The recipe seems too simple to be causing such a stir. Yet the martini — at its most basic, little more than gin or vodka with the merest hint of vermouth — is leading the comeback of the classic cocktail.

"There has been a real explosion, especially among the younger crowd, of interest in the old classic cocktails," says Bill Rynd, general manager of Seattle's Metropolitan Grill. Marc Nowak, general manager of the Mayflower Park Hotel, also in Seattle, concurs. "The age of the martini, that age of romance, is back," he says. "The baby-boomers are growing up — and they are growing more sophisticated."

Indeed, restaurants and bars across the country are seeing a resurgence of interest in classic drinks, mostly the martini but also drinks like the Manhattan and the rusty nail. "The cocktail business is picking up more and more," says Monika Caha, one of the partners at Candy Bar and Grill in New York City.

Some, like Caha, see a general nostalgia for the cocktail lounges and supper clubs of decades past. Others point to the qualities of the classic cocktails themselves. "They are classics for a reason," says Doug "Bix" Biederbeck, owner of Bix in San Francisco. "They are like Italian food. It's hard to reinvent something that is so simple and so good."

Cocktail culture

Many of the hippest new bars and nightclubs are focusing on the idea of nostalgia and reviving the "cocktail culture." The two Atlanta-based Martini Clubs, for instance, aim to provide their customers with the look and feel of a 1920s cocktail party. Both Martini Clubs are located in old homes furnished with overstuffed chairs and couches, and offer menus of more than 50 types of martinis. "We got the idea when my in-laws were in town," explains Fariba Todd, one of the Martini Clubs' owners. "We had been out to dinner and were looking for a place where we could sit down, have a cocktail and talk. There was no such place."

Meanwhile, Jim Lasky, owner of the Moonlight Cafe in Chicago, says his operation "celebrates the rebirth of glamour and romance from the cocktail parties of the 1940s and 1950s. Each night I want my guests to feel that they are attending an 'invitation only' cocktail gathering."

The martini may be leading the classic-cocktail comeback, but other vintage drinks, such as the Manhattan, the whiskey sour and even the grasshopper, are appearing on the menus at trendy watering holes. When the owners of the Martini Clubs opened their newest Atlanta restaurant, Filibusters, they created a cocktail menu that included both martinis and other classic libations. "We decided to take the idea of retro cocktails one step farther," says Todd, "but we weren't sure how popular these other drinks would be. It turns out we sell a ton of them."

The most popular cocktails, other than martinis, at Filibusters are the "Stinger" (Christian Brothers Brandy and white creme de menthe), the "Gimlet" (Tanqueray Gin and lime juice), the "Champagne Cocktail" (sugar cube, bitters, champagne, orange slice and a lemon peel) and the "Brandy Alexander" (Christian Brothers Brandy, dark creme de cacao, cream and shaved nutmeg).

Still, the martini is king of the old-timey thirst-quenchers. "To me, the martini is the classic cocktail. It's a liquid icon of American culture," says Barnaby Conrad, author of The Martini: An Illustrated History of an American Classic, published by Chronicle Books in 1995.

Apparently Conrad is not the only one who thinks so: His book is in its sixth printing, has sold more than 60,000 copies, and has been featured several times on television and in magazines and newspapers during the past year.

A martini by any other name . . .

Some restaurant and bar operators feel the martini is such an icon — and such a strong seller — that they name their establishments after it.

At the Dallas bar Martini Ranch, for example, 70 percent of the operation's alcohol sales are from martinis. "And that's unbelievable — especially for Dallas, where alcohol sales are generally for beer," says Bob Clohessy, general manager.

The Ranch offers a cocktail list of 13 martinis, which it sells in 6-ounce glasses, for prices ranging from $5 to $6.50 each. Martinis are also sold by the pitcher, which will serve four and is priced at $25 for house brands, $26.25 for call brands and $27.50 for premium brands. The Ranch's signature martinis include the "Dean Martini," which comes with a Lucky Strike cigarette and a book of matches; the "Ranch Style Martini," which combines Patron Tequila with either gin or vodka, and is garnished with pickled okra; and the "Bellini Martini," a vodka martini flavored with peach nectar and lemon zest.

Richard Krause, chef/partner at Martini's in New York City, says his restaurant was named after the restaurant in the movie It's a Wonderful Life. But Krause still uses its namesake drink to advantage. Fully half of the restaurant's liquor sales go over the bar in the form of martinis — and in a market where many restaurants are watching their bar business decline, Krause is expanding his. The restaurant has opened a new 40-seat bar in its outdoor cafe and is in the process of enlarging the bar inside the restaurant as well. "Our bar business is becoming more and more important," says Krause.

The martinis at Martini's are served in distinctive glasses — they look like traditional martini glasses without the stems — which come to the table nestled in another glass filled with crushed ice. The restaurant's drink list features five martinis, including the "Martini Picante" (Absolut Peppar Vodka garnished with a chipotle-pepper-stuffed olive) and the "Bombay Sapphire Martini" (Bombay Sapphire Gin garnished with an olive stuffed with the customer's choice of either prosciutto or anchovy).

The list also features other classic drinks — albeit made with the restaurant's special twist. Martini's "Midtown Manhattan" is made with Canadian Club and contains lemon and lime oils as well as the more usual vermouth and bitters, while its "Star-Ruby Margarita" is made with freshly squeezed red-grapefruit juice. All these specialty cocktails are priced at either $6 or $7.

Liquid profits

Even operations that are not named after the martini can make a name for themselves with the cocktail.

The Mayflower Park Hotel hosts a drink contest that annually attracts more people than the hotel can hold — an enviable problem. "They spill over into our lobby and everywhere else," says Marc Nowak. "The event may be getting too big for us."

The hotel and three Seattle restaurants pit their best recipes for martinis against each other every year in the Martini Classic Challenge. A panel of independent judges, many of them local and national journalists, travel by limo to each restaurant and quaff their concoctions to pick the best classic martini and the best specialty martini.

Last year, more than 500 people attended the event. The Mayflower's 90-seat bar alone racked up more than $5,000 worth of beverage sales during that one night. "And now that we are famous for our martinis," Nowak says, "we sell tons and tons of them." The other operations that participate in the Martini Classic sell large numbers of martinis year-round as well. "We sell a few hundred traditional martinis a week," says Bill Rynd. And that's not counting sales of its special chocolate cocktail, the "Decadent Martini," which contains both Ketel One Vodka and Tanqueray Gin, mixed with a touch of Godiva Chocolate Liqueur and served with a specialty chocolate shaped like an olive.

Metropolitan's sister restaurant, Union Square Grill, competes in the contest as well, and sells more than its share of martinis. That restaurant has recently come out with a drink menu that not only lists 40 different martinis but also gives customers a selection of garnishes — from small pickled green tomatoes to garlic-stuffed olives.

Other operations around the country are mixing up ever-larger batches of martinis. Although Parker's Bar in the Omni Parker House Hotel has long been known as one of the best martini bars in Boston, Curt Hilliker, the hotel's food-and-beverage director, is building upon that reputation. Eight months ago, the bar created its own martini list, with many of the drinks named for the old hotel's most famous literary guests and their works. For example, there's the "Charles Dickens Martini," made with Beefeater Gin, as well as the "Scarlet Letter Martini," made with Finlandia Cranberry Vodka.

But Parker's did not stop there. The second page of its drink list — under a notation that declares "We may be old but we're not dead" — the bar lists its contemporary martini creations, including the "Bee Sting Martini" (honey-flavored Stolichnaya Okhotnichaya Vodka garnished with a fresh flower), the "Maui WOWie Martini" (Keglivich Vodka and pineapple liqueur, a splash of orange juice and a pineapple slice) and the "Stormy Skyy Martini" (Skyy Vodka, blackberry brandy and black Sambuca).

For customers with varying thirsts for the trendy drink, Parker's offers an extra-large martini — the "Big Kahuna," made for two, with Keglivich Vodka and Coconut Liqueur, pineapple juice and cherries — as well as the "Teeny Weeny Martini," which is half the size of the operation's regular martinis.

To make those cocktails even more distinctive, Hilliker serves each of his specialty martinis in different glassware. "Some regulars have their favorite glass," he reports. "I find them in all different places. If I see an interesting glass, I'll pick it up." He admits that this practice can get expensive: His unique glasses cost an average of $10 to $20 each. "I cry when they break," he says.

Pour on the pomp

Even when customers order standard martinis at Parker's Bar, they get a show. The server carries out a cobalt-blue tray decorated with gold moons and stars, on which rests a silver decanter nestled in a bowl of crushed ice and containing the vodka or gin, a spritzer of vermouth, a cobalt-blue martini glass, and a selection of garnishes. Customers can then shake or stir to their hearts' delight.

The fuss, Hilliker believes, is worth it. "People come here and bring their friends back just for the unique experience," he says.

At Parker's Bar in the Omni Parker House Hotel, Boston, as much care is given to the presentation of martinis as it is to the preparation.
Other restaurateurs put great stock in the presentation of their classic cocktails. "The presentation is at least half the drink," says Biederbeck of Bix. "A martini is still just ice, gin, vermouth. It's the presentation, the sizzle of building the drink in front of the customer that really makes it different." Upon entering Bix, customers see a large silver bowl filled with chilled martini glasses and crushed ice on the bar. And when they order their martini, it is made at their table by a barman (as Bix's crack bartenders are known), using one of the restaurant's trademark silver shakers.

The Metropolitan Grill makes its martinis at the bar, but then shakes or stirs them tableside. The restaurant's selection of other classic drinks, including bloody marys and margaritas, are also made tableside in a shaker to mimic the traditional martini-mixing style.

At Hi-Life Restaurant & Lounge in New York City, customers receive their martinis in their own personal 8-ounce shakers. "We pour the first martini for them — and leave the shaker, which has about half a martini left, on the side," explains owner Earl Geer.

Mixologists' medley

Of all the classic drinks making a comeback, the martini seems to be the most fluid — constantly being changed and adapted. When the cocktail was first made in the 1860s, it was half vermouth and half gin. That ratio slowly changed over the years, until today, when, if it is used at all, vermouth is often just swirled around in the shaker or even lightly spritzed into the glass or onto the olive.

Over time, the preferred martini spirit also changed, from gin to vodka. "A lot of the customers don't even know that the martini was classically made with gin," says Biederbeck, who estimates that half of the martinis ordered at Bix are vodka-based.

Monika Caha has noted a pronounced preference for vodka at her restaurant Candy Bar and Grill. "Vodka martinis are where it's at," she says. Like many restaurateurs, she has found that a number of customers are looking for more exotic types of martinis. "A chocolate martini is not really a martini anymore," she says, "but everything is served in a martini glass and called a martini these days."

While Caha does not serve a chocolate martini, she does offer the "Java," a martini made with Citron Vodka and espresso syrup; the "Ginger Martini," which contains a ginger-infused vodka the restaurant makes itself; and her version of the "French Martini," made with Stolichnaya Ohranj and Lillet, a more fragrant and herbal type of vermouth.

Specialty martinis can become signature items for a restaurant. At the newly renovated Lincoln Tavern in New York City, the signature cocktail is called the "Solid Glass Martini" — and it lives up to its name. Developed by the restaurant's bar manager, John Schnupp, the cocktail requires advance preparation. Either Boodles Gin or Absolut Vodka is flambeed in a stainless-steel pot in the kitchen. The flambeed spirit is then poured into 5-ounce martini glasses. A garnish — an olive for gin and a lemon twist for vodka — is added to each glass, which is then frozen. When a drink is ordered, the frozen 5-ounce martini essence is inverted into a 10-ounce martini glass. It is then served to the customer with 1 ounce of vodka or gin on the side.

Chicago's Moonlight Cafe also offers a wide range of signature martinis, including the "Willie Wonka Martini" (Skyy Vodka mixed with Godiva chocolate and served in a hand-dipped chocolate martini glass), the "Bond, James Bond Martini" (Skyy Vodka, very dry with a twist and — of course — shaken, not stirred), and the "Midnight Martini" (Skyy Vodka and Chambord served in a raspberry-rock-candy-dipped glass).

The Big Apple restaurant The Grange Hall is housed in what was once a speakeasy in the 1930s and serves a menu it describes as "American farm food." The operation develops seasonal cocktails to spice up its drink menu. For last year's holiday season, the restaurant created the "Merry Martini," made with cranberry juice, Grand Marnier and Finlandia Vodka.

A craving for the classics

But restaurateurs who develop special twists on the classics say the more standard recipes are the most popular. "The younger customers go more for the designer martinis," says Scott Sternbach, The Grange Hall's beverage manager and wine director. "But plenty of the younger customers also go for the classics. They are very popular. And you don't find the older customers going for the frilly drinks at all." Sternbach estimates that the 90-seat restaurant serves a couple hundred classic cocktails a day.

Marc Nowak of the Mayflower Park Hotel also finds the most classic of his martinis is the most popular. Although his bar, Oliver's, offers a list of 12 different martinis, its "Classic Martini," made with either Bombay Sapphire Gin or Stolichnaya Cristall Vodka, is by far the favorite. "There is absolutely no comparison," he says.

The return of the classic cocktail may also mean the return of a more lively bar business. "Spirit sales have been declining [industrywide], but now they are coming back," says Robert Frost, beverage manager at Seattle's Union Square Grill. And that's a phenomenon most restaurateurs would gladly toast.

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