For some time, the V-shaped Martini glass was the bane of my existence. In my transient stint as a server, the restaurant I labored at served solely cloying Martini variations, within the shallowest doable glassware, guaranteeing that I’d spend all night time spilling vanilla vodka on myself and my prospects. In line with Brian Evans, director of bars for Sunday Hospitality, which incorporates the Foyer Bar at New York’s Lodge Chelsea, this actual expertise is what made so many bartenders flip away from the V-glass within the first place. “When the renaissance of recent mixology began to take form, what we needed to emerge from was each bizarre, blasphemous variation on a Martini,” he says. The V-glass had grow to be the glass of Lemon Drops, Cosmos and Appletinis, so bartenders turned to the coupe or the Nick & Nora to connote a sure seriousness.
The place the coupe glass is paying homage to a female physique unencumbered, a gentle breast, the V-shaped glass is, in contrast, a bullet bra. It’s horny like platform spike heels and a drawn-on magnificence mark are horny, like a whip is horny. It’s sharp and onerous and a bit bitchy. For a very long time, the V-glass has been maligned as being fragile, unwieldy and susceptible to spillage. However because the Martini’s—and certainly the broader ’tini class’s—rein surges on, it’s solely pure that its attendant glass make a triumphant return, too.
When attempting to create the “timeless” vibes at Foyer Bar, there was no selection however to serve its two takes on the Martini within the traditional V. Foyer Bar makes use of a glass from John Jenkins barware with a dramatically lengthy stem. “What we wished to do was exaggerate the character of a Martini,” says Evans. It’s not a coy tackle a Martini, it’s a capital-M Martini.
The V additionally doesn’t need to be unbalanced, because it’s usually considered. Ryan Chetiyawardana, of Silver Lyan in Washington, D.C., says the extra vertical V shapes, with “a narrower rim and deeper bowl, make the ingesting expertise extra like a wine glass than the fishbowl Martini glasses of the ’80s and ’90s.” Chetiyawardana likewise makes use of glassware from John Jenkins, whose items, he says, are designed to attract the eyes up towards the drink, and “felt a bit extra iconic, somewhat than disco.” Ashley Santoro, the beverage director at New York’s Golden Age Hospitality, agrees that the V-glass brings an additional air of sophistication. “We have been all very a lot on the identical web page that we wished one thing a bit bit extra traditional and delightful,” she says. Bartenders at Deux Chats additionally use a Martini glass from John Jenkins, whereas at fellow Golden Age property The Nines, the drinks are available in a extra ornate, ’20s-inspired V from Bormioli Rocco. “It’s an actual drink, and I feel the glassware ought to type of match that,” Santoro notes.
That seriousness and custom are why Takuma Watanabe, who lately opened Martiny’s in Manhattan’s Gramercy neighborhood, has by no means strayed from the V-glass. “I imagine within the classics,” he says. His glassware comes from Kimura, as he wished to face out from the variety of American bars that depend on thick, dishwasher-sturdy glasses whose design, Watanabe says, adversely impacts the Martini-drinking expertise. “The primary time you contact the Martini, your lip is just not touching an excessive amount of glass. You’re feeling elegant,” he says. The round form of a Nick & Nora or a coupe halts the circulate of liquid and aroma, whereas within the V, it’s as if for a second your mouth and the cocktail are the identical being.
The return of the V-glass is an overt consequence of Martini Mania usually, a response to individuals craving sturdy, stirred classics in upscale settings that on no account resemble their residences. However its stark return additionally indicators the return of the artifice of glitz. This isn’t the time for all-purpose, sturdy glassware. It’s the time for glassware that’s a bit fussy, that nonetheless effectively balanced, takes swish, exaggeratedly subtle actions to maintain regular. “The thrill of the V-shaped Martini glass are much less concerning the sensible ingesting expertise and extra about pure vibes,” says Chetiyawardana, “placing your self within the headspace of generations of individuals for whom that iconic silhouette represented an finish to the work day or one thing to have fun.”
