N°09 · The Aperitivo Hour
Negroni
/ neh-GROH-nee /
One part gin, one part Campari, one part sweet vermouth. Equal parts, infinite swagger — bitterness as a lifestyle.
- Spirit
- Gin, Campari, vermouth
- Glass
- Rocks glass
- Method
- Stirred
- Est.
- 1919 · Florence
Where it comes from — as far as anyone can prove
Florence, 1919, at Caffè Casoni: Count Camillo Negroni — an Italian aristocrat freshly home from years in America spent, by credible accounts, as a rodeo cowboy, riverboat gambler and fencing instructor — decided his usual Americano lacked ambition. He asked bartender Fosco Scarselli to replace the soda water with gin. Scarselli obliged, and swapped the lemon garnish for orange so nobody would mistake the count’s drink for lesser orders. The bar’s regulars began asking for “one of Negroni’s,” and the count achieved the rare immortality of becoming a recipe.
The drink acquired its patron saint in 1947, when Orson Welles, filming in Rome, encountered it and cabled home the definitive review: the bitters were good for his liver, the gin was bad for him, and they balanced each other out. For decades it remained an Italian secret with a cult American following, until the craft cocktail revival crowned it — bittersweet, spirit-forward and impossible to make badly if you can count to three.
“The bitters are excellent for your liver, the gin is bad for you.”
— Orson Welles, reporting from Rome, 1947
Its modern era is pure pop culture. Anthony Bourdain evangelized it across a decade of television. Stanley Tucci’s lockdown Negroni tutorial briefly united the internet in 2020. And in 2022 a promotional clip of two House of the Dragon actors — “a Negroni… sbagliato… with prosecco in it” — turned a Milanese bartender’s 50-year-old happy accident into the most ordered mistake in the world. Every June, Negroni Week converts all this swagger into millions for charity.
Things worth knowing by the second round
- 01
The equal-parts spec is the entire point: 1-1-1, no measuring anxiety, no wrong answers. It may be the most forgiving great cocktail in existence.
- 02
The Sbagliato — “mistaken” — was born at Bar Basso, Milan, when Mirko Stocchetto reached for prosecco instead of gin mid-rush. He kept the error on the menu.
- 03
Count Camillo’s American years as a cowboy and gambler are documented by his biographer — the drink’s inventor genuinely was the most interesting man in the bar.
- 04
A rival Corsican general, Pascal Olivier de Negroni, is claimed by some descendants as the true inventor. Florence remains unmoved.
- 05
Negroni Week, run by Imbibe and Campari since 2013, has raised many millions for charity — bitterness, deployed for good.
Famous company
Orson Welles, 1947
Filed the drink’s definitive endorsement from Rome while filming Black Magic.
Anthony Bourdain, Parts Unknown
Ordered them around the world and warned, approvingly, that they hit “like a freight train.”
Stanley Tucci’s kitchen, 2020
One Instagram tutorial, one million new Negroni drinkers, one raging debate about his shaker.
“Sbagliato, with prosecco in it,” 2022
An HBO promo clip that became the year’s most viral drink order.