Brian Bartels remembers the first clue he got that the espresso martini was making a comeback.
In 2019, Bartels, the author of several co*cktail books and co-owner of Madison-based Settle Down Tavern, Oz by Oz and Turn Key Supper Club, was traveling the U.S. doing research for his book, The United States of co*cktails.
He stopped at The Wilder, a bar in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and ordered a drink. As he waited, he said, “Nine out of 10 people were drinking an espresso martini.”
When Bartels asked the bartender if the drink was popular, “he was like, ‘I serve a million of these a night.’” In Bartels’ book, he included the espresso martini as one of the state’s notable drinks because, at the time, “I didn’t see espresso martinis on every single menu.”
Fast forward five years, and espresso martinis are everywhere —but it’s not a new drink. Legend has it that in 1983, a mysterious bar patron in London asked bartender Dick Bradsell for a drink that would “wake me up and f**k me up.” Bradsell created a drink using vodka, simple syrup, coffee liqueur and fresh espresso.
But in the ‘80s, coffee culture was nowhere near as prevalent as it is today —most Americans didn’t even know what lattes were until a then-small Seattle-based chain called Starbucks began selling espresso drinks in 1986.
Now, there’s a coffee shop on every corner and the proliferation of coffee culture, coupled with Wisconsin’s profound co*cktail history, is fueling the espresso martini’s second act in bars across Madison.
An 80s classic, revived and remixed
Most bars and restaurants don’t even need to put the espresso on the menu anymore, said Robert Simonson. He is a co*cktail and drinks writer for the New York Times and author of books like “Modern Classic co*cktails” (2022) and “The Martini co*cktail” (2019). “You better have a recipe for it because people are going to order them, and you need to know how to make it.”
In the 80s, Simonson said the espresso element made serving the drink challenging. Not every bar had an espresso machine, and if they did, “suddenly the bartender has to be a barista and pull a fresh espresso,” he said.
The advent of cold brew coffee in the 2010s might have helped shepherd the espresso martini’s resurgence, said Simonson.
Cold brew is the base for the espresso martinis served at Bartels’ restaurants. Each space has a slightly different version, partially “because I like uniqueness and I don’t like patterns,” said Bartels, but also to explore the variety of flavors coffee has to offer. “There’s so much flavor you can get from whatever beans you’re working with.”
The Settle Down espresso martini ($13, available as a shot for $6) harkens to the one he saw at The Wilder — it’s served from a nitro tap “like a Guinness” and uses cold brew and Allen’s Coffee Brandy, a product popular in Maine that Bartels described as their version of Korbel in Wisconsin for Brandy Old Fashioneds. “That’s how much they go through coffee brandy in Maine.”
Turn Key’s espresso martini, One Espresso Over the Martini’s Nest ($11), uses red wine and picks up on the coffee’s berry and chocolate notes. Oz by Oz’s espresso martini has honey whiskey to highlight the coffee’s sweetness. Both drinks use cold brew from Ancora Coffee and coffee liqueur from local distillery State Line.
Simonson also said better coffee liqueur options have also propelled the espresso martini to new heights.
When first launched in 2018, State Line’s Coffee Liqueur ($15 for a 375 mL bottle, $29 for 750 mL) made up about 10% of the distillery’s sales. “Now it’s our number one seller,” said Lisa Bowman, the distillery’s marketing manager. “Over 50% of our sales go to State Line Coffee Liqueur.”
State Line makes its cold brew in-house using a single-origin Colombian coffee from Kin Kin Coffee, which Bowman said has “rich chocolatey notes and that classic coffee flavor.”
The liqueur has only three ingredients: a neutral grain spirit made from wheat and barley from Meadowlark Organics just west of Madison, cold brew, and cane sugar. State Line won back-to-back gold medals at the San Francisco World Spirits competition for its coffee liqueur.
A soon-to-be Wisco staple
Initially, the advent of the espresso martini felt like a passing trend. But unlike its viral predecessors — think the Negroni Sbagliato, a drink that spiked in popularity after a clip of actors Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke talking about the drink took over the internet in the summer of 2022 — the espresso martini is here to stay.
Part of that has to do with the espresso martini’s history — we’re experiencing the second life of an already-established drink. It’s versatile, for one thing; Bowman noted that the espresso martini can travel through the day, from brunch to after-dinner drinks.
And then there’s also how contagious the espresso martini seems to be. When one person at the table orders an espresso martini, the rest tend to join in.
What makes the drink especially beloved in Madison can be traced to the city’s co*cktail culture. Bartels notes that Wisco drinkers are used to both classic and playful versions of the brandy old fashioned. The espresso martini invites riffing.
At Harvey House, a fine dining restaurant that pays homage to classic Wisconsin supper clubs, Kaitlin Fischer and Shaina Robbins Papach wanted to honor the original drink while giving it an elevated spin.
“We wanted to make sure that the quality of ingredients in the martini were special and thoughtful,” Robbins Papach said.
They tested at least 10 variations, eventually settling on a drink that incorporates freshly pulled espresso shots like the original 1980s version. “You can taste it. It changes the mouthfeel, it changes the flavor,” Fischer said.
Harvey House’s espresso martini ($15) involves precise coordination between the server, bartender and barista. “We are committed to working with up to three different people who have to come together to make this drink, and it is so worth it,” Fischer said. Harvey House uses beans from Chicago-based Metropolis Coffee and has a dedicated barista on staff to pull shots.
Having an espresso machine — and people trained to use it — makes the espresso martini a prime co*cktail to elevate, said Colin Votteler, bar manager at Leopold’s Books Bar Caffè on Regent Street. The espresso martini ($13) is Leopold’s house drink. “We sell more of those than anything else,” Vottelersaid.
Leopold’s riffs on the original by replacing vodka, the espresso martini’s traditional base spirit, with spiced rum, which “adds more depth of flavor,” along with St. George NOLA coffee liqueur and Licor 43 (a Spanish liqueur with vanilla notes).
The heart of the drink is espresso made from Creamery, a blend roasted by Ruby Coffee in northern Wisconsin. Votteler said that Creamery coffee brings out the spice notes and vanilla in the spirits.
Leopold’s pulls shots of espresso during the day to batch for the night rush on its vintage Elektra espresso machine. “I think the product turned out to be equally unique and right on brand with what people are looking for in an espresso martini,” said Votteler.
Bartels isn’t surprised by the diversity and creativity bartenders across the city are displaying with espresso martinis. “We do a good job of congregating with our beverages,” he said. “I think that’s enabled drinks to become popular almost overnight here.”
He hopes to see more people break form and use the bevy of flavor notes coffee offers to create new espresso martini iterations. “I like that people are experimenting with flavor profiles. I think you should always look under every available rock you pass to see what you can discover.”
