Grace Brewer talks recipes, inspiration, and his recent collaboration with Blue Bar at the Four Seasons Hong Kong with Dry Martini mastermind Javier de las Muelas.
More than just a classic cocktail, Dry Martini is the name of Barcelona’s most heralded cocktail institution. Having sold more than a million of its namesake libations (and counting), the bar, which has been nominated for World’s Best six times, now has branches around the world, including Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand.
When did your passion for cocktails first come about?
When I was 18 I was studying to be a doctor and was alternating my studies with other activities, including working as a music promoter and selling comics. One day I opened the door of a mythical cocktail bar in Barcelona called Boadas.
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There, I discovered that bars are churches, places of meditation and recollection; unique spaces wrapped by the music of conversation. Soon I became a regular client at Marfilara, a very English-style club bar, where I went to study on many occasions.
From here my passion flourished and I opened my first bar, Gimlet, in 1979. I took over Dry Martini from founder Pedro Carbonell in 1996.
You now have bars around the world and regularly consult on mixology matters for major hotel brands and cocktail bars. Where did your interest in Asia stem from?
I’ve been passionate about Asian culture since I was a child, including the region’s ways of understanding life and of course its cuisine. After creating the Dry Martini Academy (the educational space adjacent to the Barcelona bar) and opening at Starwood’s María Cristina Hotel in San Sebastián, we decided to expand our boundaries. My first opening was in Jimbaran in June 2013 with Four Seasons; we now collaborate in Bali, Thailand, Singapore, and China.
What has been the secret to your success?
Service, culture, humility, simplicity, profitability, and a great team. Without a great team, ideas don’t make sense. We walk from classicism to where our imagination arrives with new ingredients and techniques. We look for the most complete and sublime form of a bar, with the objective of getting our clients to be the authentic protagonists of the stories; they have the opportunity to enjoy a special moment, full of detail and passion.
Your book Cocktails & Drinks includes over 100 cocktail recipes; which six cocktails have you chosen to exhibit at Blue Bar in Hong Kong?
Whenever you start a project you carry out a brainstorming that you must specify and reduce, and in this case, we had more than 30 proposals. When all the ideas are very well balanced and well designed, an emotional factor comes into play, along with personal taste.
Blue Bar will be serving six of Dry Martini’s signature eccentric cocktails; the Apple Spicy Martini, the Wasabi Martini, the Frappé Madrás, the Coconut, Passion Brulée, and the Sharon Stone. Each cocktail will be paired with carefully selected canapés crafted by hotel executive chef Andrea Accordi.
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It can be hard to find a good martini in Hong Kong. What are the most common mistakes bartenders make?
For me a dry martini is not a cocktail, it goes beyond; it’s art, architecture, design, literature. Tasting a great dry martini requires great scenery, dress code, lighting, and the proper glassware and ice as the diamond. The glass should be frozen, the gin very cold, the vermouth in its right measure, and the drink offered on a silver tray.
The most common mistake is to make it in a cocktail shaker, which will turn the drink cloudy and very watery. It is also commonly made with the excessive presence of extra dry vermouth. A martini must be very, very dry.
You travel a lot for work; other than in your own bars, where have you tasted the best martinis?
I remember delicious martinis and the great professionals who made them. Preparing a good dry martini is a technique that is learned; however officiating with art in a cocktail bar, managing everything that happens without giving up the smile, taking care of the details, and enjoying the satisfaction of serving others is achieved by professionals.
These include Charles Schumann, Alessandro Palazzi of Dukes Bar, Peter Dorelli of the American Bar at the Savoy, Simone Caporale of the Artesian Bar (at the Langham London), and Alex Kretena at P(our) in London, as well as Colin Peter Field, head bartender at the Hemingway Bar at the Hôtel Ritz Paris, and Japanese bartender Ueno Hidetsugu at Bar de Luxe.
This year is Dry Martini’s 40th anniversary; can we expect anything big from the brand?
We project this date as an artistic explosion, full of unique events where characters from the world of the bar and artists from different disciplines will participate, relating their worlds to the culture of the cocktail. We completely renovated the bar (in Barcelona) to be reborn after 40 years and will offer new collections and mixology concepts that revolve around the dry martini.
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What’s the secret to the perfect dry martini?
The great martini is the one in which you dump your soul. This is how a dry martini should be made. My own formula exclusively uses Bombay Sapphire gin. On a mixology level, the dry martini cocktail requires precision in temperatures. The ice must be crystalline, very compact, and be at a very low temperature. The glasses have to be frozen, the gin below -2ºC, and the mixing glass perfectly cooled and very well-drained.
From there comes into play a choreography not intended for the showcase of the bartender but for the view of the consumer, who observes the expertise with which the dry martini is made.
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