Hot Dog Martinis

Hi everyone and welcome to the interview and analysis corner! Megan’s got a great article for us this week, talking about food-inspired cocktail wizardry.

She gives us her opinion on combining the worlds of food and drink and questions whether appropriate lines should be drawn when looking to innovate. Let’s dig in.

Hey everyone, Meg speaking.

From top bartenders to instagram influencers, food has been making its way into cocktails over the last few years. Everyone remembers last year’s viral Parmesan Espresso Martini, for example.

In fact, the creativity behind moulding the two worlds of culinary curiosities and innovative bar techniques quite literally knows no bounds. Whether it’s a Hot Dog Martini from Brooklyn’s Lilistar or the French Toast Flip from Manhattan’s Double Chicken Please, food inspired drinks have broken through the walls of conventional cocktail-making.

But the question remains: is there a limit? Punch Magazine, among other bartending publications, is begging bartenders to draw the line somewhere!

Nothing new

Combining food concepts with cocktails, however, is nothing new.

A few years back, I had my first taste of a culinary-inspired cocktail in the underground Bramble Bar in Edinburgh. A beautiful, fresh, and aromatic number combining “Mexigin” (tequila infused with gin botanicals), fino sherry, tomatillo, green pepper, and sour orange. It tasted like nachos and fresh salsa in a glass. Literally.

And, being new to the industry, I was completely blown away by the delicate savoury notes that felt so familiar but so incredibly wrong in a cocktail. I ordered another straight away.

The idea of a savoury cocktail could probably be attributed to the New York City bar, Double Chicken Please. With an entire menu based on familiar food flavours, such as a Waldorf Salad and Cold Pizza, Double Chicken Please is certainly a pioneer of the food-inspired cocktail.

Going too far

However, I feel that, recently, social media has been sabotaging this creative cocktail-making for the sake of capturing people’s attention. A new age of bartender “influencers” have appeared with a range of clickbait titles and crafted content designed to hold someone’s attention for five seconds of absurdity.

I’ve noticed numerous bartenders adding seemingly crazy ingredients to an already finished cocktail and considering it enough. I’m looking at you, Pasta Water Martini.

Although food has been a source of inspiration for talented bartenders, we are now seeing a large range of sub-par, increasingly outlandish attempts at transforming dishes into cocktails without fully understanding the technical knowledge needed to create a well-rounded cocktail.

These drinks are being created to increase views, rather than to provoke pleasant memories associated with food.

Hitting the pause button

It would be premature to call for a complete end to food-inspired cocktails, since there are so many cultures, dishes, and regions by which to be inspired. As long as people are creating, diving into new techniques, and new ways to explore the boundaries of flavour, then I wonder if there really is a wrong way to approach inspiration for cocktails.

However, you do begin to question whether innovation has hit a wall when every bar begins seeking the same “wow” factor moment for attention.

Perhaps instead of calling for a complete end to this concept after seeing some bartenders throw hot dog brine into a Gin Martini and be done with it, we should support the industry’s truly wonderful bartenders who are pushing the boundaries the right way.

Juliette Larrouy and Moe Aljaff, who are opening Schmuck in New York City later this year, are examples of bartenders who use their advanced technical ability to simply execute a cocktail.

The duo have made drinks inspired by the classic Tarte Tatin and “that” scene from Ratatouille when the main character eats a strawberry and a piece of cheese at the same time.

Crucially to this process, Larrouy and Aljaff often seem to prioritise approachability. For example, to make the Tarte Tatin cocktail, they created a delicious butter-washed cognac based Flip, a flavour that is easy for an audience to taste and imagine (even on social media). However, it is difficult for a bartender to emulate.

Understanding the delicate balance of food and drink, they call on people’s connection to delicious dishes. Using techniques that often take years to come across in the industry, they have created something innovative whilst still being relatable.

Bartending is, essentially, mastering ingredients and their unique properties and it can require so much more than just combining different liquids in a glass. Doing that correctly takes work that cannot be captured in a 30 second Instagram reel, depicting a Hot Dog Espresso Martini.

Concluding thoughts

I will only ever support attempts to introduce real excitement that comes from seeing a favourite dish be reimagined in cocktail form. And, of course, I love the idea that someone can see a “Caprese” Martini and is transported to the Italian coast.

Innovation and creativity is something to always be admired, especially if it shows customers that cocktails can be more than the cheap 2-for-1 happy hours you see on the high street.

But there is also a fine line between creativity and outlandish attempts to engage viewership that come at the expense of expertly crafted drinks. Perhaps knowing where that line ends will be the great challenge for bartenders in the future?

But, if there’s one thing I will ask, please stop adding random stuff to Martinis. We don’t need to know what a Hot Ham Water Martini tastes like.