The Library Bar, The Royal York HotelNow Agent Triple P likes an olive in his Martini. Indeed, we would venture that without an olive it is not, in fact, a Martini. You want a twist of lemon? Excellent, you have wrecked a classic drink.
The number of olives that should go into a Martini is generally as discussed as any other aspect of the drink. However, Agent Triple P only puts one olive in his Martini, although he will accept two if they are very small and on a cocktail stick (although that practice itself is somewhat louche).
Olive soup!
However, last Saturday night in the Library Bar at The Royal York Hotel (which is one of the better bars in Toronto, we believe) we were presented with this monstrosity which contained no less than six enormous olives. Now Royal York Martinis are famously the size of a bird bath. One could easily fit Dita von Teese into one, so there is no question of skimping on the ingredients by displacement.
So what put it into their heads to put half a dozen olives into our drink. One sip showed that it tasted exactly like WC Fields' famous "light repast of olives in a gin and vermouth broth". Even ditching them almost immediately left us with a nasty olive-tasting concotion.
We then decided we needed a Negroni to remove the taste and that came with a huge slice of orange and, horrors, a cherry.
Get your garnishes back under control!
