It needs to look this good.
And if you don't have the space, get a bar cart! Either way, every home bar should have some sexy, hard-to-get-a-hold-on tonic water, gin (preferably Hendrick's), vodka, whiskey, contreau,vermouth, tequila, rum, Champagne, San Pellegrino, coke, sprite zero, juices (orange, lemon, cranberry, tomato, pineapple), ginger ale, some sour mix and simple syrup (make yourself with sugar and water).
For garnishes you should have olives, lime/lemon, cucumber, cherries, salt, pepper, sugar, some herbs, and most importantly: ICE. Also, a hot Scandinavian tip: Go get some pines from a pine tree. It's free, adds a special flavour to an (e.g.) orange drink, and looks so cool.
Glasses: Champagne, rocks, long/high ball, beer, martini
Other stuff: Champagne bucket, shaker and strainer, bar spoon, ice bucket, ice picker, mudler, jigger, knives, straws, bottle opener, wine opener (although the wine should be kept elsewhere), toothpicks, napkins, towel, nuts, different bowls to keep the garnish and stuff, serving tray, some flowers in a small wase, three books about drinks and how to mix.
Also, I found this cool Martini-"guide" on www.artofmanliness.com:
International Bartender’s Association’s official Martini recipe:
- 4 parts Gin
- 1 part dry vermouth (sometimes called French or white vermouth)
Pour all ingredients into mixing glass over ice and stir well. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Squeeze lemon peel over the drink, discard. Garnish with one green olive.
Variations:
The variations on the Martini could fill a whole book. Keep in mind there is no “right” way, only the way you want your drink. I’ll list a few of the most popular.
- Vodka Martini: Use vodka in place of gin, garnish with lemon twist.
- Churchill: A Martini with no vermouth. Basically cold gin in a glass. Legend has it Churchill would “look in the direction of France” and that would be plenty of vermouth.
- Roosevelt: Two olives instead of one. Even number of olives is considered bad luck by some.
- Dirty Martini: Add olive brine to taste.
- Burnt Martini: Uses Scotch instead of vermouth.
- Buckeye: Martini with a black olive.
- Gibson: Martini with an onion instead of an olive.
- Dickens: Martini with no garnish — no olive or twist.
- Vesper Martini: 3 partsgin, 1 part vodka, 1/2 part Lillet, lemon twist, shaken, not stirred. James Bond’s martini. Also called a 007.
- Bradford: A standard Martini shaken, not stirred.
