The Might/June 2025 concern celebrates the Martini in all its superb types. There are myriad methods to benefit from the traditional, and you’ll even degree up your Martini expertise at house with a customized Martini cart. However few experiences are as satisfying as sipping a well-made Martini at a bar that does it good, and there’s by no means been a greater time to search out masterful classics and artistic twists. We tapped business execs to search out out about their favourite spots around the globe for Martinis—and we share a couple of of our personal—from historic watering holes to modern cocktail bars.

Worldwide

Bangkok: Vesper

Simon Ford, founding father of Fords Gin, says should you’re visiting Bangkok, a cease at Vesper is a should. The bar—headed by Tom Hearn, previously of The American Bar on the Savoy, and Sine Ployparima Suripat—provides elevated variations on classics in addition to artistic originals just like the Whiskey Coke Float with home cola, Guinness, and condensed milk ice cream. However the home cocktail, the Vesper Martini, is of course the one to start out with. Select from a conventional Vesper, served from the freezer à la Dukes Bar London, or thumb via the bar’s Vesper Bible for his or her many twists on the traditional.

Barcelona: Boadas Coctelería

This historic neighborhood bar, opened in 1933 on the touristy Las Ramblas, boasts a particular declare to fame. Not solely had been Picasso and Hemingway common patrons however, based on Ford, Boadas is house of the thrown cocktail. “The throwing technique aerates the Martini with out upsetting the feel, giving friends one of the best of each worlds between a shaken or stirred Martini,” says Ford. “It’s additionally enjoyable to observe the method as you wait to your Martini to reach.”

Paradiso

When in Barcelona, search out this award-winning, speakeasy-inspired bar situated via the freezer door of an El Born neighborhood pastrami store. Although the bar is thought for his or her modern and elaborate authentic cocktails, Martini maven Julie Reiner’s go-to is the Supercool Martini made with gin distilled with fennel and oregano. “The water that’s poured barely frozen, the frozen Tanqueray 10—it’s a should for me with each journey to Barcelona!” she says.

Berlin: Wax On

Ford finds Wax On’s “punk rock” angle massively interesting. This, combined with their modern cocktail fashion, makes for next-level drinks that may be loved by the savvy and the novice alike. “What I like about their method is that it comes with an insane quantity of thought and information,” he says. “And it additionally comes with out pretension.” Living proof: Their seasonal freezer Martini is probably the most experimental one on Ford’s checklist of world favorites. Made with gin, vermouth, tarragon, cucumber eau de vie, and raspberry hydrosol (a distillate), “It’s ridiculously good, and the additional dimensions of taste make a lot extra sense when you find yourself sitting on this bar,” he says.

Hong Kong: Argo

Deciding what to drink at Argo, one among Asia’s 50 Finest Bars situated within the 4 Seasons Hong Kong, could also be a tough endeavor contemplating the wealth of intriguing choices. The professional transfer is ordering Argo’s home Martini to sip when you ponder what to order subsequent. They use freezer-cold gin—the bar’s personal made in collaboration with Australia’s By no means By no means Distilling Co.—stirred with a seasonal hydrosol instead of vermouth and served with an El Bulli-inspired liquid olive.

London: The Connaught Bar

For Reiner, this famend London bar with its considerate and chic method to hospitality makes it one among her favourite locations for a Martini. “The [Martini] cart and magnificence of service are unbeatable,” she says. The bar tailors every drink to style, as director of mixology In the past Perrone (creator of The Connaught Bar: Recipes and Iconic Creations) considers it “probably the most private of all of the drinks served right now.” Served table-side from their customized bar cart, the Martinis are ready together with your alternative of gin and house-made bitters. Go together with the ginseng and bergamot bitters for one thing energizing, coriander to enrich the gin, or lavender to carry out the floral notes.

Dukes Bar  

At this world-famous resort bar in London, you’d be doing your self a disservice by not ordering a Martini. Each the bar and the cocktail are stated to have impressed author and Dukes common Ian Fleming to make James Bond a Martini lover. “Dukes Lodge Bar feels very very similar to that, the place it’s simply the appropriate drink for that room and executed in such a simplistically foolish manner it’s arduous to go up,” says Trevor Easter of Sacramento’s The Butterscotch Den (featured on the duvet of our Might/June concern).

Madrid: Del Diego Cocktail Bar

You understand that clean transfer the place the bartender switches out your room-temperature cocktail glass for a contemporary, chilled one mid-Martini? It’s a way that’s been gaining recognition all through the States. However based on Imbibe contributing editor and The Martini Cocktail creator Robert Simonson, this New York–fashion bar in Madrid has been doing what he calls “The Chilly Switcheroo” for years. Del Diego, based in 1992, has at all times taken a novel method to their Martinis. Even when mixing the traditional, as an alternative of shaking or stirring, they make use of what Simonson describes as a stabbing method, “by which they shove a barspoon into an ice-filled mixing glass repeatedly.” This old-world technique has been described as a one-handed swizzle that’s extra a “charming curiosity” than something.

Paris: Harry’s New York Bar

Although Harry’s, which was shipped from Manhattan in items and reassembled to open in Paris in 1911, is credited with being the birthplace of such classics because the Sidecar, the French 75, and the Bloody Mary, Ford recommends ordering the Martini. They make it the identical manner they’ve made it for many years: a dry Martini with gin, French vermouth, and an olive or lemon twist. “As you may think about with any bar with this a lot cocktail tradition and historical past, the Martini at Harry’s is world-class and you might be in very becoming environment to sip one.” 

Sydney: Dean & Nancy

For Ford, this elegant midcentury-inspired bar by the workforce behind the award-winning Possibly Sammy ticks all the appropriate bins. “It’s located on the twenty second flooring with unimaginable views of Sydney and there’s a piano participant enjoying tunes from the period to create the suitable atmosphere,” he says. Whereas adventurous drinkers would possibly search out Dean & Nancy’s authentic cocktails like a smoke bubble-topped spritz, to lean into the Rat Pack expertise, order the table-side Martini service and have the drink made to spec: gin or vodka, moist or dry, and with olives or a lemon twist.

Tokyo: The SG Membership

It’s no shock that this Shibuya bar by award-winning bartender Shingo Gokan (the person behind spots like Sip & Guzzle in New York Metropolis, Satan’s Minimize in Madrid, and Converse Low in Shanghai) serves up an impeccable Martini. “You get all the pieces from the proper ice to the proper pour,” says Ford. “The one determination harder than which Martini to order is which bar to loosen up and sip it in.” The SG Membership options two distinct bars on two separate flooring: the informal Guzzle bar and the delicate speakeasy-style Sip lounge.

Venice: Harry’s Bar

Although Simonson prefers a conventional Martini with gin and vermouth, he can’t resist an outdated bar that places their very own spin on a traditional. Such is the case at Harry’s Bar (no relation to Harry’s New York Bar in Paris) the place they’re well-known for serving a Montgomery Martini, which is 15 components gin to 1 half vermouth, served in a calming shot glass. Legend has it that it was Hemingway’s most well-liked sipper at Harry’s. “The presentation is a shocker at first: so small, so unusual,” he says. “Nevertheless it grows on you and it’s a must to admire Harry’s for sticking to its weapons amid limitless vacationer confusion. Finally, you simply plain like it.”

United States

Los Angeles: Musso & Frank Grill

This century-old restaurant, situated simply off Hollywood Boulevard’s Stroll of Fame, tops the lists of must-have Martinis for a lot of Angelenos. There’s one thing particular about sitting at a bar so ingrained within the metropolis’s historical past that it counted Charlie Chaplin as its first common. The historical past coupled with the impeccable presentation—delivered with a sidecar by a bartender in a sensible crimson coat—makes the Martini really feel like an event evert time. The gin choices on the menu are accompanied by tasting notes and proof degree that can assist you dial within the excellent Martini to style.

Sacramento: The Butterscotch Den

The Freezer Martini at this grill-your-own-steak lounge by Trevor Easter is one among our favorites, and at $10 ($8 throughout glad hour) it’s a steal. Basically a Fitty-Fitty whose vermouth element is break up between blanc and dry vermouths, its decrease proof makes it simple to knock again as refreshment. Ordering one to sip on when you prepare dinner up your steak or burger on the grill within the heart of the room is a good way to go the time. To fancy it up, go for the caviar garnish for $5.

San Francisco: Home of Prime Rib

This San Francisco establishment, which opened in 1949, stays one of many hardest tables to e-book, with wait instances for walk-ins spanning a number of hours and reservations opening up a yr prematurely. Locals and vacationers adore its old-school setting and repair, with the prime rib carted out and carved desk aspect. In keeping with Easter, the Martini at HOPR—a simple take with gin or vodka and a splash of dry vermouth—is a traditional instance of a contextual cocktail: One that’s enormously improved by the ambiance of the place it’s served. “I’ve at all times stated {that a} cocktail needs to be an adjunct to the expertise,” he says. “And the HOPR Martini is the common-or-garden drummer who’s not flashy however nice at maintaining time.”

New Orleans: Commander’s Palace

Celebrated bartender and educator Pamela Wiznitzer calls out the 25-cent Martinis at Commander’s Palace as one of the best Martini deal on this planet. On Thursdays and Fridays, these eating on lunch can order as much as three Martinis for 25 cents every. The “Martini” choices embrace a traditional, a Cosmopolitan, a melon cocktail, and Commander’s—a mixture of vodka, bitter combine, and blue curaçao. “Even with the financial inflation through the years, this deal stays unchanged and one of the enjoyable Martini experiences within the nation,” she says.

New York Metropolis: Martiny’s

“Takuma [Watanabe]’s Martini with caviar is an expertise everybody ought to have at the least as soon as!” Reiner says. Watanabe believes that caviar’s salinity paired with the dry gin Martini makes for the proper mixture. And whereas a caviar garnish served with a freezer-cold Martini has turn into a well-liked pastime in bars, Martiny’s takes the expertise to an inventive degree. As an alternative of dropping the dollop onto the drinker’s hand, the Kaluga caviar is served on a picket model hand alongside the Martini.

Sardi’s

New York native Wiznitzer counts Sardi’s as a part of her Broadway ritual. The 100-year-old Theater District restaurant is famously identified for the movie star caricatures that line its partitions. As quickly because the curtain drops on whichever present she’s watching, she runs off to Sardi’s upstairs bar and orders a gin Martini and pub cheese. Although Instances Sq. is teeming with bars, for Witznitzer, “the ambiance and area actually contribute to the expertise of getting an ice chilly sipper. And the excitement and feeling in that upstairs bar of Sardi’s is admittedly unmatched.”