You possibly can actually get a Manhattan on the Brooklyn location of Ray’s, the kitschy bar that additionally has places in Manhattan and Miami, nevertheless it’s not on the menu that method. As an alternative, you’ll discover the mix of rye, candy vermouth, and bitters within the Martini part—as a result of at Ray’s, it’s not a Manhattan; it’s a “Boy Martini.”
In a skit posted by the bar in March, a buyer orders a Manhattan. “You imply a Boy Martini?” the bartender responds, describing it as “like a Martini, nevertheless it has whiskey and it’s darkish, so it’s for a boy, such as you.” The video racked up over 3 million views on TikTok and Instagram, and was imitated by bars like Austin’s Revenge; Nashville’s The Amsterdamian; and Bristol, England’s Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Each the video and the drink are actually a matter of savvy advertising, explains Dylan Wells, common supervisor of Ray’s Brooklyn. After taking inventory of the best-selling gadgets on the finish of 2025, “it turned very obvious to us that we have been very a lot a Martini bar,” he says. Espresso Martinis and basic Martinis carried out nicely; Pornstar Martinis have been seeing an uptick. In January, “we began breaking out our best-selling Martini variants and placing them on our menu entrance and heart.” With the Manhattan echoing some Martini qualities—sturdy, stirred, served up—it made sense so as to add to the menu, Wells remembers, and when somebody prompt the identify, “we thought that was type of humorous.”
There’s a degree of engagement bait to all of it, as confirmed by the spirited feedback on the skit. Particularly, the drink within the video is shaken, prompting loads of horrified responses; the precise Boy Martini is, correctly, stirred. “It doesn’t completely seem like a Manhattan within the video,” Wells admits.
In fact, the drink’s identify additionally conjures up existential debate. Is a Manhattan actually a “Boy Martini,” particularly when the Martini itself has been synonymous with hypermasculine figures like James Bond and Mad Males’s Roger Sterling for thus lengthy? That is the entertaining absurdity of the idea although, as is the case with rebranding assemblages of snacks as “lady dinner” or bowls of slop as “boy kibble.” To use gendered qualifiers to something as usually interesting as meat and rice, or a basic cocktail, is to additionally underscore the pointlessness of the pursuit. On this method, the pattern pokes enjoyable on the idea of “girly drinks” versus “masculine” ones, and on the “lingering trope of the person’s glass,” as The New York Instances put it in a 2023 piece concerning the gendering of glassware amongst some drinkers.
If prospects discover the identify foolish, there’s little sense of that once they order, Wells says. “Individuals are taking part in it straight,” he says. “They’re not embarrassed. They’re not likely laughing. They’re simply ordering a Boy Martini.” Is it even registering that it’s a Manhattan? He’s undecided. The purpose stands: Everybody needs to drink Martinis now.
