The dirty martini at the year-old cocktail bar Gus’ Sip & Dip in Chicago isn’t merely “vodka, house olive brine, dry vermouth, blue cheese stuffed olives,” as the menu suggests. Behind the scenes, bartenders make a slurry of blitzed Gordal olives, distilled white vinegar, malic and citric acids, and monosodium glutamate, or MSG, and clarify it into a clear, intensely concentrated olive brine. Stirred with dry vermouth and vodka and gilded with machine-dispensed ice shards, it tastes like a dirty martini in high definition.
Kevin Beary, the beverage director of Gus’, swears this vigorous stand-in improves on the usual splash of jarred olive brine. Customers seem to agree: The enhanced dirty martini is the best seller at Gus’, to the tune of 2,000 drinks per month.
“When you use regular brine, bottled or from the jar, it is not concentrated enough,” Mr. Beary said. “So to get the martini to the level of dirtiness most people like, you’d have to add too much, which dilutes the drink.”
In matters of dirty martinis, there’s seemingly no limit to how filthy consumers will take them. Accordingly, bartenders are in an arms race to make brines brinier and infuse spirits with mouth-coating fat to carry more flavor. At the upscale Spanish chophouse Asador Bastian in Chicago, Gordal olive brine and umami-rich anchovy oil steep in vodka and dry vermouth overnight for the aptly named Dirty Dirty. The maximalist Dirty 90s Martini at Starlite, the cocktail lounge inside the Beacon Grand hotel in San Francisco, combines olive oil-infused vodka and vermouth that’s been spiked with olive and salted lemon brine.
Outerlands, a seasonal American restaurant in San Francisco, sells plenty of dirty martinis featuring a brackish dribble of Castelvetrano olive juice. But in February, Andi Miller, the restaurant’s beverage director, introduced a house martini that’s meta enough to headline a “Portlandia” episode. The silky concoction of olive leaf- and oil-infused gin, dry vermouth, and olive vermouth seasoned with saline solution seems to asks: Why stop at the olive when you can sip the whole tree?
“I think people like the opportunity to have something savory in their drink,” Ms. Miller said of her drink’s popularity.
Nothing masks alcohol’s sting while still delivering a boozy bang like olive brine. But the dirtiest cocktails are also riding the “picklecore” wave popularized by Gen Z on social media that’s now sweeping through restaurants and bars and the snack, beverage and candle aisles of stores.
“I’m South American; one thing I know for sure is that American people, like Europeans, like pickles and olives,” said Miguel Munoz, the beverage director of Altair, a modern American restaurant in New York City.
Mr. Munoz created the restaurant’s Dirty E.V.O.O. Martini — olive oil-infused vodka, brine from feta and olives, dry vermouth, and house-stuffed blue cheese olives — after eating a tomato salad laced with feta, of all things.
“I was thinking about that brininess of the feta, which is nice and salty, thinking people would really like that,” he said. “I took a bunch of feta juice and olive juice, and put it in a blender.”
Unsatisfied with his first attempt, he tried infusing the vodka with extra-virgin olive oil for two days until it achieved a velvety texture, absorbing the other flavors. It’s among the restaurant’s top-selling drinks, with about 150 crossing the bar each month.
“For a martini, it’s a big number,” Mr. Munoz said. “A lot of people are scared of martinis.”
Mr. Beary of Gus’ might disagree, even if he’d personally go for a less salty concoction than his customers are clamoring for.
“It’s interesting when you put a dirty martini on the menu, it seems to encourage people to order one,” he said. “There’s not a lot of other drinks like it that are so salty, so savory. It’s like eating a pretzel.”
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