Purveyor of Iniquities

The New York Times today stumbles upon my favorite drink with this recipe:

Negroni

MAKES 1 COCKTAIL
1 ounce gin
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce sweet vermouth.

Fair enough. Most recipes are a bit more complex and include some bitters or a splash of fresh orange juice.

The Times recommends Hendrick’s or Plymouth gin, and either is a fine choice. No. 209 and Damrak are also name-checked; I really need to give those a swish.

So who drinks Negronis? Well, I do–it was something to try after discovering that my father’s Campari was being ill-served by the use to which he put it: strictly Campari and orange juice. More or less every upward-looking hood in Fellini’s early films swills them. And that’s about it.

Most bartenders in DC, excepting at a few Italian places, really have no idea how to make one. (Isn’t there supposed to be a copy of the Handbook beneath the bar somewhere? Doesn’t it like come with the bar?) Done wrong, a Negroni comes out like cough syrup. Sometimes it’s all sugary, closer to a Shirley Temple than anything else. Usually, there’s too much ice–as the Times notes, it should be shaken and served more or less like a martini, although best in an old fashioned (or similarly sized) glass. Not a martini glass, please, especially if I’m wearing something light-colored!

So will this Times piece up the profile of the Negroni? It’s possible, and it may even be the case that the drink’s trend has been surging upwards for months, which is usually how long it takes the Times to notice. Or this could be another Time-generated trend piece (i.e., the reporter has a strange friend who orders an unpopular drink, so does his editor, and two sightings –> trend in Timesworld.). In any case, the article certainly won’t hurt, except in certain bars in NYC which, by this late hour, have no doubt already brushed off “Negroni” from their chalkboards.