Dirty Martini Salad

🥬 🍸 🫒 Dirty Martini Salad 🫒 🍸 🥬

The annual 2024 Eater Las Vegas Awards celebrate the city’s top culinary achievements from the past year, spotlighting standout restaurants, late-night hang-outs, and bars that have made an impact on the local dining scene.

Diner Ross: Best New Las Vegas Restaurant 2024

Stepping into Diner Ross at the LINQ Hotel feels like entering a nostalgic dream of 1970s New York City. Past the glittering silver-tiled breezeway reminiscent of a disco ball, the restaurant charms with its retro aesthetic: orange booth seating, dusky green walls decorated with vintage album covers, and a staff dressed in paisley prints and jumpsuits. It’s a playful yet sophisticated take on themed dining.

While the design grabs your attention, it’s Chef Anna Altieri’s menu that truly shines. She reimagines comforting classics, starting with her signature popovers—fluffy delights served with butter and jam or elevated options like foie gras and caviar.

In addition to earning the title of Best New Restaurant, Diner Ross was just recently featured on Eater Vegas’s list of Where to Find the Best Salads in Las Vegas, thanks to the Chef’s Dirty Martini Salad. This dish layers bibb lettuce with martini olives, juniper, pimento, Roquefort cheese, and a touch of lemon for balance, offering a salad that’s as indulgent as its namesake cocktail. Pair it with an actual dirty martini for the full experience.

Diner Ross is more than a restaurant; it’s an experience that artfully blends nostalgic charm with modern culinary excellence. And it’s really fun!

DIRTY MARTINI SALAD
bibb lettuce, martini olive, juniper, pimento. roquefort, lemon, chive

Diner Ross and Dirty Martini Salad Recipe

POPOVERS
cultured salted butter, jam
foie gras pâté, sour cherry

MUSSELS AND FRIES
PEI mussels, saffron, leek, cream, french fries

BRICK HOUSE CHICKEN
half boneless mary’s chicken, mushroom jus, brioche stuffing, greens

FANCY MEATLOAF
wagyu, mashed potatoes, real good gravy

SMOKY DIRTY MARTINI
gin, dry vermouth, smoked onion brine, smoked onion garnish
full recipe here

Dirty Martini Salad Recipe

Dirty Martini Vinaigrette

• 1/2 c. olive oil
• 2 T. lemon juice
• 1 T. olive brine
• 2 t. honey
• 1 T. dijon mustard
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 t. fine sea salt
• several grinds black pepper
• 1/2 t. juniper berries, ground (spice grinder works great)

Place all ingredients in a jar. Shake well. Make the dressing a couple hours ahead of serving time to give the flavors time to meld. Shake occasionally then shake well before tossing the salad.

Smoked Cocktail Onions

• cocktail onions and juice
• lazy kettle brand all natural liquid smoke

Place onions and juice to cover in a small container. Add a few generous shakes of liquid smoke and stir. Cover tightly and refrigerate at least 2 hours, preferably 24 hours. Make extra onions for a smoky dirty martini…

Build the Salad

• whole heads of bibb lettuce

Working one head of bibb lettuce at a time, cut out the core. Carefully separate the leaves and place them in a salad spinner. Fill the salad spinner with cold water and swish the leaves to remove any dirt. Drain the spinner then spin to dry the leaves. Place the lettuce leaves in a large clean dry bowl.

Season lightly with salt and pepper. Gently toss with 2 – 3 tablespoons of the Dirty Martini Vinaigrette to coat.

Compose the salad on a plate by placing the larger greener leaves on the bottom and building the salad like a flower with the smaller pale leaves on top. Finish with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Repeat with the second head of lettuce. Preparing this salad one head at a time ensures that the finished salad has the correct proportions of large green leaves to small pale leaves…

Finish the Salad

• pitted green olives (try Trader Joe’s grilled green olives for extra smokiness)
• smoked cocktail onions
• pimento, fine dice
• chives, chopped
• roquefort cheese, crumbled
• lemon, sliced
• cornichons

Arrange a few olives and onions around the perimeter of the lettuce. Sprinkle the salad with pimento and chives. Top the salad with crumbled roquefort. Strive for a balance of ingredients. For garnish – layer olive, onion, cornichon, and lemon slice on a decorative pick and place in the center of the salad.

Notes

Juniper adds a unique, slightly piney and citrusy flavor to the salad. It is infused into the dressing to replicate gin’s signature flavor. Since juniper berries are strong and aromatic, they’re best used sparingly. Adjust to taste.

The Dirty Martini Salad recipe is my own creation, inspired by the version I enjoyed at the diner, rather than a recipe by Chef Altieri.

Save Room for Dessert

PEANUT BUTTER CHEESECAKE

Diner Ross
The LINQ Hotel
3535 South Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas, NV 89109