Oscar Wilde once wrote: “And all at once, summer collapsed into fall.” Just one look out the window, and that all makes sense. It’s not gradual, it’s a complete and utter collapse. Although here in Northern California, summer has an annoying habit of rearing its hot head over and over again — while we collapse.
Red and orange are the colors of autumn, and that’s where the Negroni comes in. The perennial fall drink is not quite brown liquor — it’s more reddish — and its bitter, herbaceous notes of pine certainly work well when summer heat refreshment is less of the goal, but always a possibility.
The oft-repeated origin story of the Italian classic is that it was based on an earlier drink called an Americano. That Americano was equal parts Italian (sweet) vermouth and Campari over ice and topped with sparkling water. Considered a “tall” or “long” drink, the Americano bears more than a passing resemblance to what would now be called a “spritz,” minus the prosecco. Ironic now, because the modern spritz might be the most popular Italian cocktail ever, despite the fact that it has a Germanic name.
Last year, during so-called “Negroni Week” — usually mid-to-late September — I had been in Florence, Italy. We were staying at the IL Tornabuoni Hotel on Via de’ Tornabuoni, just one long-ish block from the intersection where the Caffè Casoni once stood. Now an Armani outlet store, the bar where the Negroni was born is now memorialized by a 10-inch-by-11-inch bronze plaque placed about 15 feet above street level. In fact, I had walked by it five or six times before I even noticed it. And I was looking for it specifically.
But that’s the great irony. Based on an Italian drink called an Americano — supposedly made and named for an unverifiable Italian count — the Negroni is certainly more popular here than it is in Italy — perhaps evidenced by the fact that I spent the better part of a week in Florence looking for information on the Negroni and not one person I spoke to knew it was Negroni Week.
None of the bartenders at the IL Tornabuoni Hotel knew what I was talking about when I asked them about it, and we could literally see the location of Caffè Casoni from the rooftop bar. In fact, one of them misunderstood the thrust of my question and delivered an actual Negroni just a minute or two later. Well, as they say, when in Rome? Or in Florence?
The Negroni cocktail name had in fact floated about for several decades before finally landing sometime in the 1940s on the triple threat that we now recognize. The gin and vermouth have always been interpretative, like the origin, however the one constant has always been the Campari. With that in mind, I offer up one American version and two American adaptations, all with American primary spirits and vermouths, but still featuring the bitter Italian star Campari. Feel free to call them Americanos.
Negroni Rosso
1 ounce Alamere Spirits London Dry Gin
1 ounce Lo-Fi Aperitifs Sweet Vermouth
1 ounce Campari
1 dried blood orange wheel
Combine the gin, vermouth and Campari in a mixing beaker with ice. Stir until cold. Strain over a large-format ice cube. Garnish with blood orange wheel.
Note: Most sweet (red) vermouths are made from white wine and then colored with caramel. Lo-Fi is not colored, but still reveals all the wonderful sweet herbaceousness necessary without the artificial color.
NorCal Boulevardier
1 ounce Sausalito Liquor Co. Unsinkable Rye Whiskey
1 ounce Rockwell Vermouth Co. American Flavor Classic Sweet Vermouth
1 ounce Campari
1 Bada Bing stemmed cherry
1 Seville orange slice (half a wheel)
Combine the whiskey, vermouth and Campari in a mixing beaker with ice. Stir until cold. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with the orange and cherry.
Note: Is a Boulevardier a riff on a Manhattan or a Negroni? Does that even matter? In this case, we use a more robust vermouth to stand up to the rye and throw in a cherry just for good measure.
Smoking Count
1 ounce Santo Spirits Reposado Tequila
1 ounce Straightaway Cocktails Accompani Sweet Vermouth
1 ounce Campari
1 rosemary sprig
Combine the tequila, vermouth and Campari in a mixing beaker with ice. Stir until cold. Strain over crushed ice and then briefly flame the rosemary sprig — carefully using either a candle or propane crème brûlée cooking torch. Blow out the flame quickly and add to the drink.
Note: Mezcal can be substituted for tequila but its predominant smokiness can be too much. Reposado tequila, aged for two months to a year in oak, adds the right amount of smokiness, which when combined with the flamed rosemary makes this cocktail operatic.
Jeff Burkhart is the author of “Twenty Years Behind Bars: The Spirited Adventures of a Real Bartender, Vol. I and II” and host of the Barfly Podcast. Follow him at jeffburkhart.net and contact him at jeffbarflyIJ@outlook.com.
