(Armando Veve / For The Times)
14 unique martinis redefining the classic cocktail in L.A.
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As classic cocktails reemerge in updated forms on modern bar menus, the martini arises as a frequent canvas for experimentation. Even traditional takes hew to personal preferences: Order it with gin or vodka, dry or wet, dirty, garnished with olives or a lemon twist.
While varieties such as the espresso martini, Cosmo and lemon drop are well established, lately you’ll find even more interpretations pushing the boundaries of what a martini can be.
The house martini (as over-the-top as it might be) can serve to emphasize an establishment’s broader themes. Think: a version with pasta water at an Italian American spot or a hearty meat-and-potatoes option from a classic steakhouse. With a food scene that blends influences from near and far, it’s no surprise that local restaurants and bars take every opportunity to subvert the classic drink.
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“I always love any chance I can get to put a little culinary flair into a martini,” said Philip Ross, beverage director for the Lonely Oyster, where you’ll find one garnished with a caviar-topped oyster. “We’ve got so many other ones coming down the pipe.”
Head to a stylish Japanese restaurant in Hollywood to sip a martini with herbal green tea alongside omakase, or to a museum’s courtyard bistro to try a produce-driven option paired with a daily-changing prix fixe menu. Here are 14 martinis in Southern California that break the mold:
Showing Places
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Cold-blooded Old Times from Accomplice Bar
Mar Vista Bar $$
Bartender Drew Conrad created a cocktail that sips like a four-course meal. It features a split base of Haku vodka, two types of sherry and Madeira wine. The rest of the ingredients sound like a recipe for a sauce one might find alongside an order of dumplings. Black vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, fish sauce and a few drops of MSG give the drink an ultra-savory backbone. The rim on the glass is a mix of onion powder, ginger powder, Sichuan peppercorn, white pepper and salt. “It’s the weirdest drink on the menu,” says Conrad. It’s also hard to put down.
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(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
Limoncello martini at Alta Adams
West Adams Californian Soul Food $$
It feels like Carrie Bradshaw should be narrating your life as you sip the sugar-rimmed limoncello martini at the bar at Alta Adams. With house-made limoncello vodka and clarified lemon, it goes down easy like lemonade on a hot summer day. It’s the perfect training-wheels martini for a novice like me; the only thing traditional about it is the glass it’s served in. If you prefer something closer to a classic martini, try Ol’ Dirty Bastard, with olive-infused and olive oil-washed vodka but no olive garnish. It’s like drinking olive brine. Either cocktail works well with the California soul menu, including fried chicken with Fresno chile hot sauce and black-eyed pea fritters.
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(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
A Tini at A Tí
Echo Park Mexican $$
I gravitate to agave spirits, so classic martinis that feature vodka or gin have never been particularly appealing to me. But modern Mexican restaurant A Tí in Echo Park is quickly turning me into a convert with its A Tini, a creative take that uses an uncategorized spirit with smoke-dried pasilla Mixe chile, plus mezcal, Japanese gin, vermouth and charred hoja santa oil. The result is a strong cocktail with smoky and earthy notes, best paired with the salsa negra-flecked tuna tostada or crispy beef tacos served in fried blue corn tortilla shells topped with a thick layer of shredded cheddar cheese.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Pickle martini at Belle's Bagels, Delicatessen and Bar
Highland Park Jewish Deli $$
The Belle’s Delicatessen pickle martini is a full sour dill pickle in cocktail form. The Highland Park deli and bar uses a mixture of Uncle Val’s botanical gin, Manzanilla sherry and pickle brine to make the martini. The pickle juice is wonderfully dilly and salty enough to make your lips pucker. It’s the perfect match for the juniper-forward gin and sharp, floral sherry. Of course the drink is garnished with a cornichon, and the cocktail tastes even better with an order of fried pickles.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Yuzu and lychee martini at Casaléna
Woodland Hills Mediterranean $$
During a recent lunch on the tree-lined back patio at Casaléna, nearly every cocktail that emerged from the bar was a yuzu and lychee martini. The magenta-flecked orchids that sat floating in each glass bobbed as servers made their way to the tables. It was recognizable as a lychee martini, just shy of cloying, with vodka as the spirit and the sweet, fruity flavor of the lychee puree front and center. What sets this martini apart is the yuzu sour blend that hits with a welcome wallop of citrus.
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(Knife Pleat)
Horchata martini at Knife Pleat
Costa Mesa French $$$$
Before you imbibe, make sure to take a good whiff of the horchata martini, particularly the garnish — a spidery star anise. The licorice aroma plays with your senses and primes your palate for the cinnamon and coffee that follow. Adrian Saylor, head bartender at Knife Pleat, created this divine libation with house-made horchata cordial, Fair vodka, Fair coffee liqueur and espresso. It’s a well-balanced and clever take on the always popular espresso martini. Even my husband, who doesn’t care for coffee, enjoyed the concoction and proceeded to monopolize my martini. The saffron martini, which the restaurant usually prepares around Nowruz (Persian New Year), is also worth your time. Also try the Gibson martini, which is made with Saylor’s house-made pickled onions.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Meat and Potatoes martini at Lawry's the Prime Rib
Beverly Hills Steakhouse $$
Leave it to one of the country’s most famous steakhouses to bring us a martini with a meaty edge. At Lawry’s the Prime Rib, the Meat and Potatoes martini garnishes a bracingly cold potato-vodka martini with flecks of prime rib, and the combination has been a bestseller for at least a decade. Green olives get stuffed with thinly sliced horseradish and freshly trimmed prime rib off the bone, just as you’d find in the restaurant’s California cut or Lawry cut steaks. Find this drink at the bar too, but when it’s ordered in the dining room the Meat and Potatoes martini gets shaken tableside, mirroring the chain’s iconic tableside services of spinning salads and slicing steaks from the bone.
Crisp and lacking vermouth entirely — remember: It’s simply “meat and potatoes” here — this is a simple martini, with one of the city’s coolest garnishes. This cocktail is so popular that the Lawry’s team tried to tweak the recipe last year with vermouth and a different kind of meat, but when its legion of fans caught on, they revolted. Why mess with perfection?
Crisp and lacking vermouth entirely — remember: It’s simply “meat and potatoes” here — this is a simple martini, with one of the city’s coolest garnishes. This cocktail is so popular that the Lawry’s team tried to tweak the recipe last year with vermouth and a different kind of meat, but when its legion of fans caught on, they revolted. Why mess with perfection?
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
TLO martini at the Lonely Oyster
Echo Park Seafood $$
Few things pair better with a clean, crisp martini than an oyster, except, perhaps, the briny creaminess of caviar. At Echo Park oyster house the Lonely Oyster, the bar will give you all three at once. The signature TLO martini offers a caviar-dolloped bivalve as a garnish for a martini made exactly to your liking. The team picks the raw oyster based on your preferences — gin or vodka, dry or sweet, dirty or with a twist — providing the optimal pairing and balancing the shell perfectly against the glass’ rim.
Led by beverage director Philip Ross, the Lonely Oyster serves a handful of innovative martinis: A new take on the Vesper is the Caped Crusader, a salty-sweet, perfectly balanced caper-brine spin, while another martini variant utilizes miso and brown butter. For spring, he’s tinkering with multiple new brine concoctions for a range of dirty martinis — but no matter the mixology mad science you pick during your visit, be sure to opt for a TLO martini too.
Led by beverage director Philip Ross, the Lonely Oyster serves a handful of innovative martinis: A new take on the Vesper is the Caped Crusader, a salty-sweet, perfectly balanced caper-brine spin, while another martini variant utilizes miso and brown butter. For spring, he’s tinkering with multiple new brine concoctions for a range of dirty martinis — but no matter the mixology mad science you pick during your visit, be sure to opt for a TLO martini too.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Seasonal fruit martini at Lulu
Westwood Californian $$
For one of the city’s most produce-forward martinis, head to the Hammer Museum. Last year the restaurant from celebrity chefs Alice Waters and David Tanis — tucked into the museum’s courtyard — retooled its beverage program to better complement the hyper-seasonal food menu. The result? Cocktails with syrups, tinctures, shrubs and muddled ingredients using fresh fruits and vegetables from the farmers market.
Blood oranges, chiles, strawberries, stone fruits and more find their way into the tipples, including a seasonal martini that rotates with the bounty. Dry and not too sweet, these fruited varieties merely add nuance to the classic cocktail without turning saccharine. A recent plum-and-rosemary version mingled fresh plums with California-botanicals St. George Botanivore gin, and garnished it with a fragrant rosemary sprig for a savory note. Director of operations Jesse McBride, who also heads the beverage program, said a new martini scented with native sage and oro blanco grapefruit is headed to the menu soon.
Blood oranges, chiles, strawberries, stone fruits and more find their way into the tipples, including a seasonal martini that rotates with the bounty. Dry and not too sweet, these fruited varieties merely add nuance to the classic cocktail without turning saccharine. A recent plum-and-rosemary version mingled fresh plums with California-botanicals St. George Botanivore gin, and garnished it with a fragrant rosemary sprig for a savory note. Director of operations Jesse McBride, who also heads the beverage program, said a new martini scented with native sage and oro blanco grapefruit is headed to the menu soon.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Marea martini at Marea
Beverly Hills Italian $$$
For years executive chef PJ Calapa wanted to create a clear Bloody Mary, and while he never quite nailed every component, it led to his tomato “acqua pazza” or “crazy water”: the flavor throughline of Marea’s signature martini. The lavish new Italian seafood restaurant in Beverly Hills laces either vodka or gin with the mellow tomato water along with other ingredients in a nod to Italy: brine from Castelvetrano olives, a house-made chile tincture, and just a few drops of basil oil, Calabrian chile oil and olive oil for a complex, garden-like tipple. While it’s generally best to sip a martini when it’s bracingly cold, Marea’s version evolves as it warms slightly, bringing a slow heat from the chiles to the front.
“Because there’s other things going on in the drink, it doesn’t get warm-boozy the way a straight martini would,” Calapa said. “It is interesting to see it change over time. You see the little drops of oil either get consumed early in the drink or linger to the end, and every sip can be slightly different, which is kind of fun.”
“Because there’s other things going on in the drink, it doesn’t get warm-boozy the way a straight martini would,” Calapa said. “It is interesting to see it change over time. You see the little drops of oil either get consumed early in the drink or linger to the end, and every sip can be slightly different, which is kind of fun.”
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Pasta water martini at Ospi
Italian $$
Don’t knock it until you try it: This polarizing cocktail puts pasta in the glass, and somehow, it works. “Top Chef” contestant Jackson Kalb began a fascination with savory cocktails right around the time he perfected the salt-water-pasta ratio to use across his small empire of L.A. Italian restaurants. At Ospi in Brentwood and Jemma in Hollywood, Kalb begins his most outlandish martini by infusing gin with his favorite olive oil overnight. Then he adds salted water that’s already cooked his house-made semolina pasta, lending it a slightly creamy consistency, salinity and a light pasta flavor. It’s finished with just a hint of Cocchi Americano.
“No one’s like, ‘That’s OK,’” Kalb said. “It’s either, ‘That’s one of the best things I’ve ever had, I want more’ or ‘That’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever had, what’s wrong with you?’ And I love that. Everyone’s talking about it at least.” A similar version with slightly different ingredients can be found at Jame Enoteca, where he’s named the El Segundo spin for Nancy Silverton.
“No one’s like, ‘That’s OK,’” Kalb said. “It’s either, ‘That’s one of the best things I’ve ever had, I want more’ or ‘That’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever had, what’s wrong with you?’ And I love that. Everyone’s talking about it at least.” A similar version with slightly different ingredients can be found at Jame Enoteca, where he’s named the El Segundo spin for Nancy Silverton.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Green tea martini at Rokusho
Hollywood Japanese $$$
When Rokusho’s playful, modern Japanese cuisine made its way from Tokyo to Hollywood, thankfully, so did the restaurant’s signature martini: a smooth, herbal gin martini that’s laced with green tea not once but twice. Lead bartender Joe Honda wanted to create a cocktail that would work well in both Rokusho and its sibling omakase restaurant, Udatsu Sushi — which also opened in L.A. after debuting in Japan — and one that would represent Japanese culture. Green tea is emblematic and iconic, but he didn’t want to use matcha as most people do.
Instead Honda opted for gyokuro, shade-grown sencha tea leaves, to set the Rokusho martini apart. He uses it to infuse the fragrant Roku gin, which is made with Japanese botanicals, and also adds a splash of cold-brewed gyokuro tea, plus a whiff of Lillet Blanc. Delicate but with a backbone, it’s light and fresh but with enough structure to stand up to the punchy, bold flavors at one of the city’s flashiest new Japanese restaurants.
Instead Honda opted for gyokuro, shade-grown sencha tea leaves, to set the Rokusho martini apart. He uses it to infuse the fragrant Roku gin, which is made with Japanese botanicals, and also adds a splash of cold-brewed gyokuro tea, plus a whiff of Lillet Blanc. Delicate but with a backbone, it’s light and fresh but with enough structure to stand up to the punchy, bold flavors at one of the city’s flashiest new Japanese restaurants.
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(Cindy Carcamo / Los Angeles Times)
You Only Live Twice martini at Ryla
Hermosa Beach Cocktails Japanese Californian
I’m a huge fan of well-chilled, clean martinis. Ryla’s riff on Ian Fleming’s Bond Vesper martini checks both boxes and more. The Dewazakura Oka Ginjo “Cherry Bouquet” sake pleasantly rounds out the Roku gin and Meyer lemon-infused Haku vodka. A single salted sakura blossom swimming in the clear libation makes it especially pleasing to look at. Like the Vesper, this martini is sans vermouth. I paired mine with the pillowy Hokkaido milk bread and white sesame Caesar salad with just the right mix of tangy, crunchy and savory. The dinner service at Ryla is dimly lighted, providing the right ambience for sipping on that drink or other delightful concoctions such as the perfectly balanced espresso martini.
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(Mike Cotrone)
Saltie martini at Saltie Girl
West Hollywood Seafood Restaurant $$
This nautically themed restaurant from Kathy Sidell reintreprets the New England-style seafood shack for a West Hollywood audience, including a marine color palette and an encyclopedic menu that spans seafood towers, toasts topped with lump crab and steak tartare, tinned fish and French fries crowned with more than a pound of lobster. A full caviar menu also is offered, and makes its way into the Saltie martini, which is made with your choice of vodka or gin, served with a chilled sidecar and a garnish of two caviar-stuffed olives sandwiched around a pickled onion topped with caviar. The aptly named drink delivers a burst of brininess that is easily paired with most of the menu.
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