Lakeview () - Upscale martini bar The Rare Martini recently added a drink to the already mind-boggling array of liquor based concoctions at its swanky Lakeview location. Joining the ranks of such delightful libations as 'Wet `n Wild', and 'Disco Lemonade' is the 'Perpetual Promise'. Reviews of the drink so far have been mostly non-committal, with very few expressing any strong preference. "We are somewhat disappointed so far by the reaction," said owner Keith McClendon. "It has pomegranate juice in it so we figured it was a sure fire win."

The 'Perpetual Promise' did not come about overnight either, explains McClendon "A lot of research and effort went into this drink. We went to a ton of other cities and tried out a lot of drinks." The intensive study included trips to several major U.S. cities to see how they went about preparing the latest hit cocktails. "We had a really great [Absolut] Citron based drink along San Antonio's River Walk and couldn't believe the Cognac concoction we had just outside Baltimore's Inner Harbor," said chief mixologist Janice Lester. "We really thought we could come up with something that would work in Birmingham based on those experiences."

Enlisting the aid of the public library archives, the group looked into drinking patterns throughout Birmingham's history to try and define a sense of place and meaning from which to draw the essence of the drink. "We pointed them to several cases where laws were passed to prevent certain groups from obtaining liquor lest it agitate them to commit crimes," said archivist John Fischer. "I think it really helped them to see where Birmingham and Alabama has been when coming up with this drink for the future." Research on eating also suggested a close link between pork based dishes and the act of social drinking. "We noticed a lot of pictures of people eating ribs and drinking something out of jugs," said Lester.

"In the end, we couldn't really agree on any one drink, but we knew we had to do something," said Lester. "That's the main reason we went with the basic martini, jazzed up with pomegranate juice and bacon. It takes a lot of what Birmingham already has and puts it together to create a mixture much stronger than any of its parts."