The Pizza Martini Creates A Sippable Version OF Everyone's Favorite Snack Sippable
At New York City's The Flatiron Room, a classic takeout go-to takes a turn as a savory culinary-forward martini.
The Pizza Martini at The Flatiron Room in New York City.
The Pizza Martini has been a work in progress for a while.
"Back in 2018, I tried Lustau Vermut Blanco for the first time, which is an incredibly dried herb-forward, and I immediately thought of a pizza," said Ben Wald, Spirits Specialist and Head of Beverage Programming at The Flatiron Room.
Ever since then, Wald shared that he had this cocktail idea kicking around in my head in some form since then. "It was just a matter of finding the right spirit to be the traditional base of the martini," said Wald.
Then, it was about building the layers of flavor. "Olive oil washing was the next step that really added that layer of rich fat that you get on a great slice. The sun-dried tomato liqueur was a way to add that really specific blend of citric, malic, and ascorbic acid found in tomatoes," said Wald.
But the crowning glory of this inventive cocktail is the charred goat cheese olives. "The goat cheese olives come out of not wanting to use blue cheese olives as they are ubiquitous and belong to a style of martini I was not trying to create," said Wald. And making this pivot had an additional benefit. "It is also really easy to get goat cheese into an olive using a pastry piping bag," Wald said.
While the Pizza Martini was a work in progress for a while, the original Pizza Martini was always based on Lustau Vermut Blanco, which naturally is dried herb forward. "I remember the first time I tried it and the idea popped into my head immediately," said Wald.
However, the cocktail has undergone some important pivots. "The original cocktail was going to be done on gin and how to get that fatty, full-bodied flavor by using the grease from pepperoni," said Wald. However, research showed him that there was a specific kind of pepperoni that when baked, the outside curls up and forms a cup and the fat renders in the middle. "After some trial and lots of error, I learned it would take a massive amount of baked cup pepperoni to get enough fat to wash the base spirit to get that fatty flavor," said Wald.
The cocktail then evolved into what it is now. "I decided I wanted to highlight the vermouth and not the traditional base spirit. Using olive oil to add some green fatty flavors without overpowering the vermouth was the natural next step. Now, instead of having this bold and brash in your face pizza flavored drink, we have a more subtle take on what a drink inspired by food can be," said Wald.
This important layering of flavor made picking a vodka a very important step. "Grey Goose is made from wheat and isn't as sweet as vodka made from corn or rye which helps to play into the base flavors of the crust," said Wald.
As for the olive oil, Wald was keeping in mind that good quality olive oil won't transfer a lot of flavor by itself but has an important top note presence. "I wanted to avoid the drink tasting oily so the flavors there are really subtle, but you'll notice something missing if it is gone," said Wald.
But for Wald, the base of this drink really is the vermouth. "It almost feels purposefully built to be in a pizza martini," he said. "I didn't have to change anything at all to be able to get those flavors out and mostly worked on making sure I didn't muddy them in any way."
The sun-dried tomato liqueur adds that acid component you get from the tomato sauce without making the drink too acidic or too tomato forward. "I don't like black olives on pizza but I do like Castelvetrano olives because they're low in brine and high in fat," said Wald, who found charring them adds a little bit of that burnt crust flavor. "The goat cheese inside of them just improves on the Blue Cheese Olive. Goat cheese is less divisive than blue cheese and is more nutty and fatty than blue cheese which plays better with the cocktail itself," said Wald.
So far, the response to the Pizza Martini has been incredible. "If you put a martini on your menu, the rest of your beverage program will be judged based on how good that martini is. We get a lot of guests reordering the Pizza Martini because even though it is a specific flavor, you never really get tired of it," said Wald.
(courtesy of The Flatiron Room)
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