When it comes to cocktails, it’s getting hard to shock people. I mean, come on. We’re putting bacon in our eggnog and butternut squash in our bloody marys.
But once in a while, a cocktail comes along that makes you tilt your head and say, “huh?” Case in point: the Grove Grill’s Pickled Green Tomato Martini.
To be fair, martinis have long included pickles—pickled olives, to be precise. But hey, did you even know that pickled green tomatoes were a thing? I didn’t.
So I drove on over to the Grove Grill and got general manager Ed Parramore to shake me up a drink. The ingredients are Brandon’s Gin—from Little Rock, who’d a thunk?—pickle juice, and a couple of tomato slices, personally pickled by Grove Grill owner and chef Jeff Dunham.
Guys, it’s a hit. The first sip is a bit of a surprise: the vinegar from the pickle juice jumps up and slaps you in the mouth. But the second sip is delicious, and every sip thereafter. This cocktail is all about the marriage of sweet and savory: the sweet botanicals in the gin plus the tart tang of the pickled tomato.
Be forewarned: this is not a sugary beverage. It’s more like a dirty martini than a cosmo. But if you like your martini to bite back—and I do—this is a drink for your bucket list.
