Lallapalooza Restaurant   

474 Alvarado St
Monterey, CA 93940
831-645-9036
www.lalla-palooza.com

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Although Cocktail Culture is so old-news, some of the martini-themed restaurants and lounges that popped up over the past few years have managed to survive. One such place, Lollapalooza, is even winning praise from the locals (readers of the Coast Weekly voted it "the best place for cocktails" in the paper's latest annual poll). It must be the proportions.Everything at this lounge is big: the proportions, the selection, the drinks -- even the gigantic olive lamps. Specialty drinks abound here. Standouts include the "Purple Haze" martini, with a lemon drop and a splash of raspberry liqueur; the "Cajun Inferno," made with Absolut pepper vodka and garnished with a Chardonnay-spiced jalapeno-stuffed olive; and the "Tree Smacker," made with vodka, rum, Yukon Jack and apple liqueur, mixed with peach schnapps, pineapple juice, orange juice, and a splash of grenadine. The food menu is even more extensive, with 21 entres and four different kinds of steak.Lollapalooza cites two quotes on its Web site: one by writer Bernard DeVoto, who called the martini the "supreme American gift to the world"; the other muttered by Nikita Khrushchev, who deemed the famous cocktail "America's lethal weapon." You be the judge.