An amusing
bartending trick a friend related to me.
Wherever you bartend, be it for a private party, a charity ball, or the local chain restaurant, you are almost guaranteed to have someone (usually a swank- and/or greased-looking young male hipster) walk up to the bar and demand, in a very snooty voice, a "Very Dry Martini." The first few to do this are somewhat amusing; the rest are vaguely annoying -- it is nearly impossible to pour less than a few drops of vermouth out of the bottle when you're in a hurry.
If you want to pour the ultimate dry martini, you have to do a little prep work, but in my opinion, it is quite worth it.
- Prep one shaker with a good-sized cloth napkin by packing it tightly at the very bottom of the shaker (you don't want it to be visible).
- Fill an empty gin bottle with water (unless you really feel like wasting the Tanqueray or sucking it out of the napkin.)
- Wait for somebody to order a "Very Dry Martini"
- Ice the prepped shaker and pour in the requisite shot and a half of "gin" and two drops of vermouth .
- Shake or stir, as they desire.
- Upend the shaker over the chilled cocktail glass. Watch their face. Make a silly quip about the exceedingly arid nature of this cocktail.
It's probably proper to make them a
martini in an un-napkined shaker with real
gin after you've had a laugh at their expense, since if you're bartending at a nice charity ball, you're probably getting paid
good money to do it.