I came across this delicious cocktail at the sexy Temple Downtown Lounge in the Renaissance Hotel during a recent trip with my son to see RISD in Providence, RI.
It is a fun cocktail called Greek Salad Martini and is great for summer sipping. I am still working on perfecting the recipe. But here is what I have so far. It really does taste like a Greek salad.
The ingredients are vodka and the juice of Kalmata olives, Tomolives and piquante peppers. I did a garnish of feta cheese stuffed olives, grape tomatoes, and the other fruit.
The Renaissance is a fabulous hotel in Providence. The city has changed so much over the last couple of decades since I was there last. The Renaissance is one of the many improvements.
In the lower level of the hotel you will find the very hip Temple Lounge which serves up an inspired mix of Mediterranean cuisine and hand-crafted cocktails.
One we particularly favored was a cocktail they called the "Greek Salad Martini."
It is made with a mix of the juices that marinate Kalmata Olives, Tomolives and Piquante Peppers in equal proportion. I chose Gaea Kalmata and Peppadew peppers to go with the Tomolives, which are made by Bryant Preserving under the brand of Old South. I poured the juices from the olives and peppers into another .350 ltr. bottle and end up with enough for many martinis.
At Temple they garnish the drink with a feta cheese stuffed olive. These I found by Divina. I got everything at Kings in Verona except for the Tomolives which I found at my wine store.
I decided to get fancy and skewered baby grape tomatoes, olives, and peppers on a cocktail sword which made the drink very colorful.
I am using a 4 to 1 ratio of vodka to olive mix which you can adjust to taste. I also found that a splash of dry vermouth helped give the cocktail more complexity. I shake over ice and serve in a very chilled glass.
You could try this recipe as well Dirty Greek Martini from DrinksMixer.Com
Let me know how you like it.
