Cocktail du jour: Classic Negroni

The Contessa Negroni at the Algonquin

My resident bartender has been under the weather this week and it's very poor timing on his part. Partly because I can't be bothered to make my own cocktail at the end of a long night on the baseball field, but mostly because he's missing out on celebrating Negroni Week.

Negroni Week is a worldwide fundraiser put together by one of our favorite magazines, Imbibe, and the Italian apéritif Campari. Mr. C&G loves a good Negroni and it's one of his signature house cocktails. I'm sure if he were feeling better he'd be experimenting with his own twists on the classic combination of equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth.

Campari is an acquired taste for most people and I have yet to acquire it. While at the Blue Bar at the Algonquin Hotel in NYC recently the bartender made Mr. C&G a variation of a Negroni with Hendrick's gin, Aperol, and Campari. Now that sounds like something I might like, and not just because he offered to add it to the cocktail menu and call it "The Laura". I'm looking forward to trying it as soon as Mr. C&G gets over his cold but it needs a much more elegant name. The Contessa Negroni seems appropriate. Cin cin!

Classic Negroni
1 oz gin
1 oz Campari
1 oz sweet vermouth

Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice
Strain and serve over ice in an old fashioned glass, garnish with an orange peel