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SONOMA LIFE - Martini Madness

Sonoma Life

A martini competition in the Wine Country?  Yes, a winter celebration that brings the hospitality community together no questions (or donations) asked.
Event founders, Bill Blum and Gary Saperstein welcomed guest to partake in another sold-out Martini Madness. Seen amongst the crowd were Gayle Arrowood (Opes Advisors), Dan Gallagher (Wine Country Group), Paula Parks (Sotheby’s International), Windee Smith, Fred and Amy Groth.

This year's bartenders all seemed to take their creativity up a notch incorporating the olive into their Martinis with spherified liquid olives, dehydrated black olive and lemon powder (the girl and the fig, Estate), house-made black olive salt (Carneros Bistro), Olive "air" (Saddles Steakhouse), chocolate dipped olive stuffed with bacon (Hopmonk Tavern) and a Manzanilla stuffed olive stuffed with fig jam and aged gouda (Mary's Pizza Shack) just to name a few.

This year's winners: Best Overall - Murphy's Irish Pub with Hunt Bailie’s Sonoma Sunset -SKYY Vodka, Fresh raspberry and mint, squeeze of lime and a dash of Ribena.
Best Use of the Olive - Hopmonk Tavern with Jen Crowe’s The "Macon"tini - Apple Smoked Bacon infused SKYY Vodka, fresh lemon juice, local organic apple juice, organic maple syrup with a chocolate covered bacon stuffed olive   

Most Creative - Saddles Steakhouse with Bill Blum, Sean Mullins, Tom Settle and Mike Burns’ The Gin Martini Project - Liquid Nitrogen, "frozen", Gin Martini with Olive "air".
Did we mention the delicious food prepared by Executive Chef Dana Jaffe and her staff? Yes, Virginia, that is what Martini Madness is all about – Fun, fun at Saddles Steakhouse, Sonoma, CA.

Olives anyone?!