@eborg

[billbenson]

Eborg, you were a bartender. I don't really like vodka much. I was at a sushi bar with a friend and he had a dirty martini, so I ordered one as well. It was great. Is it likely that it was the quality of the vodka, or the rest of the stuff? Got any recipes?

[nealrm]

All vodkas are equal, it must have been the other stuff.

[Harold Mansfield]

Eborg, you were a bartender. I don't really like vodka much. I was at a sushi bar with a friend and he had a dirty martini, so I ordered one as well. It was great. Is it likely that it was the quality of the vodka, or the rest of the stuff? Got any recipes?

Bill, I haven't tended bar in years and always hated Vodka myself, but all Vodkas are not equal. Especially when you are drinking them straight up. If you are just going to throw Red Bull or Cranberry Juice over it, you can use any decent brand. But you can't pass off any old vodka to martini drinkers.

And there are probably 5+ new Vodkas that are out now that didn't exist the last time I poured a drink. Seems like everyone and their mother has a vodka line out now.

But the basic Dirty Martini is pretty simple. Mix Vodka and Olive juice. Chill and serve straight up in a [chilled] Martini glass, or you can also make and serve it the rocks. The Olive Juice substitutes for dry vermouth, which is what's in a regular vodka martini. (An original martini is Gin).

These days everyone has their own spin on it....
Some people go heavy on the juice. Some people use flavored or specialty olives. Some people use peppered or other flavored vodka. I've seen guys add a splash of onion juice. Slash of pickle juice. Black olives. Stuffed olives. I've seen half salted rims. A strip of Bacon garnish...

The sky is pretty much the limit with what flavor of vodka and other flavors you can use. Usually the same taste combinations as you would for a Bloody Mary (salty things or compliments to salty things), except that you want to keep the drink as clear as possible allowing only for the "murkiness" of the olive juice. And usually want to keep the garnish down to just olives on a toothpick. Maybe 2 olives and a cocktail onion.

So I'd imagine if you wanted to get fancy with a house recipe, flavoring the olives and their juice is the way to go, but in a Sushi bar as you were in, they probably have all kinds of great ingredients to experiment with that other bars just don't carry. It's no telling what they came up with.

[billbenson]

Hmm, maybe I can bribe the bartender for the recipe. I've had dirty martini's in the past and they were ok, but this one was really good and I don't like vodka! They also had a Japanese scotch that was really good. It sells for $150 a bottle though...