Welcome to Daddy-O's Martinis

This is Daddy-O's Martinis, Southern California’s premiere source for bartending in the classic style. John ‘The Master’ Apodaca created Daddy-O’s Martinis in response to the increasing demand he found from clients for an alternative to the trendy, yet relatively un-knowledgeable, bartenders currently for hire.

With the growing popularity of ‘retro’ and ‘vintage’ styles in present day pop-culture, it seems people crave anything from the past decades they find new and exciting – including cocktails. There are only a handful of bartenders knowledgeable of any cocktail past the current trends, and of those few, only a dozen or so that continually research and test cocktails from the past and actually go through the pains of acquiring the sometimes hard to find ingredients so their clients can discover for themselves the joys of a well prepared cocktail they may never have heard of.

John is meticulous in searching out original recipes, and procuring the original ingredients giving his cocktails a flavor and texture unequalled amongst average bartenders, even in the most famous bars and hotels. John’s current focus is on cocktails from the pre-revolutionary war period through the mid-1960s. He regularly tests cocktails discovered through his ongoing research, and those that meet with success make it onto his latest discoveries list.

Many clients who were formerly one of the throngs of club-goers and bar hoppers that insist they ‘don’t drink gin’ are shocked to find that, in the hands of a expert bartender like John, gin based drinks take on a whole other flavor and texture. It is also shocking for them to discover that many of the top notch hotels and cocktail lounges these clients used to frequent actually have bartenders that know next to nothing about cocktail preparation, and that any attempt to order even the basic classics like an Old-Fashioned is met many times with a blank stare, or a hastily prepared, virtually undrinkable concoction.

Happily, thanks to craftsmen like John Apodaca whole new generations are discovering the joy of expertly prepared cocktails, as opposed to those hastily thrown together with a powdered mix, a shot from a ‘soda gun’, and subpar ‘well’ quality spirits served by bartenders who don’t know any better.