The Flame of Love Martini was the signature drink of Chasen’s, the famous Hollywood hangout, which closed in 1995 after almost sixty years in business. It was invented for the establishment’s regular guest Dean Martin by long-time bartender Pepe Ruiz after Martin inquired one night why as a regular and member of the infamous Rat Pack he didn’t have a drink of his own. The next time Martin came in, Ruiz was ready, having peeled an orange, cut the peel into a number of large strips, and soaked them in brandy.
As Martin watched, Ruiz went into full show business mode, rinsing a chilled champagne coupe with La Iña sherry, then squeezing all but one of the strips of orange peel through the flame of a match into the glass, producing large balls of fire each time and coating the inside of the glass with the roasted citrus oil. Then he shook some gin or Stolichnaya vodka (accounts differ) with ice, poured it into the glass, and flamed a final orange peel over the top. That was in 1970, give or take a year. Ruiz, who started at Chasen’s in 1960, continued to make the drink until the restaurant’s closing (over time, the drink became exclusively a vodka one, and Ruiz stopped marinating the peels). It remains one of the quintessential Los Angeles cocktails. See flaming a twist.
Lore has it when Frank Sinatra saw the drink on Chasen’s menu at a party there, he got so excited that he ordered sixty-five of them. It remains a show-stopper.
Recipe: Rinse chilled coupe with 10–15 ml chilled fino sherry, flame 3 or 4 orange twists over the glass, shake 90 ml vodka with ice, strain, and flame orange peel over the top. (Some recent variations call for pouring the sherry into the cocktail shaker with the vodka.)
“Flame of Love.” Imbibe Magazine website, February 11, 2015. http://imbibemagazine.com/flame-of-love/ (accessed February 8, 2021).
Gonzales, Donald J. “Crisis at the Cocktail Hour.” Saturday Review, November 15, 1975, 46–48.
“The Proper Pour with Charlotte Voisey: Flame of Love Cocktail.” Daily Motion website. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2115wy (accessed April 20, 2021).
By: Dale DeGroff and David Wondrich