As far as I know, there’s no record of the reaction that a Florentine bartender gave to Count Camillo Negroni in 1919 when the noble first requested an extra splash to stiffen up his Americano cocktail. But it’s something I think about — quite a lot, actually — usually when I’m sipping a Negroni. Were there gasps of shock, a vinyl-scratch silence? Did anyone slap him across the face, for making such a highly irregular request?
I like to picture the opposite. Maybe a look of mystification giving way to a few slow nods and a smile, as the importance of the moment started to sink in. “Good call, Count,” the bartender might have said. “This is going to be legendary.”
And as it turns out, that moment was very much historic.
