Dorothy Parker, poet, writer, satirist, and undisputed queen of the Algonquin Round Table was as famous for her razor-sharp tongue as she was for her love of good drinks. So much that a full book has been dedicated to her love for cocktails, called Under the table: a Doroty Parker cocktail guide.
In the 1920s, Parker and a brilliant pack of New York writers, critics, and actors, including Harpo Marx, formed the “Vicious Circle,” meeting daily for lunch at the Algonquin Hotel, discussing literature, society, and drinking. That was during Prohibition, gin must have been quite harsh, and so often improved with vermouth and ice, voilà. Her Martinis used a 2:1 or even a 1:1 ratio of gin to dry vermouth, sometimes adding a dash of orange bitters: it was a smoother, slightly more botanical drink—which was probably necessary if you were planning on having “two at the very most.”
One of the most famous Martini aphorisms, printed on cocktail napkins, bar menus, and tea towels, is actually attributed to Mrs Parker: “I like to have a martini, Two at the very most. After three I’m under the table, After four I’m under my host.” Interestingly, historians have spent decades trying to find this exact quatrain in Parker’s published works, without success. Some believe it was a spontaneous verbal quip she made at a party that passed into urban legend; others suspect it was attributed to her later by a poetic fan. In any case, whether she penned it on a napkin or it was merely inspired by her essence, the poem captures the exact dual nature of the martini: a drink that brings supreme confidence with the first sip, and total, unadulterated chaos by the third.
For Parker, Martini wasthe fuel that powered her legendary takedowns and her melancholy poetry, as she admitted once “I’m not a writer with a drinking problem, I’m a drinker with a writing problem.”
The Martini Hour 