Bloomsbury Bistro - Raleigh, North Carolina

Bloomsbury Bistro is a very quaint dining establishment with an excellent menu tucked away in Raleigh's historic Five Points area near downtown. They aren't known for their bar, but it is there mainly to entertain patrons while they wait for their table. So while waiting for mine, I asked the bar tender to make me his best Manhattan.

The bar tender took out a pint glass and filled it with ice. He also pulled out a chilled martini glass from the bar fridge. He proceeded to pour Bulleit Rye (a good solid choice in my book) into the glass without measuring. Ok, so maybe he has a good eye for proportions. Nope. He way over poured, in the end what looked like about 3 oz of rye. He then added barely more than a splash of Carpano Antica sweet vermouth (a very good choice), so the rye to vermouth proportion was way off. He topped it off with a few shakes of house-made orange bitters.

Instead of stirring, he topped the glass with a shaker. Oh no - my heart sank. He was going to shake the thing to death! He only gave it 4 brief shakes thankfully, only enough to cool the liquid, but once strained it was still frothy and cloudy just as if he had shaken it more vigorously, as you can see by the picture.

The results were not unpleasant, but definitely too rye-forward given the disproportionate measure. Nice selection of ingredients, but poor execution, I'd have to say.