Rant: If you don't know how to make the drink, just tell me...

[PhilipDT]

...and I ll order something else.

I went to Antares last night in cañitas for spanglish. Nice bar nice location. Asked for the drink menu, saw that the "martini dry" was one of the few mixed drinks they actually bothered listing.

So I went ahead and asked for a dry vodka martini. I sit down at the bar and start talking to someone and I turn around and I see the bartender putting SUGAR in the coctelera. I asked him what the hell he was doing and he acted shocked that I didn't want 3 heaping spoonfuls of sugar in my martini. I should have just called it quits then and changed for a cuba libre or something, but I let him remake it.

Again I ended up talking to someone, when I should have been watching this bartender like a hawk. Eventually the drink arrives and I take a sip. And do all I can to keep from spitting it back out. Honestly if I had wanted a chilled glass of vermouth I would have ordered one. I asked the bartender how he made it.

1:1 Vodka:Vermouth

It was pretty much undrinkable. I asked him if he knew what dry meant, since after all that was what it said on the menu. He did but I guess somehow just didn't quite understand.

I left the drink on the bar when I went to go sit down at a table and the bartender asked me if I was going to drink it. I said no. No offer to remake it, no offer for a refund. $30 pesos down the drain.

UGH

I wish he would have just said "perdonáme no sé como hacerlo, puedo ofrecerte algo diferente?"

/rant over


plus SUGAR????????????


/ok actually over


On another note, anyone know a bar with really excellent cocktails?

 

[pez]

I have heard some good things about M bar - Balcarce 433. I havent been able to try it out myself but apparently there is a good cocktail menu and staff that know how to make them.

 

[hard_truth]

Posadas and 9 de julio, a little bar that serves excellent drinks

 

[Davidglen77]

Make sure you put a commment about this on Guia Oleo, they are listed there and you will save other people the trouble and lost money.
http://www.guiaoleo.com.ar/restaurantes/Antares-9590

 

[Napoleon]

On another note, anyone know a bar with really excellent cocktails?

These people seem to know what they're doing. And right now, Wednesday night is huge. Especially if you get there after 10:30pm.

http://www.riocafe.com.ar/

 

[Canick]

Bar 6 which has a tiny bar and is mostly a restaurant, has excellent drinks. Extensive cocktail menu and usually always fresh juices and ingredients. fresh mint, ginger etc.
then again, i drink cuba libres lol.

 

[BROOKLYN]

yes! I hate when these bartenders dont know how to make a simple french martini! jajjaaj.. seems like they dont have pinneapple juice or chambord..wtf! maybe I should just ask them to make me a simple dyekiri...lol with 1kilo of sugar in it!

 

[KatharineAnn]

I wish he would have just said "perdonáme no sé como hacerlo, puedo ofrecerte algo diferente?"

Uh, maybe you should consider to think that maybe that´s the way locals like it? And I mean, in that case, your attitude would have been extremely offensive. I mean, there´s no right or wrong way in preparing foods, drinks, or whatever, it is always fair game for original recipes to be modified to local tastes. Just look at all those mexican/hindu restaurants whose ¨spicy¨ foods are less than spicy. Again, foods are adapted to local tastes all the time, and the locals here...love sugar!!

So of course he wouldn´t have told you he didn´t know how to make it, because he did know how to make it, the Argie way. And guess what? You´re ordering a drink in Argentina! Sometimes it´s helpful to adapt a little.

(This may be totally off. Maybe most Argentines DO actually like true ¨dry¨ martinis in the same way as you. But I´m just saying. Argentines do love their sugar, so this isn´t surprising).

 

[Napoleon]

Uh, maybe you should consider to think that maybe that's the way locals like it? And I mean, in that case, your attitude would have been extremely offensive. I mean, there's no right or wrong way in preparing foods, drinks, or whatever, it is always fair game for original recipes to be modified to local tastes. Just look at all those mexican/hindu restaurants whose ¨spicy¨ foods are less than spicy. Again, foods are adapted to local tastes all the time, and the locals here...love sugar!!

So of course he wouldn't have told you he didn't know how to make it, because he did know how to make it, the Argie way. And guess what? You´re ordering a drink in Argentina! Sometimes it´s helpful to adapt a little.

(This may be totally off. Maybe most Argentines DO actually like true ¨dry¨ martinis in the same way as you. But I'm just saying. Argentines do love their sugar, so this isn't surprising).

While this may be true with food, this is not true with drinks. There IS a "right" & "wrong" way to prepare drinks. Altering it to appeal to the local palate is completely understandable, but then it is no longer a "dry martini" for example. It's still a martini as much as an "apple martini" is a martini or a "watermelon martini" is a martini, but they are not "dry martinis".

But then again, a bartender anywhere in the world should know that. But sometimes things are lost on people here.

PS- I think that Congo Bar probably has bartenders who know how to make a proper drink as well.

 

[MizzMarr]

I'm sorry, KatherineAnn, but while I agree that there is room to adapt a lot of time to the local culture, make concessions to things being done differently, and loosen up in general, a dry martini is a dry martini without a lot of room for interpretation. This is why there are bartending schools and bar guides that tell how to mix a drink and in what quantities. This is why, generally speaking, the world over if you walk into a bar and order a "dry vodka martini" you'll be served a glass filled with vodka and vermouth in a more or less 5:1 ratio. I don't think that it's right that in order to "cater" to the tastes of the Argentines that a timeless recipe should be bastardized by putting sugar in it. If that's how Argies like their martinis, fine, but it shouldn't be called a dry martini.

If someone gave you a sugar cookie and called it an onion bagel, would you just say, "huh, I guess this is how they make onion bagels in Argentina"? No, you'd most likely say, "they don't know what they are talking about and I can't believe I just got conned into paying 50 pesos for a dozen sugar cookies. Now what am I going to do with all this lox and cream cheese?" My bet is that you don't put it on the sugar cookie and concede to local interpretation.