If you watch the bar for a while you will notice that stirred drinks here take longer than they do in most places. That is deliberate, and it is not showmanship.
A stirred cocktail is really a dilution problem. Spirit, sugar and bitters do not change much once they are in the glass; water does. Somewhere between twenty and thirty percent dilution, a Manhattan stops tasting like strong vermouth and starts tasting like a Manhattan. Get there too fast and the drink is cold but harsh. Get there too slowly and it is watery before it is cold.
So we cut our own ice into large clear cubes, keep the mixing glasses in the freezer, and stir for around thirty seconds rather than ten. The cube gives up water slowly, which means the drink gets very cold before it gets diluted, and then holds that balance in the glass for the twenty minutes you actually spend drinking it.
It is a small thing. It is also the difference between the drink you get on your first visit and the one you remember.
