Like many of you, I find that my tastes have changed with age. Nowadays, when we dine out my once ice-cold draft beer has been replaced with a martini type of drink. Among my favorites are the "Cosmo", "Appletini", and the "Espresso martini".

This type of drink ranges from seven bucks to ten bucks in the average restaurant in my area, but can go as high as eighteen bucks in the fanciest of restaurants in the Boston area.

I always laugh when I think about a local area pub that serves the best cheeseburger club I've ever eaten for $6.50 (includes fries) but charges eleven dollars for a Cosmo. Then you go to the local 5-star restaurant, order a $35-$40 dinner, and your Cosmo is only eight bucks.

You probably are wondering why I started this topic. Well I'll get right to the point. A couple of my favorite restaurants have done away with the traditional long stem martini glass and replaced it with what resembles a cone shaped rock glass. This stubby glass ruins the visual appeal of a martini. What's that you say? What's the big deal?

Well if you're going to pay big bucks for a cocktail, it should be in the proper glass. Would you like your fine wine served in a beer mug? Would you like your margarita served in a coffee cup? I know I wouldn't.

I would be curious to hear from other martini drinkers, across this great land of ours, to see if the classic martini glass has been replaced with the stubby cone glass. I'm sure the restaurants like the stubby glass because it is less susceptible to breakage and goes into their dish washers taking up much less space.

Do you speak up about your drink being served in a less appropriate glass? I know I do, in a polite but firm way. If we don't speak up about such a thing, what will be next, plastic cups?

Bob

Bob,

Sorry that I can't answer your question. I drank a martini once in my life and threw up all over the table.

And can you imagine? I was forcibly required to vacate the restaurant. The management had no sense of humor whatsoever.

bobo

I don't drink many martini's, but when I do I like a Hawaiian martini. Basicly a regular vodka martini with pineapple juice added.

Of course the thought of a martini brings back some bad memories for my wife Debbie.

We were at a cousins wedding on Long Island about 13 or 14 years ago. She was drinking martini's and her brother and I were getting her refills. Well the problem was I was getting her vodka martini's and her brother was getting her gin martini's. Didn't take too long before she was a bit ill. Of course, somehow while I was driving home on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway I ended up on an offramp that led me into Chinatown. The kids(my nephew & niece) thought it was cool. I eventually got us back on the BQE and Debbie was still hugging her brown paper bag.

Bob, I like a good martini when I go out to dinner. just about any kind as long as it is made with vodka, NOT gin! Most of the restaurants down here are served in the traditional martini glsss. Only once was I served one in the "newer" version and I requested the original martini glass. They're
the best with Gray Goose vodka!

I totally agree! Make it Vodka, not Gin, for me! I feel very strongly about a cocktail being served in the correct glass. If they don't have the proper glass, make mine a Diet Coke with a lemon twist. Think about it! Two Martini's per person is four for a couple. Average cost is $10 per drink, plus a 20% gratuity, comes out to $48. Four Diet Cokes would cost around $2.50 each and with a 20% gratuity, the total cost would be $12. Server loses $6 in tips. Restaurant owner loses $36 in drink sales.

Restaurant owners want you to spend more, not less. I'm a great believer in voicing your concerns in a polite manner. Let your server know your true feelings and see if owner will honor your request on future visits. If not, there are plenty of great restaurants that will.

Bob

Tending bar while on the lam from adulthood at Washington University, I was famous for my Boodles Gin martini. Served in a chilled classic long-stem martini glass with two olives and a backward glance at the vermouth bottle, many said it was hard to drink just one. It was a working class bar. Quite the hoot to see the pipe-fitters, carpenters, and the mailman lined up at 5 o'clock with their 'tini glasses. ;->

I agree it should be served in the proper glass. Myself I usually drink Irish Whiskey and mercy on some owner that serves it in plastic. (A mad person of Irish heritage is not a pretty site, with or without drinking Whiskey.)

Not into martinis myself. But is it ok to drink Blue Lite out of a Waterford wine glass? I.O. got me a set for my last birthday so I thought it perfectly proper...

The cost of drinks adds signifcantly to the price of dinner out. So sometimes I don't even bother. Especially if the food starts arriving shortly after ordering.

I agree, a drink should be served in the proper glass, and I love the look of a traditional martini glass. However, I find them to be a HUGE pain to actually drink out of, so it's a type of drink that I generally end up staying away from because there are times that I'm klutzy enough with a regular glass.

Though the chocolate cake martini (I think that was it) that I had when I went down to Hilton Head this summer was killer.

I beg to differ with some of you. Google: Martini and it is defined as GIN and DRY WHITE VERMOUTH not vodka. Any how back in my service days a colleague and I decided to us Sake instead if vermouth. We named it a Sake-tome. I am dead serious. Art

Ooooohhhh, Art, it is a wonder you survived this concoction ... I love Sake and I like Martini ...

But "Sake-tome" sound leathal ...

A great play on words, Art! Even Rowan and Martin would have loved that one.

Bob