Oppie Made Famous Martinis

By Heather McClenahan
Los Alamos Historical Society
The martinis made by Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer are legendary.

It’s no wonder, when his recipe calls for four ounces—four ounces!—of gin.

According to Pat Sherr, wife of a Manhattan Project physicist, “He served the most delicious and coldest martinis.”

Richard Rhodes, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, wrote that Oppeniemer’s “usually empty stomach” was “assaulted by highly praised martinis and highly spiced food.” Colleagues reported that during the Manhattan Project, Oppie, as he was known, seemed to survive on coffee, martinis, and cigarettes.

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