In this age of the aspirational cocktail, when bar menus can read like manifestoes or museum catalogs, certain drink orders are guaranteed to ignite the spleen of the serious bartender. Among them: the mojito (a lot of labor, particularly if customers ask for seven, which they often do); the Cosmopolitan (“Sex and the City” ended a while back); the vodka Red Bull (take your bad decisions outside); and the Bloody Mary, if ordered at night (seriously?).

And then there is the dirty martini, a salty invention that crowns the martini, a flawless drink, with a slop of random olive brine. It is the poison of choice of many a customer but to some mixologists, just plain poison.

One New York bartender, Naren Young, decided to do something about it.

“It all started with the fact that I hate dirty martinis,” said Mr. Young, the beverage director for the Empellón Mexican restaurants. “I used that as a challenge. How can we turn this into something respectable?”

Simply ignoring the cocktail was not an option, since there is probably one being ordered in half the bars in Manhattan this very moment. That includes Saxon & Parole, the East Village restaurant and bar where Mr. Naren was in charge of the cocktail program until last August. “It’s such an important drink in the New York scene,” he said. “Not important, like the Manhattan is important. But they’re everywhere.”