VEGAS BASH INFO for Martini Lovers

• "I've had martinis at so many locations in Las Vegas I can't remember them all (a hazard of drinking martinis, I fear). However, as far as the best places for martinis are concerned, the bar at the Eiffel Tower restaurant is a good choice. The service is excellent, the martinis delicious, and the view - especially at sunset - spectacular. The martinis here range from $12-$18 each and are well worth the price for the whole experience.
  
  "The 25¢ martini special offered with lunch at Commanders Palace (Aladdin/Planet Hollywood) has to be on the list. A beautiful restaurant with good food and excellent service. And did I mention that martinis are 25¢? What's not to like? Note that the martinis here are Smirnoff vodka or the house gin so obviously they're not premium brands. But again, they're only 25¢ and you can order up to four of them, if you can handle it.
  
  "My final recommendation is the Onyx bar at Red Rock. I know it's a dinky casino bar, but it's intimate and stylish and I not only thought the drinks were great (my party had Bombay Sapphire gin martinis with olives and Ketel One vodka martinis with a twist), but the style with which they were served was much hipper than most places. They serve the martinis in chilled stainless steel martini glasses with cylindrical steel olive picks that have Red Rock's multi-colored logo on them (look for these to disappear as customers accidentally put them in their purses and bags). Also, the large pour was $10. I almost qualified that with 'only,' but I would hardly call a $10 cocktail a bargain – merely a bargain compared to other places offering a similar vibe.
  
  "Now to one of my lesser martini experiences. I recently arranged to meet someone at the Rio for a business meeting. We wanted to go up to the VooDoo Lounge but it was closed, so we wound up in the tiny cluttered bar (it seemed that there was so much stuff on the bar, there was barely room for your elbows) in the Café. Nothing close to the ambience of the Lounge, more like an afterthought so they can get money out of people who have a wait for a table. I ordered a Bombay Sapphire martini, up, with an olive, as usual. The drink was delivered in a standard cheap bar glass, the olives impaled on a cheap plastic pick, and the size of the pour was approximately two-thirds the standard at most fine drinking establishments. The drink was delicious — and they did use the super colossal olives, which are my favorite — but became far less appealing after seeing the tab: $14 for this one skimpy drink. The bill also showed that the price of a generic martini is $12, but an additional $2 was added because I ordered a premium gin."

• "My personal favorite martini is the Lemon Drop. I've searched high and low for someone besides my brother who makes a really good one. I've been told it's the most difficult martini to make, almost approaching a science, and I've had my share of bad ones. However, there's a new bar I've discovered that opened up within the last year called Ollie's Tavern and they specialize in martinis (hence the name) with a long menu of specialties ranging from $6.50 to $7 each. They're open 24/7 and on occasion have live music. It's a very 'cool' bar - I love the atmosphere and they also feature my fave artist, Michael Godard, who sets the theme for the bar. The bar itself doesnt yet have a Web site, but the artist does: www.godard-artist.com/ (the art sets the theme for the bar). Highly recommended. Location: 8075 S. Decatur Blvd.
  
  "My other favorite bars for martinis are the Elephant Bar ($6.50 for a Lemon Drop), at the District at Green Valley Ranch, and the Drop Bar ($9 and up) and Whiskey Bar inside Green Valley Ranch ($15 for my favorite Espresso Martini).
  
  "My worst experience with a martini recently was at Hooters. I ordered my drink at the 13 Martini Bar and was presented with a half-empty glass, for which they wanted me to hand over $12. Twelve dollars! I refused to pay, went to the regular hotel bar there and ordered exactly the same martini for $6. I took this one back to the 13 Martini Bar to show them what a proper martini looks like.
  
  "More recently, last Friday I went to the South Coast to play bingo. Before I played, we sat at the bar in the middle of the casino (the main casino bar) and I asked which of the two bartenders in front of me could make a mean Lemon Drop martini. Both replied with a shake of the head and a point to the other bartender: Each said it was too hard to make. After a 10-minute conversation about how to make one, one of the bartenders agreed to try, but I told them never mind and ordered a vodka and tonic instead. All and all, not a good place to order a martini.

• "For me, a martini should be chilled, dry, and have olives and gin. While I do like vodka, gin provides me with the martini experience most suited to my palate. Being a Vegan (not to be confused with people wearing hemp sandals), my gin of choice is the one endorsed by our good Mayor Goodman, namely Bombay Sapphire.
  
  "I'll rank the martinis I've had from 1 to 5 olives, with 5 olives being the best.
  
  "Wynn Las Vegas (sitting at a video poker machine on the casino floor) -- 5 olives. These are delicious and cold. Wynn treats its gambling customers well, with premium gin served chilled in large glasses, with probably at least three shots of liquor each. The third and fourth ones taste even better.
  
  "The Artisan [itself the subject of a recent QoD] -- 4 olives for the martini ($11-$14, depending on your choice of brand), 5 olives for ambience. I've heard rumors of ladies of the night patronizing this dark and intimate little-known locale. Regrettably, I saw none the evening I visited. I did, however, have a fine martini (or three) sitting at the bar. This is the kind of place where, if you pull out your choice of tobacco, the bartender has a torch lit for you before it touches your mouth. Knowing that, one knows the martini will excel, and it doesn't disappoint. I give it a stellar, but not primo, 4 olives, only because the martinis were not as chilled as they could have been and because I did detect some evil vermouth in one of mine. Location: The white hotel on W. Sahara, about a mile west of the Strip, just before the I-15 on the left.
  
  "Palms Casino (sitting at a video poker machine on the casino floor) -- this doesn't even get a pimiento, much less 1 olive. Perhaps the foulest, most putrid, lukewarm liquid ever to touch human lips, with one sad mushy little olive floating in it. The only thing that was good about it was the minuscule portion (5 of these might fill one highball glass), as more of this might cause damage to one's internal organs. I think when the bartender went to martini school and they said, 'Add gin and a splash of vermouth,' he didn't hear the 'add gin' part. Neither I nor my companion could finish this beastly booze. (Note: This was our experience on the casino floor; the martinis served at the center bar are excellent.)"

• Triple George, located downtown on Third Street, across from the old Lady Luck, which we reviewed as follows in January's LVA: "The restaurant has the look of an old-style San Francisco eatery and projects a cool retro vibe that draws the martini crowd ($8.50 for Bombay Sapphire, $7.50 for Ketel One; $5.50 for the house brands) that shows up for the 4:30-6:30 weekday happy hour. In the downtown tradition, prices are well below what you'll encounter in the newer Strip-based restaurants." The martinis were generously poured and nicely chilled.
• Another favorite of ours is Maggiano's, the Italian restaurant in the Fashion Show Mall, across the street from the Wynn. We had some excellent Stoly martinis there and the happy hour price (4 pm-6:30 pm Monday through Friday) is only $4.95. (Regular price: $7.50)
• Also check out Red Square in Mandalay Bay, with its cool bar made out of a block of ice. They have an extensive martini menu (25 in all, ranging from $12 to $14), but there's another fun option here for the vodka fan. Here's the review from the 02/05 Advisor, with updated prices: "What we loved was the huge vodka selection — 160 in all. How do you choose? One way is by ordering themed flights of four shots each. For example, the Potato Flight (potato vodkas) is $32, the Motherland Flight (Russian vodkas) is $40, and the Ultimate Flight (premiums from around the world) is priciest at $64. The flights are delivered in chunks of ice--cool (actually, cold). In fact, our recommendation for eating at Red Square is to go for vodka and appetizers. Get the flight of your choice and a good steak tartar ($18), smothered blini ($35), or Siberian nachos ($17)."
  
  And if you take your vodka really seriously, check out the Vodka Locker at Red Square. Inspired by Russian ice bars, it's a small room (comfortably seats six) chilled to 10 degrees and used to store vodka for club members (membership is $3,000 a year). Non-members can use the room too, provided they pay the admission charge: a bottle of premium vodka, with prices starting at $250 and going up to $600. In case the fiery liquor isn't enough to ward off the cold, you're also provided with a (faux) mink coat and hat before entry.
• We haven't checked it out in a long while, but the Martini Ranch at Texas Station has a huge martini menu featuring standard gin and vodka offerings, plus fruit-flavored, dessert-flavored, and even truffle-flavored specialty martinis. Has anyone tried the Texas martini ($7.50), made with Sauza tequila and Tabasco, garnished with a jalapeno? If so, and you survived, let us know how it was.

kyhawk said:

Martini is hardcore drink. Dont know why they just dont call it gin. Its ususually 99% gin.

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