Bespoke Cocktail Picks Are a Bar Trend We Can Actually Get Behind

I’m sitting at brunch at Gage & Tollner in Brooklyn when my dining companion gasps. Her Bloody Mary has arrived looking resplendent in crimson, complete with ornate garnishes. It’s only when she pulls out her phone for a photo that I realize it’s not the drink that’s caught her attention at all — it’s the cocktail pick made from wood, long and thin, topped with a bright red bauble. 

“I’m going to send this to my sister,” she says. She means Anna Sonenshein, co-chef/owner of Little Fish, a pop-up turned wildly popular restaurant in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. They’ve been hunting for a “unique” and “actually good-looking” cocktail pick for months. “It’s harder than it sounds,” she says as she hits send. 

Given the recent surge in popularity of drinks served up and often with an olive or a twist — or both �� cocktail picks have become both necessary and ubiquitous of late. 

You’ve most likely encountered one of two classic picks: those made from bamboo, thin and strawlike, tied in a half-knot at one end, or a good old-fashioned toothpick. If your taste skews upscale and you find yourself at Bemelmans Bar in Manhattan, you might have even been served a Martini with a slightly more elevated stainless steel pick.

If the cocktail garnish is the bartender’s version of icing on a cake, it’s no surprise that new-wave bars have been pushing the boundaries of the humble pick.

At Capri Club, an Italian-inspired amaro bar in Los Angeles, and you’ll encounter droves of 20- and 30-somethings sipping Martinis adorned with the exact red bauble pick I spotted at Gage & Tollner. The Capri Club’s owner, Robert Fleming, chose them himself. 

“Everything I picked matched our red-vinyl aesthetic. I wanted a Formica bar top, wood panels, linoleum floors, and red vinyl booths, then I worked backward from there,” says Fleming. “So those [picks] were a no-brainer. My supplier ran out once, and the whole bar felt off.” 

More of an investment than the “flimsy” industry standard, Fleming says these picks pay for themselves in social media exposure, courtesy of a near-constant supply of tagged photos on Instagram. “The picks we use are bigger and sturdier than your average. They feel more powerful,” he says. “You’ll see guests twirling them, chewing them, pointing with them…and then most people end up taking a photo of their Martini.” 

Brooklyn’s coastal Italian restaurant and bar Gran Torino takes creative cocktail picking a step further with poppy cocktail picks featuring tropical iconography like a cheery yellow pineapple, a neon green cactus, and a pink lawn flamingo. “I’ve made it my mission to collect them all,” says Gran Torino regular Kat Harding. 

Home bar enthusiasts have begun to take note of the trend.  Chelsea Wolberg, a vintage jewelry and home goods dealer, received an influx of requests for gold and sterling silver cocktail picks ahead of the 2023 holidays. 

“I understand the appeal — these vintage [cocktail pick] sets come from a time when people recognized how much the details mattered,” says Wolberg. “When everything’s beautiful to look at, it enhances the experience. Drinking culture seems to be circling back there, so the cocktail pick is a valued object again.”

Alicia Kennedy, a San Juan-based writer, author of No Meat Required, and vocal 50-50 Martini proponent, partnered with Philadelphia-based By Ren Jewelry to create a limited edition set of pearl-tipped silver cocktail picks, also for the holidays.  “The pearl cocktail pick was the most obvious choice for a houseware item to include in the collection because I love Martinis — they’re basically the only cocktail I’ve drank since 2017 — and I prefer them served with an olive,” says Kennedy. “The pearl is for my love of oysters.  My engagement ring was also a pearl, and I’m from a seaside town on Long Island that used to be an oyster hub.” 

It’s hard to deny the obvious: We’ve come a long way from dropping an olive into a glass with a satisfying plop.