BY PATRICIA RANFT
Mike and the Manhattan
Did you know? One popular theory about the Manhattan’s origin is that it was created by Dr. Iain Marshall for Lady Randolph Churchill (Jennie Jerome, mother of Winston Churchill) for a banquet she hosted in honor of politician Samuel Jones Tilden. Another account, from the 1923 book Valentine’s Manual of New York, mentions that the cocktail was “invented by a man named Black who kept a place ten doors below Houston Street on Broadway in the [eighteen] sixties.” No matter its origin, the name “Manhattan” has remained with the drink over the decades.
Ask for Mike...
Lexington mixologist shares the finer points of the classic cocktail As evident by its name, the Manhattan cocktail was not conceived in the Bluegrass State, but with whiskey as its primary ingredient, it’s no surprise that the drink enjoys a following among Kentuckians. The cocktail’s origins are somewhat muddled, although a story that the Manhattan was invented at New York City’s Manhattan Club around 1880 carries some merit. Consisting of whiskey, vermouth and bitters, the Manhattan has enjoyed a strong following since.
B L U E S TA L L I O N B R E W I N G C O M PA N Y 610 West 3rd Street Lexington, 859.785.1625 bluestallionbrewing.com With a full-service bar; ales, lagers and IPAs brewed onsite; and Salt & Vinegar GermanAmerican cuisine, Blue Stallion offers customers a prime eating and drinking experience.
“It’s one of the first drinks I ever learned to make,” Blue Stallion Brewing Company General Manager Mike Tate Abbott said. Based in Lexington, Blue Stallion is the thirdoldest craft brewery in central Kentucky and—offering the best of two worlds—boasts a full-service bar. A veteran mixologist, Abbott has 19 years of experience under his belt, along with a passion for the craft. He first learned about wine and cocktails at a food-service job in a fine-dining restaurant. “It was like a whole new world was opened up to me,” he remembered. When he decided to try his hand at bartending, Abbott, a Frankfort native, picked up a copy of The Essential Cocktail: The Art of Mixing Perfect Drinks by Dale DeGroff at the local public library and became hooked on learning about the art, science and technique of mixology. A self-professed cocktail nerd, Abbott then
22 K E N T U CK Y M O NT H LY D RINK LOCA L
