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Business Times

Manhattan's latest menu transports drinkers to its namesake city

[SINGAPORE] At the quiet west end of Orchard Road, past the gleaming lobby of Conrad Singapore Orchard – formerly the Regent Singapore – and up on the second floor is Manhattan Bar, Singapore's regular representative on Asia's 50 Best Bars list. Banquettes form symmetrical seating areas alongside the elevated main bar, presenting a postcard-perfect scene of a grand hotel bar from New York's past. Completing this ode to the city's Golden Age of cocktails is the bar's latest menu, Seasons of Manhattan. A calendar of cocktails Launched in May, the menu of 31 cocktails treats time as both muse and medium. Designed like a desk calendar, it unfolds with pop-up illustrations, from Central Park in bloom to Rockefeller Center in festive glow. Half of the menu is themed after the four seasons, with four cocktails for each, presenting the city's culture, climate and hallmark moments. These are joined by five other New York-inspired cocktails; six cocktails developed in the bar's 'rickhouse', where cocktails are aged in barrels; and four guest cocktails. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 2 pm Lifestyle Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself. Sign Up Sign Up 'Creating a cocktail always starts with a scene, a feeling,' said Zana Mohlmann, Manhattan's head bartender. 'That first warm day in Central Park, the buzz of a summer party, the crisp crunch of autumn leaves underfoot – we built the entire menu around these moments.' The half-year menu design process started with brainstorming sessions, which uncovered how New York's cultural touchpoints – from Little Italy's festivals to Harlem's dance floors – aligned with the city's seasonal rhythms. 'It was a lightbulb moment,' said Mohlmann. 'Time became our narrative: the rickhouse ageing our spirits, the bar's decade-long legacy, even the way guests experience a year in drinks.' One summer cocktail is It's Gettin' Hot in Here, served warm and embodying Manhattan's urban heat island effect. Served on a concrete slab as a nod to sun-baked sidewalks, it has butter-washed genever as a base, with spiced honey infused with basil, sage, thyme and chilli, redefining the concept of a hot toddy as a hot drink for sweltering months. Meanwhile, Autumnal Amber is a riff on the classic Penicillin where rum replaces Scotch and spiced pumpkin replaces ginger, swirled with Laphroaig. Served in a cherrywood-smoked bottle before being poured into a glass, the drink is crowned with a pumpkin-chip 'leaf' that crumbles like foliage. 'It is a nod to bonfires, spiced pumpkin lattes, and late autumn nights where the leaves are falling off the trees,' said Mohlmann. 'It is inspired by all the emotional layers of autumn itself.' Time capsules from the rickhouse If the menu captures fleeting moments, Manhattan's rickhouse – a barrel-ageing room in the hotel itself – embodies patience. Here, 110 oak casks cradle spirits that are infused with vanilla, smoke, and spice. The spirits' flavours deepen and evolve in these 'wax-sealed time capsules', as Mohlmann put it: 'Two months in wood can round a cocktail's sharp edges into something symphonic.' Of the 10 barrel-aged cocktails in the menu, four are seasonal. These include Triumph of Liberty, a smoke-laced Old Fashioned honouring Independence Day, and St Patrick's Day, a blend of Irish whiskey, Guinness and coffee liqueur aged in Oloroso casks. 'The Guinness gives it a nice depth and a bit of a rough smoke on the end… but the barrel shapes the sharp ends of the drink, and it becomes a round, robust and full-bodied spirit-forward whiskey drink that is Irish,' Mohlmann explained. The rickhouse also serves as a living archive of Manhattan's timeline, with its display of bottles – including those from the time of previous head bartenders – dating back to 2015. Private corners and Warholian whimsy Beyond the bar's main space, time blends differently. Behind a heavy curtain at one side is The Library, with a seating capacity of just 10. Its timber panels and green velvet evoke a study, but with cocktails replacing books. Behind a heavy curtain at one side is The Library, with a seating capacity of just 10. PHOTO: CONRAD SINGAPORE ORCHARD Further in and behind a door lies the Rockefeller Room, which can host about 16 people. Large groups of customers tend to opt for these spaces, noted Mohlmann. The Rockefeller Room can host about 16 people. PHOTO: CONRAD SINGAPORE ORCHARD At the other side of the main bar, also behind curtains, is East47, a bar within a bar. It is named after the East 47th Street address of its inspiration, Andy Warhol's Silver Factory studio in New York. Corny Like Marilyn from the upcoming new menu of East47, Guilty Pleasures. PHOTO: CONRAD SINGAPORE ORCHARD Just like Warhol's Silver Factory, which was known for its silver-painted walls and aluminium foil decorations. The 12-seater East47 is similarly done up in that shade, with a genuine gold Marilyn Monroe print by Warhol as a centrepiece above the bar counter. Just as Warhol's Silver Factory was a studio for the artist, East47 is one for Manhattan's bartenders, said Mohlmann. 'East47 is our boundary-pushing cocktail bar that really allows us to be very creative.' Currently serving avant-garde drinks in its debut menu, East47 is about to launch its second menu in August, she added. 'It will be inspired by guilty pleasures.' Autumnal Amber