As you are already aware, this week is an homage to the Negroni, that brilliant, ruby-hued Italian cocktail that so captures the effortless class of La Dolce Vita-style 1960s Rome. Usually, it’s an equal mix of gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth, garnished with an orange peel. Served in an old-fashioned cut-glass tumbler, it’s simple, sophisticated, and head-turning.
We have a few spots in our Negroni Week line-up with interesting Negroni takes. Jettison the swanky bar with a speakeasy vibe in Sylvan Thirty is batching a Negroni, matured for two weeks and featuring Bol’s Genever gin, Dolin rouge vermouth, a mix of Campari and Galliano L’Aperitivo and orange bitters. And their Southern Negroni pairs Fidencio Classico mezcal, Campari, Lillet Blanc and lemon peel. The latter is an obvious twist.
At Julian Barsotti’s newly opened Fachini, his homage to classic Italian-American fare, you’ll catch a spritzy vibe from the Negroni Sbagliato, whose name is based on the Italian word for “mistake.” This twist—which, unlike Jettison’s, is itself now part of the canon—replaces gin with Prosecco, for something that’s fizzy, with a lilt of sweet, tethered by bitterness. Nothing wrong with that.