Pour Yourself A Drink

It was frigid when I stepped out­side, but I was feel­ing mel­low, and con­tent. I had left Old Town Social after a few Manhattan’s, the mood still lin­ger­ing. I was doing good, mid-win­ter noth­ing but a rumor.

I had planned to be there for only a short while and need­ed some­thing to give me a kick, some­thing to stir the con­scious­ness. Beer wouldn’t do it but a Man­hat­tan would — a clas­sic drink that gets the job done. The attrac­tive wait­ress purred rye or bour­bon? Wild Turkey Rye please.

man­hat­tan

Origins of the Manhattan.

This clas­sic orig­i­nat­ed from its name­sake, Man­hat­tan, dur­ing the 1870’s. It car­ries the lega­cy as one of the ear­li­est cock­tails cre­at­ed, bring­ing with it a bold fla­vor heavy on atti­tude and ele­gance. Pop­u­lar­ized by upper class Man­hat­tan­ites and celebri­ties dur­ing the 50’s and 60’s, its slipped into the back­ground but shouldn’t be ignored.

man­hat­tan-spe­cial

There are many meth­ods to make a Man­hat­tan, but the basic, tra­di­tion­al mod­el can nev­er go wrong, the oth­er vari­a­tions based on per­son­al pref­er­ence. A Man­hat­tan is a com­bi­na­tion of Angos­tu­ra bit­ters, Ital­ian ver­mouth and rye whiskey. Some pre­fer bour­bon, but go with rye (Wild Turkey, Cana­di­an Club, Crown Roy­al, Old Over­holt) as the foun­da­tion. Oth­er­wise it’s too sweet, no longer hav­ing the com­bi­na­tion which con­trasts per­fect­ly with each oth­er. The bold rye whiskey is slight­ly masked by the sweet ver­mouth, the bit­ters adding a punch. It’s shak­en with ice, poured into a chilled cock­tail glass and gar­nished with a cher­ry. Some pre­fer it on the rocks, served in an old fash­ioned glass.

man­hat­tan­rocks

A recipe to try at home.

• 2 ounces rye whiskey
• 1 ounce Ital­ian sweet ver­mouth
• 2 dash­es Angos­tu­ra bit­ters
• glass type: cock­tail or old fash­ioned

Manhattan_Cocktail2

We’ll rec­om­mend a liba­tion now and then, to help get you through that sit­u­a­tion that may require some­thing stronger or bold­er than your usu­al choice of brew.

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