TIME AFTER TIME

Conrad Singapore Orchard's Manhattan Bar taps on time as a muse for its new 31-drink lineup forged in honour of the seasons.

- \INDRAN PARAMASIVAM

THERE'S A PALL OF IRONY in the air—the kind I feel more than see—as I trace the rim of my glass in Manhattan Bar's expansively plush, velvet-drenched embrace. I've long believed that a great cocktail can stop time, hold it like a single, suspended note. But here I am, intimately and unequivocally made aware of the passage of time by the bar's latest flourish. With its Seasons of Manhattan menu, Manhattan doesn't stop time. It scores it, pours it, and plays it out in movements. Each drink a new peak, each sip a passing hour in the city that never stands still, as the procession of the seasons flows through it.

The ever-dapper head bartender, Zana Möhlmann, tells me that the flow of the new menu resembles that of a desk calendar, with each chunk of days bookended by an outgoing season and an incoming one. “It's basically a representation of time,” she affirms, implying that Manhattan is intent on walking through the chronological span of days with you one drink at a time—there are 31 to go through.

As location- and climate-specific as this new menu is, you are well-poised to enjoy its revelations in the resolutely opulent setting of Manhattan. Zana and the team have done the good work of ushering the cultural heartbeat in the 212 to the contents of your glass in the +65.

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