A namesake ice sculpture in the shape of a martini greets guests as they enter the event venue, located inside the Landing at Industry City, Brooklyn NY.
When the doors to the Martini Expo swung open at noon, crowds flooded into the space, beelining towards the bar where they were offered a classic gin mini-tini, a wee pink gibson, or a half-sized lychee martini. As you can imagine, it was the first of what would be many martinis they’d drink that day.
The Martini Expo was created by drinks writer Robert Simonson and Mary Kate Murray, cofounders of The Mix, a cocktail and spirits newsletter. The latest checkpoint in the martini’s long run of cocktail domination, the Expo marks a new era for the classic tipple, one that takes it out of dimly lit bars. In the bright Brooklyn sunshine, cocktail enthusiasts and industry vets were happy to nerd out about vermouth ratios, cocktail luminaries, and various spirit applications, among other things.
“The martini is experiencing arguably its greatest period of popularity since the post-WWII years,” Simonson said of the event. “It seems like the right moment to honor the iconic cocktail.”
Even as Americans are drinking less, and as Gen Z is simply staying home instead of going out to bars, the martini has become more than a drink. It’s a lifestyle.
The day-long event in Brooklyn’s Industry City started with a series of seminars, panels rife with mixology legends like Salvatore Calabrese, Kenta Goto, and Takuma Watanabe. Attendees — a mix of bartenders, cocktail enthusiasts, and other industry insiders — could learn about the history of the martini from cocktail historians David Wondrich and Martin Doudoroff, or take a deep dive on vermouth with Allen Katz, co-founder of New York Distilling Company.
Attendees also enjoyed a Martini Mixer Cocktail Party, where a jazz trio suavely thumped away as bartenders at 30 vendor booths shook up every kind of martini you can imagine. Tomato martinis, yuzu martinis, espresso martinis — oh my!
