There’s Something Fishy About These Cocktails—And That’s the Point

If you’ve been to a cocktail bar in the last four years, you’ve encountered savory drinks. Their presence on drink menus has become expected, thanks in large part to the trend’s almighty leader, the dirty martini. This moment—movement?—has given us many reasons to celebrate, like the emergence of umami-rich MSG sippers and pickle ones, too. It has also given us drinks—we see you, hot dog daiquiri—that feel more like dares.

Lately, there’s a new savory sub-category splashing its way onto menus. It might initially seem like it belongs in the “gone too far” camp, but it’s a welcome twist on the salt-forward trend: cocktails incorporating fish.

Before you recoil, let us remind you that fishy drinks are not unprecedented: oyster shooters, Micheladas made with Clamato, and Bloody Marys adorned with shrimp garnishes. But within the last year or so, we’re seeing more creative, complex approaches. In Portland, Maine, Blyth & Burrows serves the Skålduggery cocktail with gin, aquavit, smoked salmon, dill, and caper brine. At Carlton, Oregon’s Hayward restaurant, you can sip a tomato-anchovy martini, and in New York, the showstopper-heavy menu at Shinji’s boasts the Handroll, designed to mirror the actual sushi handrolls the bar serves with bonito flake-infused, ginger-flavored vodka plus rice, seaweed, wasabi, vinegar, and soy.

Inspiration from the Kitchen

Fishy cocktails may take some getting used to for the average bar guest, but they stem from a very familiar source of mixology inspiration: food. This is easy to see at Shinji’s with a cocktail that matches the bar’s signature dish. At Enso in Brooklyn, beverage director Freddy Salazar is perpetually tinkering with the drinks menu to better complement the omakase menu.

“I’m inspired by everything we use in the kitchen,” he says, explaining that while most cocktails are designed to pair with the different fish courses, standouts like the Kaisen cocktail fully capture the maritime flavors. Along with Japanese whisky, citrus, and egg white, Kaisen employs katsuobushi syrup, or dried bonito flake syrup, to bring it to life. “It’s complex, a little more full-bodied … and the citrus cuts through the richness of the tuna’s umami like it would through a tuna roll.”

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Blyth & Burrows creative director Jack O’Brien was a fishmonger before stepping behind the bar. He had long been experimenting with how to translate the flavors of a lox bagel into a cocktail, which is how he landed on the Skålduggery. He builds the drink as a freezer martini: the gin is fat-washed with smoked salmon, while aquavit supplies complementary herbs and spices. Caperberry brine and dill-infused water bring it all together.

Fresh Fish, Familiar Format

Martinis are often the most accessible way to introduce guests to fish flavors in cocktails. “It can be a little tricky to explain to people, but once you put it through the framework of a dirty martini, they can unlock that profile,” O’Brien says, adding that he has more fish cocktail ideas in the works. “We’re hoping to venture out beyond the dirty martini format eventually—it’s the most accessible way for a savory drink to hit the zeitgeist currently, but I think people are getting more and more used to savory profiles.”

Jason Kosmas, beverage director at Uchi Restaurants in Austin, also thinks of the dirty martini as an excellent entry point. “Most bartenders snub their noses at [the dirty martini], deeming it pedestrian,” says Kosmas. He makes his version with “Dirty Dashi mix,” a blend of olive brine and shiro dashi, the soup stock made from dried bonito flakes, kelp, mushrooms, and soy. “But as they become more and more called for, I really wanted to reach into that flavor box.” The olive brine of a dirty martini, Kosmas says, already plays well with the dashi profile of umami and salt.

Indeed, at the end of the day, a fish cocktail has to taste good. Even the most interesting culinary inspiration or pairing idea fails if the resulting drink isn’t pleasurable.

“It’s imperative that our end product is delicious,” Christina Rasmussen, owner of Singapore’s FURA, where a jellyfish martini is on the menu (the “oral arms,” or those long crepe paper-like extensions on a jellyfish, get infused into gin, which is then redistilled after another infusion with the plant fish leaf). “The storytelling might be strong or the ingredient might be distinct, but the execution must be there for a balanced and delicious drink where you want to finish it all, otherwise you’re not doing the ingredient any justice.”

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While it might take some reassurance from a bartender to try one, these fish-incorporating drinks don’t actually taste fishy. Different aquatic ingredients express different notes, from smoked salmon’s almost sweet, buttery richness to bonito’s bracing umami. These surprisingly versatile fish ingredients should be proof enough that savoriness is no trend for cocktails, but rather a toolbox of flavors that’s here to stay.

Make a Tomato-Anchovy Martini

This dirty martini variation with anchovy vermouth and tomato water is full of briny, salty flavor.

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