Straight from the freezer. No ice ever touches this martini.
Sacred English Dry Vermouth, which Alessandro created with Sacred Spirits, rinses the frozen glass. The excess is flicked away, traditionally onto the carpet.
Poured at the table, straight from the freezer. Neither shaken nor stirred, because water, he says, is the martini’s worst enemy.
An organic Amalfi lemon, which he brought to Dukes. The peel is twisted over the glass so its oils settle on the surface.
About five measures of frozen gin in every glass. Which is why Dukes will pour you two, and no more.
Bring his martini to your eventWhat a bartender must be, according to Alessandro.
Fifty years behind the bar, from the Marche to St James’s. He came to England at seventeen to learn the language, washed pots, made coffee, and in 1976 found his first job behind a bar.
Paris taught him wine, as a sommelier at the George V and then at the Ritz’s Bar Vendôme. London taught him hotels: the Mandarin Oriental, the Milestone, and Aurora at the Great Eastern, where the Class Bar Awards named him Best Bar Manager.
In 2007 he took charge of Dukes, the small bar in St James’s whose frozen martini, poured at the table, was shaped in the 1980s by Salvatore Calabrese and Gilberto Preti. Alessandro kept the ritual and made it his own: Amalfi lemons, vermouths built with Sacred Spirits, and a menu of martinis he wrote the way Fleming wrote his books.
Four martinis from his trolley at Dukes, and the bottles he made with the people who distil them.
Specs as he has published them. The trolley changes with the seasons.
The house martini. The method predates him; the vermouth and the lemons are his.
Vermouth created with Sacred Spirits, Highgate
Fleming’s 1953 recipe from Casino Royale, rebuilt for a world without Kina Lillet. The Polish vodka honours Krystyna Skarbek, the wartime agent often named as the model for Vesper Lynd.
Bottled with Berry Bros. & Rudd as the No.3 Vesper Martini
Made with Floris, the Jermyn Street perfumer, after No.89, the scent Ian Fleming wore.
Created with Floris, London
A seasonal martini, on the trolley while the truffles last.
The ritual he is known for at Dukes, brought to private occasions: frozen glasses, frozen gin, his own vermouth and Amalfi lemons, poured in front of your guests.
He has poured at the Captain’s Bar in Hong Kong, at Dry Martini in Barcelona for its fortieth anniversary, at seminars in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, and from a martini cart across New York. In 2025 he made martinis for a dinner at Highgrove hosted by King Charles III.
Worldwide, by arrangement. Discretion is part of the service.
On screen as “Alessandro the Bartender” in Paul Feig’s Another Simple Favor (2025). Ambassador for Hospitality Action and a member of the Gin Guild.