God Save the Queen––And Her NA Martini

March's recipe of the month is inspired by a dry martini and has a royal origin.

The Queen’s Martini from Royal Wedding PUB. Photo by Farrah Skeiky.

For someone who’s not much of a royalist, I’ve had my fair share of encounters with royalty. Years ago, I hosted a Royal Wedding Pop-up Bar celebrating Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s nuptials (back when their union was still widely popular). I once closed my bar, the Columbia Room, for visiting royalty from Monaco. And, in a particularly surreal moment, Rich Preston from the BBC asked me to craft a non-alcoholic martini for Queen Elizabeth II before she passed away.

The latter happened during one of the final shifts at the Columbia Room before it closed.

As the story goes, the Queen had given up drinking on her doctor's advice, and Preston wanted to explore a non-alcoholic (NA) alternative while delving into the growing NA movement. The Queen wasn’t much of a drinker but had a preference for dry gin martinis in the evenings.

I received a message from the BBC between the first and second courses of a cocktail tasting menu and was given just 30 minutes to prepare. I set down the second course—a riff on the NA martini named after one of its core ingredients, Algae (oyster shell-infused NA “gin,” NA vermouth, barrel-aged apple cider vinegar, wild sage bitters, kelp water, caperberry, and an orange peel)—and told the bar that if they waited patiently while I went on air, I’d make sure they received an extra drink as compensation.

The Columbia Room had a small back room where guests were treated to multiple courses in an intimate setting—just 14 seats. They all agreed, and a slight buzz (no pun intended) of excitement filled the room.