 |
| 1950 vs 2013, A Visual Comparison |
I recently dined out twice, and each time was confronted with a list of cocktails, the only one of which I recognized was a mojito. This continues a long-standing trend; for years what establishments pedal as a "martini" has no more relationship to the actual beverage that a daisy to a crocodile other than being served in a martini glass. Please be informed, that a martini is made of either gin or vodka and dry vermouth, garnished with an olive, or - if you're daring - a cocktail onion. Mixing creme de banana, campari, and triple sec and pouring it into a martini glass does not make it a martini anymore that standing in a garage makes you an automobile.
At one time, so I have been told, a person could look at a cocktail menu and find gibsons, and old-fashioneds, and martinis; now however, every cocktail menu is a special, limited-edition, one-of-a-kind deal. The other night, I was out with some friends - my pal Jamie got something-or-other, served in a wine glass, and garnished with a cherry on a toothpick. Andrew, whom I mentioned earlier, got something I mistook for a mojito with a wad of spinach in it. However, it was no more a mojito than I am, and the thing I took for spinach was a blackberry. (The joint was fairly dark.) I, for the sake of simplicity, ordered a beer. It took me ten minutes to choose from among their summer beers, micro-beers, macro-beers, wheat beers, and near beers.
The cocktails and my beer arrived and everyone seemed satisfied with their concoctions of blue-berry infused rum, liquid smoke, sweet vermouth, and sparkling muscatel. Only one person didn't get her drink in a timely manner. She had to wait thirty minutes because she'd ordered a scotch and soda.
The bartender didn't know the recipe.
