[title]
Consider the martini bar. I bet you hadn’t in a while, if at all, until this very moment. It’s just such a deliciously antiquated arrangement of words, it sounds like somewhere the grandma from Who’s The Boss? would have gone on a date. In NYC, you might order a martini at a cocktail bar, but I bet you’ve never made plans to meet at the Martini Bar.
A year and a half ago, I told you about how dedicated martini menus were an impending trend. They have them at Gage & Tollner, they have them at Sidney’s Five, they have them at Le Rock, and those are all top spots. So it would only follow that some brilliant soul would carry this to its logical conclusion and open a whole, real-deal martini bar, as though snagged from those glamorous 1980s airwaves where one could wear, say, a feather boa to dinner, and it was just pretty regular.
That clever operator, it turns out, is Endless Hospitality, which counts The Wayland and several others among its properties. On Thursday, April 20, Endless adds Madeline’s Martini to its roster.
The East Village address is “inspired by quintessential martini bars,” according to a press release, and borrows from one, London’s Dukes, with its own frozen bottle plans. Unlike Dukes, Madeline’s titular tipple is made with gin, equal parts of sweet and dry vermouth, Luxardo, bitters and a twist.
Madeline’s interior, cloaked in green velvet curtains from the prying outside, aims to approximate a hotel lobby without the rooms. Up front, the bar seats 12, and the space is splashed with images of peacocks. There’s also bird taxidermy and old-timey phone booth and cigarette machine fixtures. Velvet-upholstered banquettes seat 16. There’s room for more in the back lounge, where the emerald color scheme abounds around an exposed brick fireplace and a DJ booth.
The menu includes several more martinis, including a vesper and a 50/50, plus other classic and novel cocktails, low and no-ABV options, wine and beer. Olives, mixed nuts, shrimp cocktail and caviar sandwiches are among the snacks.
Madeline’s Martini is located at 171 Avenue C. It is open Wednesday-Saturday from 7pm-4am.