Ten ways to celebrate Negroni Week
If you’re looking for a reason to enjoy the world’s favourite equal-parts cocktail, here are 10 events and cocktails being served up this Negroni Week.
Taking place this year from 22 to 28 September, the 13th annual Negroni Week will feature more than 1,800 partner venues in the UK alone. Plus, proceeds from these events will go to charitable partner Slow Food.
But don’t worry – we’ve discovered plenty of ways for non-Brits to join in the fun too – whether you’re across the pond in New York or on the other side of the world in Sydney.
Here are our top 10 Negroni-themed events, pop-ups and serves to enjoy next week.
Official Negroni Lounges, London
While the cocktail might be Italian, London has taken to the Negroni – and Negroni Week – with aplomb. This year, the city will have five official Negroni Lounges, as selected by Campari: Equal Parts, Bar Brasso, Nessa, Bar Jackie, and Nightjar Carnaby.
Each bar will offer bespoke menus, live music, and artistic collaborations, forming part of a city-wide art trail where visitors can collect exclusive prints by artist Lena Yokoyama.
You might find us at Equal Parts on 21 September, where the bar will be welcoming Scotland’s Hey Palu for a guest shift, with flavour-driven cocktails from Rachel Bailey Palumbo and Nikki Perez Estrada. Plus, Equal Parts will be donating to Hackney Food Bank for every limited edition Negroni ordered.
Bespoke at Grand Army Bar, New York
Robby Dow of Brooklyn’s Grand Army Bar now has a second venue in his home state of North Carolina. Named Bespoke, the coffee shop recently underwent a transformation to become an all-day café and aperitivo bar. To celebrate both Negroni Week and the venue’s relaunch, Dow will be hosting a pop-up in collaboration with Campari at Grand Army on 23 September.
Expect a full menu takeover, and don’t miss the Night Nurse – a riff on a Negroni made with Jamaican rum, Cynar, Campari, Punt e Mes, banana and coffee.
The St Regis Venice’s Negroni Desire
The Arts Bar at the St Regis Venice hotel is inspired by – you guessed it – works of art, specifically focusing on those with Venetian connections. For Negroni Week, check out The Negroni Desire – a cocktail based on Salvador Dali’s ‘Birth of Liquid Desires’. According to the bar, the piece is composed of three shapes that are fused by the ‘grotesque dream image’ of the creature at the centre.
To represent that, the bar team has combined Bareksten Botanical Gin, Calvados, Bitter Martini Riserva Speciale, amphora-aged wine, and a house-made vermouth mix, garnished with an ‘apple cherry’. It is served in a custom-made glass from Berengo Studio.
Secret Campari Negroni Bar at Noodle & Beer Chinatown, London
Forget Negroni Week – why not make September Negroni Month? Even more so, given it’s my personal favourite cocktail and also my birth month.
Noodle & Beer in London’s Chinatown has partnered with Campari to create a secret, dedicated Negroni bar running from 4 to 30 September. The bar is deep red – of course – with ‘opulent’ Campari branding and special glasses bringing the collaboration to life.
The Negroni menu will feature the classic, and a Sbagliato (with Prosecco in it… stunning), as well as variations with an Eastern twist. The Sparkling Sake Negroni is ‘lighter and more effervescent’, while the Plum Umeshu Negroni is said to be the perfect palate cleanser – you can put that to the test by ordering it after Noodle & Beer’s ‘super-spicy’ Xian Jiao Niu-Rou.
Herbs Taverne giveaway, Sydney
The only thing better than a good Negroni is a free Negroni. And Sydney drinkers will have the chance to bag both as part of Herbs Taverne’s giveaway. The bar – which is part of the same group as the team behind Cantina OK!, Bar Planet, Centro 86 and Tio’s – will be handing out postcards to anyone who buys a Negroni from 22 to 28 September. Scan the QR code and you could win AU$1,000 worth of Negronis (that’s a lot of Negronis).
And even if you don’t win, you can enjoy one of four riffs on the classic, including a ‘psychedelic’ Purple Negroni (made with gin, Campari, raspberry eau de vie, Pineau and dragon fruit); the fruity, frozen Free Bird (made with gin, passionfruit soda, and ‘amaro ice’); the Left Hook (which blends Alpine Amaro, mezcal, burnt orange and egg whites); and the Bullfrog, an ‘apple pie-adjacent’ digestif made with Calvados and Becherovka.
Mr Icky at Canes & Tales, Osaka
How can you make the Negroni Japanese? Well, add shochu to it, of course. The bar team at Canes & Tales in the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Osaka have put a bit more thought into it than that, though. Each of the bar’s cocktails are inspired by a short story from Tales of the Jazz Age by F Scott Fitzgerald – which the bar describes as an ode to ‘an era of unbridled elegance, reckless romance, and the art of true indulgence’.
Mr Icky is a Negroni riff that features SG Mugi Shochu, Rinomato Aperitivo, Campari, Mancino Vecchio vermouth, truffle honey and bitters – most importantly, though, the cocktail is aged in a clay-pot amphora for added refinement.
The Pursuit of the Perfect Negroni at Valerie, New York
A Negroni is usually a safe option in a bar, because it’s hard to mess up (and I say that as someone who has received one in a half-pint glass with pebble ice and a straw). But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to perfect.
That’s the theory behind The Pursuit of the Perfect Negroni III, an event hosted at Valerie in New York’s Midtown in partnership with No. 3 Gin. For one night only, on 24 September, top bartenders – including Valerie’s Marshall Minaya, Dear Irving’s Meaghan Dorman, and Angel’s Share’s Atsushi Suzuki – will come together to share their takes on the classic.
On the menu will be a Negroni Highball and a three-year-old barrel-aged Negroni – plus, there’s talk of a flowing Negroni fountain.
Negro-tini flights, London
Remember the tiny ‘tini? This year seemed to be when mini Martinis really took off, and now the baby Negroni is taking flight – literally. We’ve counted four venues in London that will be serving a flight of mini Negronis. First up, The Coral Room and The Bloomsbury Club Bar will be offering a trio of Negronis made with Portofino Dry Gin – we’re intrigued by the Sottosole Negroni, which is crowned with lemon foam.
Meanwhile, newly opened Kapara in Soho has created five variations, but you can try three as half-sized iterations, each of which will be paired with its own dip and pita chips.
The Donovan Bar in Mayfair is also of the opinion that three is the magic number, with each tiny cocktail made with No.3 London Dry Gin.
No Goodbyes at The Line DC
Many bars boast making everything from scratch, but Lukas B Smith at No Goodbyes – the bar in The Line hotel in Washington DC – takes it to the next level, creating the individual ingredients within his cocktails.
For Negroni Week, he’s whipped up a whole menu of drinks that you won’t be able to find anywhere else. These include the Redeye Samurai, which is made with mizu barley shochu, Campari and Caffé Kokuto Vermouth, and the Double Up, which features Gonzalez-Byass Palo Cortado Leonor, Alvear Oloroso Asunción, Campari, and two vermouths from 9 Di Dante: Paradiso and Purgatorio.
Cocchi’s ‘Keep the heart, change the spirit’ campaign, UK
The Negroni is often classified as a gin cocktail, though some (especially those at Gruppo Campari) would argue that it’s actually a Campari cocktail. The popularity of both the Boulevardier and the White Negroni would suggest that it’s really neither of those things – an idea that Cocchi vermouth is running with.
The Italian brand has launched a campaign called ‘Keep the heart, change the spirit’, encouraging venues to embrace creativity. It’s asking bartenders to explore its full portfolios of vermouths and aperitivos as the base of a Negroni variation, switching up the components to add something new to the time-old cocktail.
For instance, Lina Stores in London has created the After Dinner Negroni, which is a blend of Adriatico Amaretto, Caffe’ Borghetti, Cocchi Storico and Amaro Mondino, Meanwhile, Tozi in London’s Victoria has created a purple-tinged riff, made with Seven Hills Gin, Cocchi Americano, Italicus and crème de violette – just don’t tell Campari.
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