Next time you go out don't even think of ordering a glass of white wine. Fancy cocktails are so popular right now you wouldn't want to be seen in public without one.
"People are looking for something a little more exotic, a little different," says Joe Larson, general manager of Ixia, the hip new restaurant that just opened in downtown Baltimore. "They're willing to be adventurous; they're going out on a limb."
These creative cocktails, the latest generation of mixed drinks, are usually made with fruity flavors and unexpected combinations of liquors and liqueurs. Many are colorful, with intriguing garnishes. And all of them taste better in wonderful glasses.
The trend may have started with the Cosmopolitan. For awhile everyone who was anyone (and under 30) was drinking the pale rose mixture of vodka, cranberry juice, orange liqueur and lime juice served in a martini glass.
Which brings up the point that today's martinis are often martinis in name only.
"Everybody likes to drink out of a martini glass these days," says Jody Danek, an owner of Tsunami in Annapolis. He invented the restaurant's signature Tsunami Martini.
"Everybody orders them," he says, "but they hate me behind the bar because they're complicated to make." (They involve, among other ingredients, coconut-flavored rum and pickled ginger.)
The hallmark of a martini used to be its snobbish simplicity. You put gin in a glass and waved the vermouth bottle over it. You know things have changed when a New York nightclub (Exit & Spa) has a signature watermelon martini. It's made with a shot of vodka, watermelon puree and a dash of simple syrup, then poured into a chilled martini glass.
Here are some other recipes for creative cocktails local bars and restaurants have shared with us. Each recipe makes one drink.
Sex and the City
1 1/2 -2 ounces Absolut Kurrant vodka
1 ounce Bacardi rum
3 / 4 ounce sour mix
3 / 4 ounce pineapple juice
Shake the ingredients with ice until very cold. Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a twist of lemon.
--Ixia, Baltimore
La Jollarita
1 1/2 ounces of Herradura Silver Tequila
1/2 ounce Cointreau
splash of Chambord
1 1/2 -2 ounces fresh lime juice
Shake the ingredients with ice. Serve the drink straight up in a margarita glass garnished with a wedge of lime. Don't rim the glass with salt as you would with a traditional margarita.
