My friend Daniel is a Manhattan snob.
No, he’s not from New York. He’s a Manhattan snob the way I am a martini snob. He mixes Manhattans at home, orders Manhattans out, talks about Manhattans, thinks about Manhattans, is on a determined (and noble) lifelong quest to find the perfect Manhattan.
Now, I enjoy the aroma and flavor of a Manhattan as much as the next guy, but it’s never been on my shortlist of favorite drinks. The whiskey-and-vermouth concoction is soul- warming and palate-bracing and delicious, but generally, from the first sip of a typical Manhattan, all I can think about is the raging headache I’ll be faced with in the morning.
Who knows, maybe I had one too many Manhattans one night during my misspent youth. I’ll never tell. (In turn, I promise never to ask you why you can’t down tequila shots.)
A few weeks ago, at a bar in New York with the excellent speak-easy-ish name Employees Only, Daniel crossed paths with a Manhattan that he hasn’t stopped raving about. It was different, smoother, more sophisticated. He needed to know how it was made.
Never one to let a curiosity go unexplored, Daniel tracked down the recipe and made one at home, a success he enthusiastically reported to me the next day. He was head over heels with this drink.
And so, despite my generic and free-floating Manhattan misgivings, I requested a Manhattan the next time I was at Daniel’s house.
The first sip was like a New Testament revelation, my eyes closing as the warmth of the whiskey, tempered by an unfamiliar fruity sweetness, saturated my throat. By the second sip, the mini-tableau of me, the cocktail and the bowl of nuts at my fingertips was bathed in Renaissance light as naked cherubs blowing trumpets swirled above, towing banners proclaiming divinity on Earth.
And I didn’t regret it on the morning after.
Here is the recipe for Daniel’s brilliant drink, adapted from the Employees Only recipe he sleuthed down, which in turn was adapted from the 1862 cocktail book “The Bon Vivant’s Companion,” widely considered the earliest American compendium of cocktail recipes.
The key is an inversion of the typical 3-to-2 ratio of rye whiskey to vermouth, which creates a smoother, softer drink, with delicate notes but sledgehammer potency.
Bon Vivant Manhattan (Daniel’s version)
Makes one big or two modest Manhattans.
Ingredients
Ice
3 ounces sweet vermouth (Daniel uses Martini & Rossi)
2 ounces rye whiskey (such as Rittenhouse)
1/2 ounce orange liqueur (Daniel uses Patron Citronge)
A few dashes Angostura bitters
Orange twists for garnish
Directions
Fill a pitcher or bar glass two-thirds full with ice. Add the vermouth, rye, orange liqueur (curaçao also works here) and bitters and stir for 1 minute to chill. Strain into chilled martini glass; top each with a twist.
