A frosted martini glass on a silver tray beside a dish of green olives, three gilda pintxos on picks with anchovy, olive and pickled pepper, a small bottle of vermouth, a bowl of olive-oil chips and a lemon with a peeler

The Martini Hour

Published 9 Sep 20264 min read

Filed under Bar & Beverage Basque Country

A martini is gin or vodka, a little dry vermouth, and cold, and the third ingredient is the one people get wrong. The drink should arrive at the lip so cold it hurts slightly, in a glass straight from the freezer, and it should be gone before it warms. Everything else about the martini hour, the olives, the twist, the salty things on the tray, exists to stretch that brief, cold moment into an evening. A self-serve bar suits the martini: it needs a freezer, a tray and a few small dishes, and it lets the host drink one too.

The cold

Everything goes in the freezer the afternoon before: the gin or vodka, the glasses, and, if you are making them ahead, a batched pitcher of the drink itself with a measured splash of water for dilution. A bottle of 40 percent spirit does not freeze in a home freezer, which runs at about -18°C (roughly 0°F). It holds out until around -23°C, so it comes out liquid and very cold. Room-temperature gin poured into a warm glass makes a drink that is over before it starts.

The vermouth question

Dry vermouth is a lightly fortified, aromatized wine, and once opened it oxidizes. Keep it in the refrigerator and finish it within four or five months. How much to use is the great argument. For a self-serve bar, put out a small bottle of good vermouth and a bar spoon and let people decide. The ones who want it dry will wave the bottle over the glass, and the ones who want it wet will pour. Both will be pleased to have been asked.

The three garnishes

The olive. A green olive on a pick, or two. A good choice is a Manzanilla, the small green Sevillian olive whose classic stuffing is anchovy. Espinaler makes anchovy-stuffed Manzanillas (shop Espinaler anchovy-stuffed olives). The olives guide explains how lye-cured and brine-fermented olives differ.

The twist. A wide strip of lemon peel, cut with a vegetable peeler and squeezed skin-side down over the glass so the oils spray across the surface, then dropped in or hung on the rim.

The onion. A cocktail onion makes it a Gibson. Put out a small jar. Anyone who wants a Gibson will not settle for an olive.

The gilda

The gilda is the pintxo to put beside a martini. It is the classic pintxo of San Sebastián: an olive, an anchovy and a pickled chili pepper on a toothpick, eaten in one bite. It is named for Rita Hayworth's title character in the 1946 film Gilda, for being green, salty and a bit spicy, the story goes, like the character. Build them ahead on picks and stand them in a small glass. Oil-packed anchovies such as Les Mouettes d'Arvor's (shop Les Mouettes d'Arvor anchovies) go on the pick, and the anchovies guide covers the styles. Any mild pickled chili pepper works for the third piece.

The tray

Salt, fat and crunch beside a cold drink. A bowl of olive-oil potato chips (shop Torres olive-oil chips). A dish of the olives. The gildas. A small plate of jamón (shop Mercado Famous jamón ibérico) or salchichón (shop Mercado Famous salchichón). A dish of cornichons (see the cornichons explainer). A few Comté sablés (shop Goulibeur Comté sablés). One tin of fish, opened at the tray, with a fork; the tinned fish guide covers what to open. Nothing sweet until later. Nothing that needs a plate, because the tray is eaten standing.

The self-serve setup

On a sideboard: the frozen bottles in an ice bucket to keep them cold once out of the freezer, a mixing glass and bar spoon, a jigger, a strainer, the vermouth and a spoon, the garnishes in three small dishes with picks, a peeler and lemons, and a small card with a dry martini spec for the timid ("A dry martini: 2 oz gin, a bar spoon of vermouth, stir until very cold, strain, twist"). Glasses come out of the freezer six at a time, and the rest stay in. The home bar guide covers the tools, and a mixing glass (shop the Cocktail Kingdom Gallone mixing glass) and a julep strainer (shop the Cocktail Kingdom julep strainer) turn the corner of a sideboard into a bar.

The zero-proof lane

The martini's pleasure is cold, a dry botanical bite and salt, and none of those strictly needs the gin. Put out a bottle of a zero-proof botanical spirit such as Aplós Arise (shop Aplós Arise), chilled in the refrigerator, and a bottle of zero-proof bitter aperitivo. The zero-proof Negroni recipe covers the bottles. A frozen glass, two ounces of the botanical spirit, a bar spoon of the bitter, a twist and the same olive on a pick make a drink that belongs on the tray with the others. Serve it as cold as it will go, because cold is doing the work the alcohol would.

The hour

A martini hour is an hour. It starts at six or seven, runs to one or two drinks, and ends at dinner or when the tray is empty, whichever comes first. The snack dinner guide covers what it becomes if nobody wants to leave the sideboard. The shop is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver, and products ship across the continental U.S. from theambrosianpantry.com. The gin, the vermouth and the freezer are yours.