Joe Killian
Go Triad
12/29/06
Much Restaurant & Martini Bar
Address: 113 South Elm Street, Greensboro NC
Telephone: (336) 370-1311
Drink Specials: Nightly
Hours: Bar Wednesday – Friday, 4 p.m. – 2 p.m., Restaurant 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Website: www.muchrestaurant.com
Drink: Gin Martini
Rating: Four swizzle sticks
The Skinny: All Martinis are not created equal. In fact, as any bartender worth his salt will tell you, there is only one true Martini: Gin, a splash of vermouth, shaken in ice and served in a conical glass, take or leave the olive.
Despite the popularity of the Vodka Martini, Appletini, Chocolate Martini, etc., they are all pretenders to the throne. Trendy though they may be (and despite James Bond’s predilection for Vodka – shaken, not stirred) they aren’t true Martinis. Of course, time marches on, to the victor go the spoils and, these days, if you want a Gin Martini you’re going to have to order it that way. But it’s worth it.
In an age before Sex & The City, when grown heterosexual men ordered Martinis without feeling foolish, it was the solid punch of gin (usually mixed four to one or higher with vermouth) that made the drink legendary. Vodka will mix with anything and, unless they slip you Aristocrat from a plastic jug, it’s hard to tell until the next morning whether you’re drinking the good stuff. You have to like gin – preferably good gin – to enjoy a real martini.
Etc: Much is the jewel of a cluster of related downtown nightspots that include its upper-level disco Heaven and its next-door neighbors The N Club and The Red Room. But, while you’ll find yourself struggling through entire fraternities and sororities of scantily clad kids text messaging each other while drinking light beer at the N Club, you might see Mayor Keith Holliday descending the stairs at Much (which, in fact, I did).
The atmosphere is almost self-consciously luxe and strenuously decadent – belly dancers and fire shows on the weekends, torches providing the principle light at the bar. In a town with a series of cookie cutter pseudo-sports bars lining every corner, it can feel like an oasis where you’re sure to discover a new drink or just get your favorite just the way it should be.
Server: Mike Duquette, bar manager at Much. Mike’s been bartending for 15 years and has made the bar at Much what it is over the two years since it opened its doors. Ask him what’s good and he’s as likely to mix you one of his own concoctions as one of the Martinis.
1 Comment
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