Tom Symons, a legend at Boyne Mountain is gone, but his martini recipe lives on. Symons and his friend Bill Harber were weekend ski patrol and roommates at Boyne Mountain back in the 1940’s and 50’s.Their après-slopes cocktail hour was so famous, the Boyne folks resurrected it at the Mountain’s 60th anniversary celebration last year, turning a guest room off the Snowflake Lounge into a martini lounge à la Symons. Pay tribute yourself by taking Symons’s martini recipe for the masses on your next ski vacation.
TOM SYMONS MARTINI (as told to Molly Kircher by Bill Harber)
Serves 30.
- 1 gallon vodka
- 1 pint vermouth
- 1 food service sized jar of olives
- 1 snowbank
- 1 Stack of hotel room disposable cups
In the morning before heading out to ski, pour the olives into disposable cups. Then pour the gallon of vodka into the olive jar and place it in a nearby snowbank. While you ski all day, make a point of finding interesting people and give them your room number for cocktails before dinner. After skiing, return to your room, shower, dress for dinner and prepare for the arrival of the invited guests. Retrieve your vodka, turn on your Frank Sinatra lounge music, and make a show of pouring the ice-cold vodka into the disposable cups with several olives and a wave of the vermouth on top.
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