It’s been 60 years since James Bond, played at the time by Sean Connery, uttered three of the most famous words in Hollywood history: “Shaken, not stirred.”
And all these decades later, people are still ordering 007’s drink of choice, the martini. It has never gone out of style, and is still being shaken by bartenders on a daily basis.
“That’s what people want. Shaken well and served ice-cold,” said Brielle DiMauro, the head bartender at Rooney’s in Long Branch.
DiMauro has seen trendy drinks come and go in her time working at the bustling Pier Village restaurant – “Fruity summer cocktails, I feel like I don’t make any of those anymore. We don’t even have a blender,” she said of the fads that have faded away – while old-school favorites like the vodka martini, negroni and cosmopolitan have either remained popular or are enjoying a renewed renaissance.
“We don’t do nerdy mixology. We don’t have a clarified margarita. They’re fads,” she said. ”We don’t really fuss with any of that pretentious flair.”
Along those lines, many of the classics are low on ingredients but high on execution. A negroni only has three ingredients (excluding the orange garnish), and drinks like an old-fashioned or Manhattan are also offerings where less is more.
“The spirit is the base and the most important part of the cocktail,” DiMauro said. “Everything is light and fresh and not overwhelmed by all of the mixers.”
While the so-called speakeasy drinks mentioned above are iconic and allow for the spirits to dance on your tastebuds, there is another drink that belongs among the classics despite being anything but understated.
“The Bloody Mary is probably the one exception because ours is over the top,” DiMauro said. “It has a jumbo shrimp, it’s in a huge goblet. When you see one moving through the room, heads start turning and all of a sudden the service bar starts cranking. People always have the same reaction. It’s like a salad in a glass.”
So whether it’s a bloody or a bourbon, a martini or a Manhattan, bartenders will be slinging these quintessential cocktails for another 60 years – at least.