Nothing Says Summer Like a Grilled Martini

I’m a devoted Martini drinker, but long stretches of 95-degree days this summer had me rethinking my cocktail order. Unless a Martini comes with an icy sidecar (and the AC is blasting), the cocktail gets too warm, too fast. And drinking a strong, boozy cocktail when it’s that hot? Not the best idea.

Then I walked into Kansas City’s Varsity Club, a neighborhood basement bar with a ’70s feel, where I spied the Grilled Martini on the menu. Made with gin, dry vermouth and smoked olive brine, it’s garnished with a grilled olive. It sounded like the perfect summer Martini, something I could envision serving at a backyard cookout. Plus, to keep things cool, it’s served on the rocks.

When Caleb Roye, who owns the bar with his brother, Levi, opened Varsity Club, he “wanted to reconfigure classic cocktails and present them in an approachable way,” he says.

For their dirty Martini variation, the brothers tapped Turkish grilled olives, which they use to infuse a gin blend and garnish the drink. After attempting to grill olives themselves (“you have to borderline dehydrate olives before you grill them or else they just blister, and then you have to rehydrate them through marinating them,” says Roye of the complex process), they discovered grilled Castelvetrano olives from the brand Fora (you can buy them online). Grilled with char marks, the olives had the ideal meaty texture and natural smoky flavor they were seeking.

The base of the cocktail is a 50-50 blend of Citadelle Gin, which adds floral citrus notes to the drink, and Prairie Wolf Dry Gin, which provides structure and balance. To impart that savory grilled flavor, they sous vide the gin blend with olives and smoke olive brine with hickory. At the bar, they batch the gin and brine with dry vermouth and store it in the refrigerator, then shake and pour Martinis over ice for service. 

While true opponents of Martinis on the rocks can request the drink served up in a coupe, for Roye, the presentation is a key component. “I think serving a Martini on rocks makes it more approachable,” he says. The bar shakes the drink just briefly to “minimize dilution before it hits the glass and slowly dilutes in the guest’s hand.” And that makes it just the right drink to linger with over a lazy summer afternoon.