Shaken and ready to celebrate – cheers to National Martini Day on June 19.
While the exact origin story of the American martini is cloudy, cocktail historians often credit Martinez, California, as the home of the classic drink. Folklore has it that the “Dirty Martinez” was invented in the mid-1800s to help a miner celebrate his major gold find. The drink featured ingredients available in a local bar – gin, vermouth, bitters, maraschino liqueur and lemon.
Today, the cocktail extends far beyond the 1800s recipe. Popular martinis include espresso martinis, dry martinis, dirty martinis and French martinis. The modern martini also now allows for gin, vodka or both.
For Metropolis manager and bartender Gus Nobles, who started bartending in 2023, his favorite drink to make and serve is a dirty martini. He concurred that martinis are a popular drink, including in Milledgeville.
Q: What is your go-to martini, and do you prefer gin or vodka?
Nobles: My go-to martini would be a dirty martini. I prefer gin to vodka because that is what is traditionally used in a martini.
Q: If you could get rid of one cocktail, dirty martinis or espresso martinis, which and why?
Nobles: I personally would rather get rid of espresso martinis because they take a long time to make because they have more ingredients in them.
Q: What is the most creative martini you have made?
Nobles: I have not really gotten too creative with martinis because most of the time a customer will already know what they want, so it is easier to just give them what they ask for.
Q: What is the most popular ordered martini that you make?
Nobles: The most popular martini ordered at Metropolis is probably a lemon drop martini.
Q: Do you notice a huge age difference in specific martinis ordered?
Nobles: Usually, the age group that orders dirty martinis or dry martinis is a bit older — I would say in their older 30s or 40s —and those ordering espresso martinis and lemon drop martinis are younger, mid-20s and up.
Q: How long did it take to memorize the drinks?
Nobles: Memorizing drinks did not take a super long time to get down.
Once I got down to the basics it became super known and easy for me.
Q: What martini is your least favorite to make and why?
Nobles: My least favorite martini to make would be an espresso martini because if we do not already have coffee brewed, it will take about 10 minutes to make, and I don’t want people to have to wait that long for their drink order.
Q: What is a common mistake people make when trying to mix martinis at home?
Nobles: When making martinis at home the only thing I have really noticed is when you make, for example, an espresso martini at home, people don’t add crème before shaking it, it will froth up on its own.
Q: If you could make a custom martini inspired by your bar, what would be in it?
Nobles: As far as a custom drink for the Metropolis bar, I feel like adding blue cheese olives for martinis would be good and a fan favorite.
Q: What is the best martini-and-food pairing you recommend?
Nobles: As far as a martini and food paring go, I don’t really know because I am not a huge martini fan, but our classic martinis would probably go great with our Mediterranean quinoa salad.