COCKTAIL OF THE MONTH: MANHATTAN
Some words on our September cocktail special; a russet revelation, an edification in elegant restraint
Some drinks whisper, some drinks command attention, with the quiet authority of a well-tailored coat. Enter: The Manhattan. September's cocktail of the month and our homage to the kind of sophistication that doesn't need to debase itself with the frivolities implicit in summer.
Born in the 1870s (though like all good origin stories, this one comes with a caveat of competing claims and convenient myths), the Manhattan emerged from New York's Gilded Age like a liquid embodiment of the American Dream. Some say it was first mixed at the Manhattan Club for a banquet honouring presidential candidate Samuel Tilden. Others claim it was the brainchild of a bartender named Black who worked at a Broadway saloon. The truth, as with most cocktail genealogies, is probably messier and more democratic than either story suggests.
What we know for certain is this: the Manhattan took the template of spirit, sweetener, and bitters and refined it into something approaching perfection. It's the Old Fashioned's cosmopolitan cousin, the one who went to NYU and learned to appreciate opera and distiguish his Charlie Parker from his Dixxy Gillespie, but yet still knows how to have a proper conversation.
At The Fringe, we've approached this classic with the reverence it deserves and the subtle adjustments it allows. Lot 40 Rye provides the foundation; spicy and robust, with enough character to hold its ground against the other players. To this, we add Martini Rosso vermouth, that sweet Italian charmer that bridges the gap between raw spirit and civilised sip. Then comes the Angostura bitters; just a couple of dashes, but they're doing much of the heavy lifting, binding everything together like a seasoned bassist keeping a maniacal drummer in time.
We stir it with ice (shaking a Manhattan is like wearing white long socks with sandals; technically possible but morally questionable), strain it into a chilled coupe, and finish with a maraschino cherry. Not one of those radioactive red things that taste like childhood disappointment, but a proper maraschino cherry that's been swimming in syrup since before I was born.
It is a drink for people who understand that some things shouldn't be improved, only perfected. It's the drink you order when you want to feel like you're in a film noir, but one with better lighting and less existential dread.
It is amber and elegant and utterly uncompromising, like something from a library that still has a card catalogue. And frankly, it's exactly the thing to drink when the evening is settling in, the conversation is warming up, and you want something that tastes like it has stories to recount.
SPECS
50ML LOT 40 RYE WHISKEY
25ML MARTINI ROSSO VERMOUTH
3 DASHES ANGOSTURA BITTERS
MARASCHINO CHERRY GARNISH
Cheers! 🥃