The negroni isn’t ‘woke’ – it’s a part of British tradition that we must save
We have been drinking cocktails for a long time. The first recorded use of the word which didn’t refer to a horse’s tail is in 1798 and was mocking the drinking habits of the prime minister, William Pitt the Younger. (Premiers don’t hit the bottle heavily these days: Thatcher liked to unwind with glasses of Bell’s whisky and Wilson grew too fond of brandy, but there hasn’t been a toplevel toper since Churchill.)
But the multi-page lists of today are a far cry from the first mixtures of spirits, sugar, water and bitters. You can’t go far wrong with simple combinations of two or three ingredients: a dry martini, an old fashioned, a Sazerac or, in these heavy summer days, a Negroni, that deliciously easy mixture of gin, red vermouth and Campari in equal measures. Like all good cocktails, the Negroni, probably invented in Florence just after the First World War, packs a telling and boozy punch.
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It balances the bitter and the sweet and can take you from the blaze of midday to the baize of a casino at midnight. But wait! GB News, the channel for those who like their current affairs maundered by the pub bore, has declared anathema on the drink. It is now another identifying mark of everything GB News hates, and Mark Dolan, who identifies as a comedian but is not even the poor man’s Mark Dolan, recently condemned the “pompous, woke, Negroni-swilling establishment media elite”.
Perhaps he is paid by the word. GB News has many satisfying targets at which it can aim, as there is much which is overblown, precious and absurd in modern society, but Negroni? If it had chosen something self-consciously modish — the espresso martini or the too-nasty-to-be-retro Mai Tai — it would have found a soft spot with the tip of its rapier. But the Negroni is invincible. The classic cocktails, of which there are maybe a half-dozen, have survived because they are good recipes which do their job well. They have strong characters and have proven themselves over decades, sometimes shifting slightly to accommodate trends but staying true to their origins.
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James Bond turned to the Negroni when, rarely, he tired of a martini; Orson Welles, on first tasting one, declared in that “mighty Wurlitzer of a voice” that “the bitters are excellent for your liver, the gin is bad for you. They balance each other.” Innovators are forever trying to update or modify or “reimagine” cocktails. Don’t. You are the sort of person who wonders what the Mona Lisa would look like with a nose ring. When you drink a cocktail you are reaching back in history, nodding at some of the world’s most formidable drinkers, the Bright Young Things and the Beautiful People. You should not only respect a cocktail’s heritage but steep in it, let it wash over you.
This September sees the 10th anniversary of Negroni Week (12-18 September), so get in training now and be match-fit for an Indian summer with an Italian flavour.
WHERE TO GET A NEGRONI
BAR TERMINI
This Old Compton Street bar is a Soho institution despite only opening in 2015. It is tiny but has the marbletopped bar and baristi in white jackets which the milieu demands. They have experimented but stick with a house Negroni served in an elegant coupe, and let it work with bocconi of prosciutto, salami and coppa. By the time you leave you will want a motorino and virtually qualify for an Italian passport.
CECCONI’S AT THE NED
Mention of The Ned will cause some to shy. I know the Ned can be… well, a little “bridge-and-tunnel” for some, but wealth managers have to drink somewhere. The rectangular marmoreal bar will give you moral and physical support, there is live music in the centre of the former bank’s cavernous atrium, and Cecconi’s was founded in the 1970s by the former manager of the legendary Cipriani in Venice. You shouldn’t need to know more than that.
THE DONOVAN BAR
Housed in Brown’s Hotel on Albemarle Street, The Donovan is a perfect example of a hotel bar simply getting everything right. The plush velvet upholstery reassures you of tradition and reliability, but the nods to its nominal inspiration, Terence Donovan, make you feel like you could still be a roguish snapper in Swinging London. “Drinks Maestro” is the world-famous Salvatore Calabrese, who made his first cocktail at the age of 12. Things are just proper here. You can even have a Negroni made of vintage ingredients, if £200 starts to seem reasonable.