Apple of Our Eye: Paul Feig x The Rake Cocktail Column

One hundred issues of The Rake. One hundred amazing editions of the world’s greatest men’s style magazine. Each one of them perfection. Which means its record stands at 100 per cent. A perfect score.

We humans love perfection. It’s something most of us strive for and something we appreciate when we encounter it. A warm, sunny day. An evening with friends. A fantastic meal. A great article about style. And a perfect cocktail.

When I was a kid I took guitar lessons and got into classical guitar, but I wasn’t very good at it. My guitar teacher taught me a song that was not as difficult as other classical guitar songs but still quite challenging. I practised it over and over again, and got pretty good at it. But not great. He entered me into a guitar competition and had me play that song. For some reason the planets aligned when I got up to play, and I really nailed it in a way that I never had before. I played it, ahem, perfectly. When the judges announced the scores, I got a perfect 100. Since my teacher wasn’t present when I played, he offered these words of encouragement: “No one ever gets a 100. They must have been amateur judges.” When I showed my father the perfect score, he supportively said: “They must have gone easy on you.”

As much as we love perfection, we’re oftentimes suspicious of it when we don’t experience it ourselves. The minute someone tells you something they experienced was perfect, the cynic inside you usually thinks the person is exaggerating or, worse, has lower standards than you do. Even if the praise comes from someone you trust, there’s always a voice inside you that says, ‘I’ll be the judge of that’. Which means perfection has to be experienced individually.

My friend Alessandro Palazzi, a bartender extraordinaire, says that anyone who claims they make the best martini is an imbecile. (Which is ironic, because Alessandro makes the best martini.) I consider the martinis I make to be perfect, since I’ve been perfecting my recipe for decades. But, as Alessandro alludes to, it’s all about personal taste. What tastes perfect to me may taste like horse piss to you, and vice-versa. Perfect is in the eye — or, in the case of cocktails, the mouth — of the beholder.

That is, unless the perfect is in the actual name of the drink. Hence, the Perfect Manhattan.

I scored a perfect 100, but since my teacher wasn’t present, he said: “They must have been amateur judges.”

I really like Manhattans, but they can occasionally be too sweet for my palate. The bitters help tamp this down, but there is still something rather syrupy about a full ounce of sweet vermouth. It covers up the bourbon or whisky a little too much and can start to feel sticky in your mouth. Which is why the Perfect Manhattan is such a genius drink. By turning the one ounce of sweet vermouth into a half-ounce of dry vermouth and a half-ounce of sweet, the Perfect Manhattan keeps the great flavour of a traditional Manhattan while cutting the sweetness and allowing the whisky to shine.

As far as bourbon versus whisky goes, I personally prefer bourbon in a Manhattan because I think it gives the drink a bit of a sharper taste. But if you decide to use whisky, use a blended instead of a single malt. Simply put, it’s not worth wasting a high-quality single malt on any mixed drink. No matter how perfect you think it will make it.