Sixty-one years ago, the Broadway show How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying was a big hit, telling the story of the rapid rise of a lowly window washer to president of a widget company with aspirations to occupy the White House.
This story is so popular it became a movie and reopened on the stage not just once, but twice more, seems to be the right title with which to label a roadmap bars can follow.
As long as they offer an espresso martini. This drink is everywhere! And guests are expecting it, just as they’d expect you to have a beer or margarita for them.
Though for some it seems like a recent phenomenon and an overnight sensation, tied to people eager to get out after the pandemic and stay up late with a lot of energy, the drink has been hanging around bars for a while.
The back story is that it was created by Dick Bradsell at Fred’s Club in London in the 1980s. So, while not exactly an overnight sensation, the espresso martini has definitely gained in popularity recently, and guests love it.
Making it really simple to succeed in business without really trying as it is not much harder than having the necessary ingredients on hand.
Which, you most likely do.
The original was made with vodka, coffee liqueur and espresso. Grey Goose Brand Ambassadeur North America (US & Canada) shares his opinion that, “A Grey Goose Espresso martini is delicious with Grey Goose Original, but our Grey Goose Flavored (l’Orange, Le Citron and La Poire) make delicious variations of it too.”
The brand ambassador for this iconic vodka isn’t the only one who knows a thing or two about getting creative with the recipe.
Author and cocktail influencer Natalie Migliarini of Beautiful Booze- Stylish Cocktails To Make At Home and Drink Masters created a delicious version featuring Pisco and Lucuma syrup, while bourbon cream centers the offering at The Katherine Brasserie and Bar in North Carolina.
Justin Rankin, Bar Supervisor at The Katherine Brasserie & Bar at the Kimpton Cardinal in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, inherited a bar menu with an espresso martini on it that he then tweaked with some thoughtful improvements.
In keeping with the hotel’s community building commitment to introducing the best of local businesses to their guests, Rankin reached out to his neighbors for his recipe.
He shares, “I love supporting local. Southern Distilling Company in Statesville makes a bourbon cream that we use. Our espresso martini is off the wall different with its bourbon cream and tequila, not vodka. It is balanced and smooth and delicious. It’s got richer flavors, and you could start the night with it, or you could finish the night with it and call it a desert cocktail if you wanted. Tequila gives it a zing. The bourbon cream is like adult chocolate milk. At the distillery they serve it neat, but I like to add marshmallow simple syrup to give a little sugar to balance everything out.”
Balancing out the recipe and possibly tweaking it again to change it up and offer something different from a neighboring bars offering is definitely on Rankin’s mind.
But ask him if he’d ever imagine taking an espresso martini off the menu now and you’d get a resounding no! He knows his guests who order it in droves – especially the Wake Forest students and alums who are of drinking age – visit his bar for this drink.
That’s just one reason it’s always his number one or number two top selling drink.
The drink is also found at Merchant & Trade in Kimpton Tryon Park Hotel in Charlotte, where they are pushing out a high volume of espresso martinis up on the rooftop bar.
The venue’s new lead bartender Morgan Styers brings her guests locally inspired cocktails with the same ingredients she features downstairs during wine hour.
She notes a key ingredient’s presence and the way she ties together both venues…by relying on her tap system, “The hotel’s wine hour is just so inviting and gives us opportunities to showcase a local cold brew concentrate.
A dear local friend with a nitro taps company called Very Good Beverage Company is the one who services our taps and enabled us to put this drink on tap, which is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
It was worth the wait according to Styers who sees a benefit in both a 5% labor reduction and more enriched face time with guests.
Having the espresso martini on tap positively impacts the amount of product to be replaced and amount of time barbacks are away searching for ingredients.
Styers notes, “A little more time at prep is really going to save us labor wise. And it really does elevate the experience.”
Styers uses the cold brew concentrate, Borghetti coffee liqueur, and a little demerara syrup and notes it is dairy free and totally vegan, which appeals to a larger crowd.
She explains, “I am excited to serve it at a little more elevated manner at the high volume that we do. Like putting any cocktails on tap which has become more popular, you can put it in a keg and charge with nitro and it comes out with foam without having a line of Ramos boys shaking it. And the quality doesn’t suffer at all.”
She acknowledges that part of her excitement about putting it on tap is a reflection of guest expectation, “People expect the espresso martini to have a head. Especially after they’ve seen it on social media with the 3 beans on it.
Without the head it just looks like you dropped the beans in and since the internet has told them they should never accept an espresso martini without the espresso beans on top we know it just looks a little drab without the foam.”
The appeal of nitro-created foam helps Styers, and her team keep the espresso martini consistently on the list of top five drinks they sell each week.
Keeping those numbers up weekly is proof that it’s possible to embrace the modern classic while creating excitement for espresso martini innovation right there on the menu.
But, in Delray Beach, Florida locals and visitors alike flock to Warren and keep the espresso martini high on the drinks sold this week list too. Without it even being on the menu.
The restaurant and bar’s GM, Michael Iggleston, is seeing the drink flying across the bar and exploding in popularity, noting people would rather have that than a cappuccino which they might have ordered before.
At Warren they use a select Italian espresso and the bartenders make it mainly with vodka, though Iggleston confirms they can do it with bourbon or tequila if the guest has a preference and/or wants a twist.
He concludes, “At first, we started offering it as a way for people to get some espresso. It’s become so popular we don’t even put it on the menu. People just order it.”
Talk about succeeding in business, without really trying.
