[Lee Stewart]

The exact lineage of the martini is unknown, but it may have evolved from another cocktail created in Martinez, California, during the mid-1800s gold rush . As the story goes, a miner who had struck gold mosied into a bar for celebratory Champagne, but there wasn’t any, so the bartender used what he had on-hand — gin, vermouth, maraschino liqueur, bitters and a lemon slice — and called it the Martinez Special.