Three ways to turn me off a cocktail include looking like fruit juice, tasting very bitter and filled with Campari. To its credit, the negroni overcomes my petty obstacles and delivers one of the better palate-preparing punches of any aperitif this side of a pastis. I first had it in 1999 or 2000 at some low-key LES bar back when both the neighborhood and the drink were cool. The negroni predates both the neighborhood’s gentrification the cocktail resurgence by about a century: it likely originated in Florence in the last century’s early teens. I don’t go to the LES much these days, but I often precede my appetizer with this drink.

Ready

• 1oz gin
• 1oz campari
• 1oz sweet vermouth
• ice
• orange peel
• sprig of rosemary

Set

• shaker
• stirrer
• strainer
• old-fashioned glass

Go

1. Pour first three ingredients over ice in a shaker. Stir feverishly.
2. Pour contents of the shaker into glass over ice.
3. Add the twist of orange and the sprig of rosemary.