Most nights the first drink across the counter is a martini, and most of those are ours: gin, a little dry vermouth, stirred over ice and poured into a glass that has been in the freezer since lunch. It is the drink people judge a bar by, so we have spent more time on it than on anything else on the list.
The forty seconds
Stirring does two jobs at once. It chills the drink and it adds water as the ice melts, and both matter. Too short and the gin is hot on the tongue; too long and it goes flat and thin. We timed it across a few hundred drinks in the first months and settled on forty seconds with large, very cold cubes. Every bartender here learns it with a timer before they learn it by feel.
A martini is at its best for about ten minutes.
The vermouth is kept in the fridge and opened bottles are finished within ten days, because vermouth is wine and turns like wine. That one habit fixes more bad martinis than any recipe.
A twist or three olives
We ask, rather than guess. A twist of lemon is cut over the glass so the oil lands on the surface; the olives come from a grower in the Central Coast and are rinsed so the brine does not cloud the drink. If you want it dirty, say so and we will make it properly, with brine we keep for the purpose.
The glass is small on purpose. A martini is at its best for about ten minutes, so we would rather pour you a second, cold one than watch the first go warm in a bigger glass.
