The Gibson drinks like a dry Martini pared to its essence — a cold, spirit-forward pour of gin with only a whisper of dry vermouth, stirred until silky and served up. Where an olive would bring brine or a twist would bring citrus, the pickled cocktail onion lends a gently piquant, savory-sweet edge that lingers to the last sip.
Garnish: Cocktail Onion
Stirred · Nick & Nora · Up
add
Combine the gin and dry vermouth in a mixing glass.
stir
Add ice and stir well for 20-30 seconds until thoroughly chilled and properly diluted.
strain
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass, served straight up with no ice.
garnish
Garnish with a pickled cocktail onion (or two).
Nobody can say for certain who first dropped an onion into a dry martini. One story credits the illustrator Charles Dana Gibson, said to have dared bartender Charley Connolly at New York's Players Club to improve on the martini; the other, now generally judged the likelier, points west to Walter D. K. Gibson, a San Francisco businessman, and to the Bohemian Club during the 1890s. Whichever Gibson lent his name, the drink had settled in as a barroom fixture by the early 1900s.