The Italian in London
London and the Negroni were always destined for each other.
The city's love affair with gin stretches back to the eighteenth century, when the spirit flowed from every corner pub and back-street still. When Count Negroni walked into Caffè Casoni in Florence and asked for his Americano with gin instead of soda, he was unwittingly sending a drink home.
Today, London's bartenders treat the Negroni with the reverence usually reserved for religious artefacts. At the American Bar at The Savoy, they have been perfecting the serve since before most of us were born. At Swift in Soho, they pour it fast and flawless at a zinc counter while the city rushes past. At Nightjar, they hide it behind an unmarked door and serve it with jazz.
This is not a list of bars that happen to serve Negronis. This is a map of the places that understand what the drink means: equal parts precision and abandon, bitterness and beauty, London and somewhere far away.
