The coming anti-garnish movement

The Wall Street Journal's Eric Felten is all up in the Bay Area's business lately. Last week he wrote about Eric Ellestad's Savoy Project. This week he tackles the heavy issue of garnish and quotes Greg Lindgren from Rye on some of the sillier garnishes he's seen in their monthly cocktail competitions.

Personally, I fall into the pro-garnish camp, with some reservations. I am fine with purely ornamental garnish as long as it:

1. Doesn't get in the way. I hate it when garnish pokes you in the mouth or prevents the flow of booze into my gullet. Edible flowers and many orange/lemon/lime slices are too big to stick in a martini glass.
2. Doesn't take up space. I like olives more than the average person, but not three of them displacing the liquor that would be there otherwise and making making my gin all salty.
   

(Another pro-garnish person is Martin Cate of Forbidden Island, who is giving a talk on the subject at Tales of the Cocktail.)

Despite my decorative preferences, I fully support the goals of the anti-garnish movement, and hope to see anti-garnish websites and protests outside of tiki bars in the near future. Because conflict is the garnish of reality.

Labels: garnish