Martini

Epitomized in spy movies, gulped in business executive lunches, and ruined on cheap gin or vodka for decades, the Martini has not always had golden years as one of the most classic cocktails in the world.

Lucky for the Martini and for us, these faux pas were remedied in the past few years. The reintroduction of fine arts such as bitters-making have returned orange bitters to the drink as well. The result? Once again, vermouth meets gin in a marriage made in heaven.

Annie Clark

Before writing and playing her own aerial and mischievous pop tunes, Annie Clark first got noticed for her guitar playing skills as a member of the 100 Guitars Orchestra of Glenn Branca. She also played guitar and sang for the Polyphonic Spree and on Sufjan Stevens' live band.

Eventually, she started her own solo career under the name St Vincent. Next to her silky fragile voice, and her brilliant guitar playing, the New York born St Vincent does not shun to reach for other instruments, like the organ, the piano or the bass guitar. After her excellent first album, Marry Me, she's getting ready to issue her second album on 4AD.

Peter Dorelli

Born in Rome in 1940, this true Italian playboy moved to England as a teenager, where he eventually served as head barman of the American Bar of the Savoy Grand Hotel for 35 years. His deep warm and vibrant voice has no match for telling the countless anecdotes he gathered during his career, while serving likes of Frank Sinatra, Sean Connery or the Queen Mother.

Head of the Bartender's Guild, he knows over 700 cocktail recipes and plays the shaker like a music instrument. “A bar is theatre — a living, breathing thing,” says Dorelli. “We are the performers, you are the audience, and we’re here to entertain you.”

Curio Parlor

The Curio Parlor is the 2nd endeavour of the group behind the already acclaimed Experimental Cocktail Club. Located on the west bank of Paris, it has a touch of the speakeasies of old, mixed with something of a cabinet de curiosités (including a menagerie of taxidermied animals, hunting trophies, butterflies, fossils and bones). A very high level of mixology is reason that the cocktails are, obviously, sublime. Excellent choice of whiskies.

My Funny Valentine

Maybe it's the atmosphere that settles once it started playing that makes a song a timeless classic. My Funny Valentine can be sad, softly ironic, warm or cruel depending on who sings it. Annie Clark chose that song because of its words, both sweet and cruel. And whispered against soft chords on the guitar, it turns into a anthem to intimacy.

3 links to go further

The Martini, on Wikipedia

The martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth. The drink is almost always garnished with an olive or, less commonly, a sliver of lemon peel.

Annie Clark, on Myspace

Two years ago, Annie Clark’s recorded debut as St. Vincent, ‘Marry Me’, gave immediate notice that a dizzying new talent had emerged from the flatlands of Texas.

The Savoy Cocktail Book, Peter Dorelli

Supreme gentility and extraordinary fun were the hallmarks of London high society in the 1930s, and when The Savoy Cocktail Book was first published, it not only enriched the style of the time, it became part of it in the 1990s.