The Old Etonian Is a Gateway Martini

On paper, the Old Etonian doesn’t exactly seem like a Martini. The original 1930 recipe for it in The Savoy Cocktail Book features equal parts dry gin and Kina Lillet with a touch of nutty crème de noyaux and orange bitters—far from the drier Martinis that reign today. But for Leishla Maldonado, beverage director at Loma, that makes the cocktail a gateway. “A Martini can feel abrasive if you’re not accustomed to drinking things that are super spirit-forward,” she says. “While [the Old Etonian] looks like a Martini, there’s no alienation.”

At Loma, which is also one of Punch’s Best New Bars of 2025, there are 11 original cocktails as well as a rotating, curated list of featured spirits, each paired with a classic cocktail to showcase what it can do in a drink. Maldonado had been looking for a recipe to feature Le Gin, from Calvados producer Christian Drouin, which uses an unaged apple brandy as the base and, rather than lean heavily on juniper, the botanicals—rose, ginger, almond, citron and cinnamon among them—offer what she calls a “softer” gin. The Old Etonian was a perfect match.

When looking at the original recipe, it’s important to note the Kina Lillet. The liqueur was discontinued decades ago and had much higher quinine content than modern Lillet Blanc, which would have made it far more bitter in flavor. But Maldonado doesn’t try to exactly replicate the bitterness of the original. “Lillet gave it a gentler citrus,” she says, “and it allowed everything else to shine.”