The latest cocktail menu at award-winning cocktail bar Manhattan is New York Personified 2.0, which introduces 18 new cocktails inspired by six celebrated New York personalities.

New cocktails have dropped at Manhattan.

The award-winning cocktail lounge at Regent Singapore – they placed at No.9 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2022 just announced earlier this month – have added 18 new cocktails to its burgeoning drinks list. New York Personified 2.0 follows up and builds on an earlier edition launched in November 2020, featuring cocktails each of which shines the spotlight on prominent people who were either born in New York City, or who have made the metropolis their home. Cocktails in the earlier New York Personified edition were inspired, for example, by the late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, the late jazz great Ella Fitzgerald, and actor Robert Downey Jr., among others.

Part two follows pretty much the same formula. This time the cocktails are inspired by pop art legend Andy Warhol, actor and comedian Whoopi Goldberg, composer and songwriter Irving Berlin, singer and peace activist Yoko Ono, Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and actor-filmmaker Lin-Manuel Miranda. Each of these personalities inspire three cocktails in the new menu, one of which is also offered as a non-alcoholic option.

Manhattan New York Personified 2.0 - Irving Berlin - F Sharp
Manhattan New York Personified 2.0 spotlights six brand-new New York personalities, including songwriter and composer Irving Berlin, who wrote the song ‘White Christmas’.

The new menu comes after Manhattan’s recent appointment of a new head bartender. Kelvin Saquilayan rose to the position after the departure of Sophia Kang to One Ninety Bar across the road at Four Seasons Hotel Singapore; Saquilayan started as an F&B executive at Regent Singapore, then moving through the ranks of bartender and senior bartender before this lead role. Saquilayan plays a big role in the development of New York Personified 2.0, Manhattan’s latest update to its third major menu iteration since it opened in 2004.

For Warhol there’s Peel Slowly and See, a Scotch twist on the Manhattan that references the banana that graces the cover of The Velvet Underground’s debut record, and Marilyn, an elevated bourbon highball inspired by Warhol’s famous diptych of the legendary movie star.

Then there’s award-winning actress Whoopi Goldberg. One of the cocktails representing Goldberg is The Omega Glory, a clarified milk punch made with cognac and bourbon. Manhattan claims the name comes from a drink Goldberg made in her recurring guest role as Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation (it’s even included in the recipe book Star Trek Cocktails: A Stellar Compendium). Trekkies know ‘The Omega Glory’ as the name of an episode in Season 2 of Star Trek: The Original Series.

Manhattan New York Personified 2.0 - Whoopi Goldberg - The Omega Glory
The delta insignia stamped onto the ice cube in the The Omega Glory should be a dead giveaway.

Prolific songwriter and Broadway composer Irving Berlin – whose works have been performed by Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra and Diana Ross, among many others – gets as one of his tipples, F-Sharp. This New York Sour is named for the fact Irving actually couldn’t read sheet music; he could only play in the key of F-sharp and had to use a custom piano with a lever that transposed to different keys.

As for Yoko Ono? The multimedia artist may be better known as the wife of John Lennon, but she’s also famously a pacifist who opposed the Vietnam War. Peas and Love (cover picture), a gin and tonic that incorporates green peas, basil and cucumber cordial, is a tribute to her activist work.

Then there’s Lin Manuel Miranda, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer behind Broadway musicals ‘In The Heights’ and ‘Hamilton’. Hamilton is obviously a liquid encore to the latter work; this twist on the Vieux Carré combines American single malt, cognac, PX sherry and vetiver liqueur for a spirit-forward sip.

Manhattan New York Personified 2.0 - Ruth Bader Ginsburg - Notorious RBG
Is the Notorious R.B.G criminally delicious? We’ll let you be both judge and jury.

Finally there’s the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the first-ever Jewish female associate justice in the Supreme Court of the United States. One of her three cocktails – and the one we most highly recommend – is Notorious R.B.G. This take on the classic Manhattan is spicy from the use of black cardamom and angostura bitters, and comes in a black glass that comes garnished with a white chocolate tuile; a visual hat-tip to the steely, no-nonsense judge. It’s also spirited and aggressive, as one would expect from a cocktail dedicated to Ginsburg.

Aside from the 18 new cocktails in New York Personified 2.0, Manhattan also offers updates to its Rickhouse cocktail menu. If you’re not familiar, Manhattan is home to a mini rickhouse where small oak barrels of containing cocktails age. In all honesty it’s hard to decide which is best – they’re all delicious – but if you had to twist our arm we’d point you to the Martinez.

Now you could totally drop in on Manhattan for its new cocktails without a care for their references to those big-name New York personalities. But for those of us who do like a good story behind our tipples, Manhattan’s New York Personified 2.0 will impress.


Manhattan (Regent Singapore)

Address 1 Cuscaden Rd, Level 2 Regent Singapore, Singapore 249715 (Google Maps link)
Hours 5pm to 12am on Wednesdays and Thursdays; 5pm to 1am on Fridays and Saturdays; 12pm to 3pm on Sundays; closed on Mondays and Tuesdays
Web www.regenthotels.com/regent-singapore/dining/manhattan
Facebook manhattansg
Instagram @manhattan_sg

 

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