If there’s one thing the enduring dirty Martini mania has taught us, it’s that people aren’t afraid of a little brine. As bargoers have pushed the boundaries of just how dirty a Martini can be, happily ordering serves that come out as cloudy as spent bathwater, bartenders have responded with gusto. Many have conceived of their own savory riffs, trading out the customary olive brine for everything from MSG to potlikker to Hainan chicken broth. More recently, bartenders have started to give other cocktails the dirty treatment, infusing non-Martini drinks with a taste of olive in all its forms.
Among those marrying two classic cocktails is Murray’s Tavern in Austin, Texas, where the “Dirty” Negroni gets a triple dose of olives. Formulated by bartender Travis Tober, the drink is made from equal parts Campari, sweet vermouth and olive oil–infused gin, which harmonize with a few dashes of olive bitters and saline solution. A single skewered green olive, stuffed with pimento, balances atop the rocks glass. “I love classic cocktails, I think they’re fantastic, but I think we should have fun with them,” says Tober. “Like, ‘Hey, I like dirty Martinis and I like Negronis, and I think they should be together.’” The salinity isn’t subtle. Rather, “it’s definitely front and center,” says operating partner Brett Esler.
One time zone over, the dirty Martini mingles with a more easygoing serve. A staple cocktail at Martiny’s in New York City, the Dirty Tonic is a “hybrid between a dirty Martini and a vodka-tonic,” says bartender Takuma Watanabe. (Both drinks are popular at the spot.) There, meaty olives get sautéed in olive oil with herbs and spices; the oil is then used to fat-wash the vodka base. To round out the drink, tonic adds effervescence and length. Elsewhere, at Tarde.O in Madrid, Le Tribute Olive Lemonade—a nonalcoholic blend made from lemons and olives—brings a gin highball over to the dirty side in the Almazara, named after the mill used to make olive oil. Of course, this type of innovation isn’t totally unheard of: Before the dirty classic bewitched a new generation of drinkers, bartender Fanny Chu was ahead of the curve when she conceived of a dirty Martini highball bolstered with manzanilla sherry.
What’s more, not all bartenders who are dosing modern classics with a little salt consider the dirty Martini a direct source of inspiration. Bartender Michael Timmons, of Temple Bar in New York City, for instance, emphasizes he wasn’t influenced by “any trends” when he came up with the Dirty Spritz. Essentially a leveled-up Aperol spritz with a briny kick, the drink leans on Nonino and apricot liqueur alongside the requisite effervescence from a splash of tonic. While Timmons initially reached for salt and saline solution, he eventually landed on olive brine to add salinity to the drink. “To my surprise, that really amalgamated all of the flavors together to give it that savory candied-apricot context I was looking for,” he explains. Turns out, chefs have been right all along: A little salt really does make everything taste better.
