The Too Soon martini comes with a blue cheese-stuffed olive for extra funk. | Seth Marquez The city’s bars aren’t afraid to embrace a classic and play around to make it ultra-funky Portland’s cocktail scene is defined by its rejection of conformity and love for individual expression. A cocktail bastion, bars here are best known for originals, rather than doing things by the book. But behind its anti-establishment, break-the-rules facade, the city has always honored and paid homage to the classics, as evidenced by a love for zhuzhed-up revisions (hello, barrel-aged Negroni). “Portland is an amazing cocktail city and our creative spirit is strong,” says Jessica Hereth, restaurant and wine director for a number of local spots including Little Bitter Bar, Grand Amari, and Olympia Provisions. “I think we sometimes lose appreciation for the classics in our adventurous desire to reinvent the wheel.” “I love seeing the grin on someone’s face after that first sip. I love the excitement a bartender gets when you order one. It’s a sign of respect.” Even though bartenders here love pushing the envelope, many have an ongoing love affair with a timeless icon: the martini. True, the martini may not get the same fanfare as other cocktails in this town. But Portland has all the right ingredients for her to shine: a craft mentality; a populace that values good, properly executed food and drink; and, most importantly, a talented pool of bartenders and beverage industry professionals who know what they’re doing. Portland martinis are as wide-ranging as the drink itself, from 70s-era passionfruit-and-vanilla-vodka Porn Star Martinis at Sugar Hill (an apt fit for this strip club hub) to lip-smacking dirties. “I love the martini service,” says Pacific Standard’s Benjamin Amberg. “It feels classy. Dignified. Adult. I love seeing the grin on someone’s face after that first sip. I love the excitement a bartender gets when you order one. It’s a sign of respect.” Dry or dirty, vodka or gin, martini lovers have ample spots around town that can meet their exacting standards. Bars like Teardrop Lounge and Angel Face as well as traditional steakhouses like Clyde’s and Ringside know how to keep their discerning drinkers happy. Amberg stresses that “it’s always worth having a conversation with your bartender” to adjust for individual taste. Many bartenders create their own interpretations based on their personal martini preferences. At Fools and Horses, Collin Nicholas draws on his love for 50/50s for the vodka Fools Martini, which comes with an optional side dollop of caviar for the saline-salivating dirty martini crowd. “It has roots in tradition ... but it’s a leveled-up version,” he says. For some, a dirty martini isn’t dirty enough. Take Two’s “Grimy” shaker martini is the answer to a smutty-martini-seeker’s prayers; a savory overload of olive oil-washed vodka or gin and anchovy-and-Parmesan-infused olive brine with a blue cheese olive garnish. Another martini with a cult following is the freezer martini, and disciples can sink their teeth into crisp, ice-cold vodka and gin versions at Too Soon and 5 & Dime, respectively. Wonderly’s gin-based martini-and-a-half keeps the extra half-serving at the ready chilled on ice in a teeny glass carafe. With a wide range of gin and vodka choices in-house, martini bars like Olive or Twist and Bartini can handle all sorts of martini permutations. But this is a cocktail capital, after all, and bartenders aren’t afraid to add their twists and shake things up (puns intended). Uncommon Concepts The Fools Martini at Fools and Horses features an optional dollop of caviar for punchy salinity. At Little Bitter Bar, drinkers can have the novel experience of trying an amphora-aged martini. Using ingredients reminiscent of the sun-kissed shores of the Amalfi Coast — Italian-made Malfy gin, Berto dry vermouth, finocchietto, and orange bitters — beverage director Jessica Hereth partnered with Oregon winemaker and ceramicist Andrew Beckham to make a miniature version of his clay amphora vessels for the Novum Martini. “The idea was a culmination of three things: 1) my love of the gin martini, 2) my love of white wine, and 3) my desire to see what would happen when you age a delicate, nuanced cocktail in a clay amphora,” says Hereth in an email. “My curiosity was to see how the oxidation and earthen components of clay would interplay with the cocktail.” The espresso martini fad also remains in full swing, with bartenders adding their own tweaks like Amberg and Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s boozy remix at Pacific Standard with Spanish brandy and Kahlúa. “The Spanish brandy, while there’s not a ton in the cocktail, is really what sets ours apart ... the rich raisin-esque quality of the brandy really helped give the cocktail an added depth,” Amberg says. “But [it] still retains all of the elements about the cocktail that people know and love. Ours just turns it up to 11.” So, let’s give the martini some Portland love. After all, we even have our own martini sign, which shines out from the West Hills each holiday season. It’s time for drinkers to rediscover this classic (and for those already in the know, to maybe find a new favorite).