Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Onyx Room's French Martini

Onyx Room's French Martini
Onyx Room's French Martini
Place

Onyx/Thin

852 Fifth Avenue, San Diego

There’s a fine line that Onyx Room bartenders walk between time and taste.

According to Onyx Room bartender Nathan Colonero, this nightclub’s bartenders pride themselves on being able to deliver smart concoctions and efficient service.

“The Onyx Room has a serious nightclub scene so we try to make something a little different – but it’s got to be fast,” he says. “With a night club the last thing you want to do is take several ingredients and a bunch of muddling to make a drink.”

While a beer and a shot will make the scene as often as not at the Onyx Room, Colonero says, sometimes the clientele calls for something more – something, say, with a little craft, such as a French Martini….

Sponsored
Sponsored

A classic in its own right, the French Martini is an inspired derivative of the original gin/vodka legend, but long before the synthetic disasters that pimp out the martini with saccharine liqueurs and silly names ruined the party.

Appletini? Chocolatini? — Craptini, as far as Colonero is concerned.

Conflicting claims between mythologists and mixologists have gone back and forth. Either the drink is over 100 years old or it’s a brilliant advertising campaign dreamt up for cocktail culture’s heyday by Chambord’s chemists. Drink one and make up your own mind.

Either way, Colonero says, the French Martini is a charming dance, if only because it also walks a fine line – avoiding the cloying sweetness of most current martini knock-offs while keeping enough sweet in reserve to court genuine affection among tippling dilettantes and veterans alike.

“It’s an even mixture,” he says. “It’s not too sweet because you’re only putting in a dash of the pineapple juice. It’s clean and light with just enough sweetness – I wouldn’t even call it fruity. It’s something you could drink more than one of – as opposed to a Mai Tai or a Sex on the Beach which have so much fruit juice and all those sweeteners in them.”

Kitchen Proof: The cold tartness of the raspberry finds its perfect dance partner in the warm spread of vodka, and both take their lead from the mellowing melody of the pineapple splash.

Nathan Colonero

HOW TO MAKE IT:

  • In a cocktail shaker pour:
  • • 2 oz. Grey Goose Vodka
  • • ½ oz. Chambord
  • • 1 Splash Pineapple Juice
  • Shake ingredients to the rumba, the foxtrot, or the crazy beat at hand, pour into a martini glass and feel the slow seep of courage into your dancing feet.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

In-n-Out alters iconic symbol to reflect “modern-day California”

Keep Palm and Carry On?
Next Article

Syrian treat maker Hakmi Sweets makes Dubai chocolate bars

Look for the counter shop inside a Mediterranean grill in El Cajon
Onyx Room's French Martini
Onyx Room's French Martini
Place

Onyx/Thin

852 Fifth Avenue, San Diego

There’s a fine line that Onyx Room bartenders walk between time and taste.

According to Onyx Room bartender Nathan Colonero, this nightclub’s bartenders pride themselves on being able to deliver smart concoctions and efficient service.

“The Onyx Room has a serious nightclub scene so we try to make something a little different – but it’s got to be fast,” he says. “With a night club the last thing you want to do is take several ingredients and a bunch of muddling to make a drink.”

While a beer and a shot will make the scene as often as not at the Onyx Room, Colonero says, sometimes the clientele calls for something more – something, say, with a little craft, such as a French Martini….

Sponsored
Sponsored

A classic in its own right, the French Martini is an inspired derivative of the original gin/vodka legend, but long before the synthetic disasters that pimp out the martini with saccharine liqueurs and silly names ruined the party.

Appletini? Chocolatini? — Craptini, as far as Colonero is concerned.

Conflicting claims between mythologists and mixologists have gone back and forth. Either the drink is over 100 years old or it’s a brilliant advertising campaign dreamt up for cocktail culture’s heyday by Chambord’s chemists. Drink one and make up your own mind.

Either way, Colonero says, the French Martini is a charming dance, if only because it also walks a fine line – avoiding the cloying sweetness of most current martini knock-offs while keeping enough sweet in reserve to court genuine affection among tippling dilettantes and veterans alike.

“It’s an even mixture,” he says. “It’s not too sweet because you’re only putting in a dash of the pineapple juice. It’s clean and light with just enough sweetness – I wouldn’t even call it fruity. It’s something you could drink more than one of – as opposed to a Mai Tai or a Sex on the Beach which have so much fruit juice and all those sweeteners in them.”

Kitchen Proof: The cold tartness of the raspberry finds its perfect dance partner in the warm spread of vodka, and both take their lead from the mellowing melody of the pineapple splash.

Nathan Colonero

HOW TO MAKE IT:

  • In a cocktail shaker pour:
  • • 2 oz. Grey Goose Vodka
  • • ½ oz. Chambord
  • • 1 Splash Pineapple Juice
  • Shake ingredients to the rumba, the foxtrot, or the crazy beat at hand, pour into a martini glass and feel the slow seep of courage into your dancing feet.
Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Now what can they do with Encinitas unstable cliffs?

Make the cliffs fall, put up more warnings, fine beachgoers?
Next Article

San Diego Dim Sum Tour, Warwick’s Holiday Open House

Events November 24-November 27, 2024
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader