is healthy, natural, and good for you. Meditate and align your chakras and drop acid. Avoid sugar and fat so you can jump out of planes and climb mountains and weave in and out of traffic on your bicycle. Somehow the fear of illness and death seems to go well with behavior that risks death. Maybe we fear illness and debility more than we fear a quick and sudden end.
+10 for the Zappa reference.
Let's get hammered. Fast.
Down at the pompadour a-go-go!
Yes, the "everywhere I look" trope. Everywhere I look, people seem to be normally living their lives. In 9-months, they'll write stories about all the horrible birth defects from Dirty Martini Hookup babies. The new thalidomide.
Young adults frequently adopt shit their grandparents would do. The sixties hippies were into the flapper roaring twenties and the whole lost generation in Europe on $5 per day kick.
'Give me something that transgresses the bounds'
The friggin martini? That's depressing.
How about having unprotected sex kids? Or how about having sex...at all. Maybe steal a motorcycle...get in a few gunfights.
Sigh. Kids these days.
Every time I see a menu of those elaborate "craft cocktails" my reaction is "Vodka martini, up, two olives." It's my same reaction to those lists of "craft beers" where every time you are in a new area, you have zero idea of what you are ordering, but you can get a martini with Tito's "handmade vodka" that tastes the same in Rome or Sydney, Tokyo or NYC. It's amazing how much vodka those people can make by hand.
Laughed out loud at the reference to "America Drinks and Goes Home". Always loved it. Especially back in my Beverage Director days. There was a time when our job was to ply people with as much alcohol as possible and then send them out onto the streets. I still can't believe that was part of the culture, but it was.
And, seemingly it's back. After years of 'pussy' drinks, the young have rediscovered martinis, old-fashions, Manhattans, gimlets, and the like.
Cigarettes are next.
Beer doesn’t get you drunk fast enough. Plus you gotta drink a lot and there are a ton of calories. Gin is potent at smaller than beer volumes. Less calories. Switch to hard liquor such as gin seems to be a bastardized kind of healthism.
A few months ago my wife was astounded to see me watching Gone With The Wind. I told her that watching it was a transgressive act in today's culture.
Speaking of "healthism."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF31qCrclC0
Premium bourbon and rye prices have gone way out of control over the past 20 years due to a growing market. Hence, I encourage young people to drink that tasteless crap they call Martinis.
Sounds like New Yorkers are really depressed and are trying to find ways to distract themselves with insufficient solutions.
Nothing beats a good martini, but:
1. It should be made with gin. A vodka "martini" is not a martini;
2. It should have vermouth in it. We're not alcoholic 19th century chimney sweeps. It's a cocktail, not just cold gin. The vermouth should be Martini brand dry vermouth. You don't use swiss cheese on a pizza instead of mozzarella, so don't use a vermouth that doesn't suit the drink. And use the proper ratio, which is two parts gin to one part vermouth;
3. Never shake a baby, and never shake a martini. It puts air bubbles in the drink, clouds it up, and you obscure the taste of all the botanicals. Ian Fleming has a lot to answer for;
4. No olives! It's a martini, not a salad. Olives are too salty and also mask the botanicals. A lemon twist is the perfect garnish to enhance them.
Do all these things and you will have a delicious drink, instead of the nasty-ass concoction that so many people pass off as a martini when it is not.
"Skip the vermouth, just drink straight gin."
My friend's recipe for a Martini: "Glass. Ice. Gin."
Marinis provide a quick, intense buzz. That appeals to everyone who enjoys altering their reality.
Martinis are gin or vodka with dry vermouth, and olives or a twist. Everything else is just a mixed drink served in a martini glass so people can give themselves an air of sophistication. But you can't go wrong with: "We serve hard drinks in here for men [and women, of course] who want to get drunk fast."
There was a "Rat Pack Revival" some years ago. Some of my younger colleagues started wearing hats and drinking cocktails in what they took to be homage to '50s cool, I suppose.
But it's easy to mistake style for substance, and I doubt this represents any big cultural move. The Longhairs of the 60s dressed like Cavaliers but their heads were stuffed with Roundhead ideas.
I think I read that the increased number of alcohol-related deaths in the last two years will far exceed the number of Covid deaths. And that's not even counting the increase in drug overdoses And the alcohol and drug deaths are of much younger people, too. Our "public health experts" destroyed public health in the name of public health.
It would be funny -- or maybe "ironic," as Prof. Althouse suggests? -- if it weren't so fucking sad. And evil.
My mother hated to give up martinis but she finally did at age 95.
Not to step on your Rob Lowe impression but harkens back, not harks back, is proper usage.
Hearkens back too.
Hark that old reliable Merriam-Webster.
Althouse said...
If you'd told me 50 years ago that in 2022, young people, wanting to transgress the bounds, will do what my parents did — sit around drinking martinis — I'd have cued up "America Drinks and Goes Home" and cried.
"A bunch of people smoking in an office. It's stupid."
Maybe they watched Mad Men when they were impressionable.
What your parents or older siblings did? Uncool
What your Grandparents did? Cool.
Martinis, Sinatra, and the Rat Pack? In.
Hippies, MJ, and Dylan? Out.
Martinis are good, if they're made right. Hard to get a good one in restaurant. Safer to just get a glass of wine.
Generally speaking I'm not a fan of hard liquor or mixed drinks. Its rather odd that Martinis have become popular, I always associate them with Hugh Hefner or Dean Martin, or that awful Party in "breakfast Tiffineys" where everyone is smoking/drinking.
I'd be curious what a martini costs in Brooklyn these days. And probably shocked at the answer.
I like chocolate martinis. (Yes, I know...not a real martini, just an alcoholic drink served in a martini glass.)
Some years ago my son took me on a road trip to San Antonio for my birthday. We arrived around 9 p.m. and decided to check out a martini bar along the River Walk. Great! Chocolate martini was listed on their board. Son orders our drinks. It was busy so we had to wait a while, and my anticipation was building. Finally, they arrive. I took one sip and WTH is this??!!
The bartender had WHIPPED the cream until it was stiff and then mixed it with the rest of the ingredients. I suffered through it and have never ordered a chocolate martini in public again. (My son makes excellent ones for his mother.)
I think of it in the same category as trying to find a decent brandy old fashioned outside of Wisconsin.
I adore gin, but not in love with martinis. I prefer a gin gimlet, mainly just gin, tonic, and a bit of Rose's Lime Juice. It's just damn refreshing.
Otherwise, straight, if chilled, whiskey.
Is Cecchini shaken or stirred by this trend?
Maybe I've never had a decent martini, but straight gin or vodka is not appealing to me.
And I love G&Ts...
I prefer a gin gimlet, mainly just gin, tonic, and a bit of Rose's Lime Juice.
That's not a gimlet, although it is a delicious drink. That's a g&t really. I normally express a fresh quarter lime instead of the Rose's, but either way is good.
A proper gimlet is half naval strength gin, ideally Plymouth, and half RLJ, stirred, not shaken. I had one last night as a nightcap. It was divine.
'I'd be curious what a martini costs in Brooklyn these days. And probably shocked at the answer.'
Any cocktail I've seen lately starts at $15 in California...
"Hark that old reliable Merriam-Webster."
That's that's the dictionary that changes definitions to be woke. Look up 'baby' and see if you were not an English speaker if you could properly parse out "I felt the baby kick today." Nope, they disappeared that sense of the word to get more 'likes.' Rightspeak is "I felt the fetus kick today." It's not the only word they have done that too, just the one that comes easiest to mind and that makes me not trust them.
"Olives are too salty and also mask the botanicals."
Hence the vodka, and your whole comment epitomizes why I drink vodka 'martinis.'
Also, the thing is that if I order a "vodka martini," I get what I want. I save scotch and fine bourbon for social drinking with friends, not at a bar, if that makes sense, which I don't care if it does to you.
The Roaring Twenties are back. Maybe that was in reaction the pandemic of 1918, when so many people actually died it made no sense to be fearful and constricted. Might as well enjoy yourself while you can.
There are a pair of Hogarth prints, one extolling the virtues of drinking beer and the other demonizing the vice of drinking gin. They apply to the current martini fad, which will fade as soon as functional sobriety the next morning is necessary to the participants.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Street_and_Gin_Lane
Those alcoholic 20 somethings are the children of those NY wine moms who got trashed all day and bragged about it.
I still have to tell the barmaid how to make the damn drink. They all think a martini is a glass of cold vodka. One of them even put sweet vermouth in one. Wretch.
I feel I must differ with commentator Blair... the proper vermouth is French, not Italian. The name Martini is sheer coincidence in the case of the vermouth.
Dry vermouth (not oxidized, use wine preservering gas, please!) a dash of orange bitters and for Christ's sake shell out for a good gin and you have an actually good drink.
Martini's should be stirred, not shaken as shaking breaks up the ice and dilutes the alcohol. Additionally, proper martinis use Gin, not Vodka.
I prefer a gin gimlet, mainly just gin, tonic, and a bit of Rose's Lime Juice.
That's not a gimlet, although it is a delicious drink. That's a g&t really. I normally express a fresh quarter lime instead of the Rose's, but either way is good.
True, mostly, but I didn't bother to correct. Technically it's kind of a gin gimlet and tonic. But. . . .damn, it's good.
... the thing is that if I order a "vodka martini," I get what I want...
Touche. I cannot fault that logic. Vodka martinis are like democracy - people get what they choose, and they get it good and hard. I actually do make these for my wife on occasion - usually with plenty of olive brine. They are tasty, but not the wonderful delicacy that a proper gin martini can be.
I feel I must differ with commentator Blair... the proper vermouth is French, not Italian.
Vermouths are so vastly different from one another, which is often unrecognized. As I alluded to earlier, asking for "dry vermouth" in a cocktail is like asking for "cheese" in a food recipe. Is your vermouth mild, like a mozzarella or goat cheese? Or is it sharp, like parmesan? In my experience, martinis work best with sharper vermouths, like Martini brand. If you prefer French, Noilly Prat works well too. Dolin, however, is too mild. If I have Dolin, I will normally do a 1:1 ratio with the gin, so it is not overpowered.
Thank you for mentioning the orange bitters though. A proper martini should indeed have a dash of orange bitters -then you will have perfection!
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