Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

The Imperial House's Negroni

Place

Imperial House

505 Kalmia Street, San Diego

Few drinks admit of such variety as the bittersweet Negroni. Switch out the shot of gin for vodka and you have a Negroski; add bourbon instead of gin and you’re drinking a Boulevardier; order a Negroni with Aperol instead of Campari and you’ll be handed a Raultini.

But to bartender Mario Martinez’s mind, only two basic versions of the Negroni pass muster — up or on the rocks. Mixing and shaking things up behind the bar at the Imperial House, Martinez says he’ll serve it any way you want, but by default he serves it on the rocks.

“I’ve seen Negroni served in a martini glass, up,” he tells me. “Something about the Negroni, though, when I first started making them, screamed to me, ‘Rocks glass!’”

Sponsored
Sponsored

In fact, Martinez’s instincts led him back to the drink’s original style — itself a higher-octane derivative of an earlier classic after the Italian Count Negroni ordered his Americano with a shot of gin in it.

The “martini-ized” Negroni, as Martinez refers to Negroni served in a martini glass, makes the drink a faddish template for variations.

“When I first started learning about it and discovered it was a before-dinner cocktail, I decided to make it in a rocks glass,” he says. “I stuck with it. But I’ll make it up to the ladies because it looks daintier.”

Because of its assertive bitterness, Campari tends to hog the conversation in any drink it’s involved in, Martinez observes. So, while the Negroni is a simple 1-1-1 recipe, the margin of error allows for little less than pinpoint accuracy when it comes to the right balance.

“If you mess up the measurements, even by a little, you might as well start all over,” he says. “If you overload it with Campari, that’s the only flavor you’re going to get.”

Mario Martinez

In a cocktail shaker with ice, pour:

• 1 oz. Cinzano sweet vermouth

• 1 oz. Hendrick’s Gin

• 1 oz. Campari

Shake, pour into an ice-filled rocks glass (or a rockless martini glass if the ladies request it!), garnish with an orange twist.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Not enough Readers in Mission Beach

Mayor Todd Gloria's skin color
Next Article

Coyote tracks in frail San Diego avocado grove

Second place winner in Reader neighborhood writing contest
Place

Imperial House

505 Kalmia Street, San Diego

Few drinks admit of such variety as the bittersweet Negroni. Switch out the shot of gin for vodka and you have a Negroski; add bourbon instead of gin and you’re drinking a Boulevardier; order a Negroni with Aperol instead of Campari and you’ll be handed a Raultini.

But to bartender Mario Martinez’s mind, only two basic versions of the Negroni pass muster — up or on the rocks. Mixing and shaking things up behind the bar at the Imperial House, Martinez says he’ll serve it any way you want, but by default he serves it on the rocks.

“I’ve seen Negroni served in a martini glass, up,” he tells me. “Something about the Negroni, though, when I first started making them, screamed to me, ‘Rocks glass!’”

Sponsored
Sponsored

In fact, Martinez’s instincts led him back to the drink’s original style — itself a higher-octane derivative of an earlier classic after the Italian Count Negroni ordered his Americano with a shot of gin in it.

The “martini-ized” Negroni, as Martinez refers to Negroni served in a martini glass, makes the drink a faddish template for variations.

“When I first started learning about it and discovered it was a before-dinner cocktail, I decided to make it in a rocks glass,” he says. “I stuck with it. But I’ll make it up to the ladies because it looks daintier.”

Because of its assertive bitterness, Campari tends to hog the conversation in any drink it’s involved in, Martinez observes. So, while the Negroni is a simple 1-1-1 recipe, the margin of error allows for little less than pinpoint accuracy when it comes to the right balance.

“If you mess up the measurements, even by a little, you might as well start all over,” he says. “If you overload it with Campari, that’s the only flavor you’re going to get.”

Mario Martinez

In a cocktail shaker with ice, pour:

• 1 oz. Cinzano sweet vermouth

• 1 oz. Hendrick’s Gin

• 1 oz. Campari

Shake, pour into an ice-filled rocks glass (or a rockless martini glass if the ladies request it!), garnish with an orange twist.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Tiny Home Central isn’t solving the San Diego housing crisis

But it does hope to help fill in the gaps
Next Article

Celebrate Holi, Borrego Springs Music Festival

Events March 23-March 27, 2024
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.