Martini

The Perfect Beefeater Martini, Up, With Olives

•  3½ oz. Beefeater dry gin
• 1 tsp. dry vermouth (or for really dry, just leave the cap on the bottle and wave the bottle of vermouth around the martini glass and put the bottle of vermouth away—anyway, skip the vermouth, seriously)
• 4 large olives on a skewer for garnish

 -For the perfect chilled martini glass, fill your martini glass with ice as you prepare to mix your drink, and then discard the ice before pouring,.

 -Pour gin and vermouth over ice into mixing shaker.  Shake, don’t stir.

 -Strain into your already chilled martini glass and garnish with the olives on a skewer.

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The Cruise Room Martini

The Cruise Room opened on December 6, 1933, essentially the moment Prohibition ended, and its entire identity has been tied to the classic cocktail ever since. Tucked just off the lobby of the Oxford Hotel, the narrow Art Deco room was designed to resemble a lounge aboard the ocean liner RMS Queen Mary. Red neon, chrome, carved panels and intimate booths create an atmosphere that feels less like a contemporary cocktail bar and more like somewhere you might have wandered into after arriving in New York by train in 1937.

The Cruise Room became particularly famous for its martinis. Older accounts describe a menu with an almost comical number of variations, many of them flavored or sweetened, but the classic martini has always been the more serious choice. The bar’s own history emphasizes the classic version, and its bartenders have long been advocates for the gin martini rather than treating “martini” as a synonym for any cold drink served in a stemmed glass. 

One of the particularly nice traditions is the way the drink is served. Rather than simply handing you a martini and sending you back into the world, the bartender serves the chilled cocktail with the remainder of the drink kept cold in a small carafe or shaker nestled in ice. In other words, your martini glass isn’t secretly shrinking while you drink it. There is actually more martini waiting for you. 

The dirty martini has also developed a following. A 2016 account recommended ordering it extra dirty with Death’s Door gin and blue-cheese-stuffed olives, with a substantial amount of olive brine. That particular recipe may no longer be the house formula, but it captures the Cruise Room’s old-school approach: gin, ice, olive brine and enough attitude to make the drink unmistakably dirty. 

What makes the place special, though, isn’t simply the recipe. It’s the setting. The Cruise Room is small and deliberately intimate, with the red glow reflecting off the chrome and Art Deco details. The result is a room that encourages you to slow down. A martini here is less something to knock back and more something to sit with while the evening develops.

The bar still takes its classic cocktails seriously, alongside drinks such as the Manhattan, Old Fashioned, Tom Collins and Sazerac. Recent descriptions of the program emphasize spirit-forward drinks and relatively restrained use of syrups, which is exactly what you want from a place with this much history. 

If I were approaching the Cruise Room properly, I wouldn’t start with one of the novelty martinis. I’d sit at the bar, order a gin martini, very cold, with a twist or olives depending on your mood, and let the room do the rest. There are plenty of bars where you can get a technically excellent cocktail. There are considerably fewer where the cocktail feels like part of the building’s history.

And that, frankly, is why the Cruise Room has lasted. Denver has spent decades tearing itself down and rebuilding itself in whatever architectural style is fashionable that particular Tuesday. The Cruise Room mostly just kept pouring martinis. The Oxford Hotel

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Looking for something more exciting, here’s a guide to every martini on the planet:

https://punchdrink.com/articles/martini-cocktail-recipes/

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French Blonde Cocktail Recipe

Ingredients
2 ounces freshly squeezed grapefruit juice (from 1/2 grapefruit)
2 ounces Lillet Blanc
1 ounce dry gin
1/2 ounce elderflower liqueur, such as St. Germain
3 dashes lemon bitters or 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Ice
1 strip fresh grapefruit peel, for garnish

Instructions
Place a coupe or martini glass in the refrigerator or freezer for at least 5 minutes.

Place 2 ounces grapefruit juice, 2 ounces Lillet Blanc, 1 ounce dry gin, 1/2 ounce elderflower liqueur, and 3 dashes lemon bitters in a cocktail shaker. Fill the shaker halfway with ice, seal, and shake until the outside of the shaker is very frosty, about 20 seconds.

Pour through a strainer into the glass. Garnish with 1 strip fresh grapefruit peel.