The Manhattan
Recipe
The Manhattan: Simple Build, Legendary Backstory
The Manhattan
Ingredients:
2 oz. Whiskey(Rye preferably, but whatever you enjoy)
1 oz. Sweet Vermouth(Recommend Carpano Antica)
2-3 dashes of Angostura Bitters
3 Black Cocktail Cherries for Garnish
Build:
1. In a stirring glass. Add ice, Whiskey. Vermouth, and bitters.
2. Stir to chill
3. Strain into a coupe glass, or (if you prefer) into a rocks glass over a large cube.
4. Garnish with cherries and enjoy!
History
The Manhattan is a simple drink with a history that’s anything but.
As you might expect, its story begins in New York—but when it begins is where things get muddy. The most famous version would have us believe the cocktail was created in 1874 at the Manhattan Club by a physician named Dr. Iain Marshall, during a banquet hosted by Jennie Jerome (Lady Randolph Churchill) to celebrate the election of Samuel J. Tilden as governor of New York. It’s a great story… until you realize Jennie Jerome was in England at the time, preparing to give birth to Winston Churchill. That timeline alone sinks the tale, but despite the factual cracks, this is the version the Manhattan Club championed to give the drink an air of prestige and socialite glamour.
Now, onto what is likely the real origin story. As vermouth found its way into the New York bar scene in the 1860s, it’s very likely that several bartenders were experimenting with whiskey, bitters, and this “new” Italian fortified wine around the same time. But one name does stand out: a bartender known simply as Black, said to have created the drink at a bar somewhere on lower Broadway around 1860. Decades later, other bartenders and even patrons backed up this account in interviews, lending it surprising weight. This lines up cleanly with the earliest printed Manhattan recipes from the early 1880s, which already treat the cocktail as familiar—something that had clearly been around long before the Manhattan Club’s 1874 claim.
So while we may owe our thanks to Black for crafting this beautifully balanced classic, we can probably offer a bit of begrudging gratitude to the Manhattan Club for helping turn it into a household name.
Whichever version you choose to believe, I hope you enjoyed this story almost as much as a well-made Manhattan. Cheers.