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Behind the bar

Behind the bar: Onder de Linde

An Amsterdam-Zuid bar that pours one of our gins in a martini they refuse to garnish. We asked them why.

Behind the bar: Onder de Linde — cover

Onder de Linde is a small bar on the corner of Apollolaan and Bartholomeus Ruloffsstraat. Thirteen seats, two bartenders, a menu of six cocktails that rotates every two weeks. They have poured our Saffron Gin in their house martini since the first batch shipped.

They refuse to garnish it. No olive, no twist, no pickled anything. The gin goes into the glass with a stir of dry vermouth — they use a Frenchman’s Vermouth from Marseille — and that is the entire drink. We asked them why.

“Because everything you’d garnish a martini with takes something away from your gin. The saffron is doing the work. A twist would fight it; an olive would smother it. The drink is finished. Stop trying to finish it again.” That’s the bartender, Yannick, on a Tuesday after closing.

We agree. We also pour it at home with an orange twist, because that drink is a different drink. Both are correct.

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