“I probably spent the last 20-plus years not particularly interested in vodka Martinis, for many reasons,” says William Elliott, managing partner and executive bar director at Brooklyn, New York’s Maison Premiere. “It’s just a really, really beautiful distillate, and beautiful on its own,” Elliott says. “It’s got flavor in a way that a lot of vodka Martinis feel kind of hollow,” Elliott says. But, of course, “it’s really just a vodka Martini, at its core.”So what, exactly, sets a Kangaroo apart? Though vodka Martinis popped up in the early 1930s, gin was much more commonly the base spirit of choice.