What’s the truth behind the espresso martini? Perhaps we’ll never know. The story most often told is that the late Dick Bradsell, working in the Soho Brasserie in the early Eighties — 1983 tends to be the given date — looked up to see a supermodel in front of him, asking for a drink to “wake me up and then f*** me up”. Was it Kate Moss or Naomi Campbell? No-one really knows.
Well, actually, we do — sort of. Moss was nine in ‘83, Campbell 13. So it was neither. Grace Jones, then 35, seems a more likely bet — who, in their 30s, hasn’t found themselves getting sleepy on a night out? — but the name will never really be known. Mind you, Bradsell’s on the record with a mischievous smile saying it was the late Eighties, and at Fred’s Club. And Sophie Parkin, owner of Vout-O-Reenees members’ club, told GQ that Bradsell dreamt up the drink in ‘81 or ‘82 for her — not so she could get trashed, but so she could get through the shift. “I said to Dick, ‘I just don’t think I’m going to be able to manage. I’m literally falling to pieces,’” she told the magazine. He made her one. “I was bobbing around the room for the next five hours. That was the beginning of it.”
Add to that the drink was never known as an espresso martini to begin with — people called it the vodka espresso until it was served at Dick’s Bar in The Atlantic — and you have a story that’s even less transparent than the drink itself.
The drink today has a middling reputation, likely owing either to bad memories — it is a drink of power, pep and perkiness, so tends to be ordered around the time the night starts going haywire — or because of too many, too sweet creations. But while they may never be elegant, they still have merit. A good espreso martini should taste clean, light, and of excellent, fresh coffee (this is the key; it must come straight from the espresso machine, still scalding hot). The vodka must be hidden. The crema should practically sit above the rest, like fog hanging on a lake. The very bars often add a pinch of salt, too, and place the three beans for luck (reprenting health, wealth and happiness). But not many treat the espresso martini so seriously. Here are eight of the bars that do:
- Satan’s Whiskers 343 Cambridge Heath Road, E2 9RA, satanswhiskers.com
- The American Bar at the Stafford 16-18 St James's Place, SW1A 1NJ, thestaffordlondon.com
- Bar Termini 7 Old Compton Street, W1D 5JE, bar-termini-soho.com
- Swift Soho, Shoreditch, Borough, London Bridge, barswift.com
- Velvet Corinthia Hotel, 10 Whitehall Place, SW1A 2BD, corinthia.com
- The Coral Room 16-22 Great Russell Street, WC1B 3NN, thecoralroom.co.uk
- Three Eight Four 384 Coldharbour Lane, SW9 8LF, threeeightfour.com
- Manetta’s Bar Flemings Hotel, 7-12 Half Moon Street, W1J 7BH, flemings-mayfair.co.uk
