The thirst is real for this year’s Negroni Week concoctions and collabs. The celebration of this vibrant Italian cocktail arrives annually, when beverage-centric Imbibe magazine and Italian apéritif company Campari team up for a worldwide week of negroni specials that all raise money for various charities. Bars around the world pick from a list of approved organizations, then get to deciding whether they’ll be serving up the classic Campari-vermouth-gin recipe, or something simply inspired by it.
More than 75 L.A.-area bars and restaurants are participating in the mixology mayhem this year, which runs June 4–10, and some are offering multiple variations on the drink—which means you’ve got some sipping to do. To help you plan your attack, we’ve created a guide to some of our favorite specials to be found this week, including but not limited to negroni ice cream sandwiches. (Just let that sink in for a minute.)
Craft LA
Tom Colicchio’s L.A. outpost is fittingly going Californian for Negroni Week, offering the special Craft California White Negroni made with “West Coast flair.” Sip on Del Maguey’s VIDA mezcal, French apéritif Bonal Gentiane Quina and Cocchi Americano, all garnished with a grapefruit twist. Can it get sweeter? Sure can. This special helps benefit God’s Love We Deliver, a New York non-sectarian group that delivers meals to those who are too sick or otherwise unable to cook for themselves.
Copa d’Oro
This moody cocktail lounge is unleashing the Velvet Negroni unto the world, where mixed gin and sweet vermouth arrive in a coupe topped with a floating layer of velvety Campari foam—leave it to the Italian “Godfather of Cocktails,” Vincenzo Marianella, to really kick the classic up a notch. This one aids the Surfrider Foundation, which helps protect the world’s oceans.
Ever Bar
The Kimpton’s Ever Bar is already one of our favorite Hollywood hideaways, but it might just move to the top of our list when the team unleashes nine—nine!—takes on the negroni, all named for songs popular in 1919, the alleged birth year of this timeless cocktail. Want to try them all? We recommend stopping by between 6 and 7pm for “Negroni Hour” all week long, when you can find each for $9 and sip to a soundtrack of their jazzy namesakes. Ever Bar’s specials help benefit No Kid Hungry, which helps fight child hunger across America, so there’s no reason to not stop by.
Little Dom’s
If the week’s sipping makes you hungry, Little Dom’s and the ice cream geniuses at San Francisco’s Humphry Slocombe teamed up for a collab we’re really thirsting for: Negroni. Ice Cream. Sandwiches. Find Humphry Slocombe’s creamy, small-batch Campari ice cream snug between two Little Dom’s-made almond sugar cookies with hints of juniper and coriander, a nod to gin. But Little Dom’s pastry chef, Ann Kirk, didn’t stop there: She slides in a layer of Campari-soaked juniper sponge cake, too, because why not? Nab this treat for only $6 at the deli counter during the day, or alongside a negroni flight for $19 at the bar in the evening, all helping benefit the Surfrider Foundation.
Photograph: Courtesy Little Dom’s
Michael’s
The Westside staple has always been farmers-market fresh—with a prime location near the Santa Monica Farmers Market—and during Negroni Week, they’re turning crops into cocktails. Bar manager Meredith Hayman is putting her spin on the classic with a market-berry-infused negroni, which also features Plymouth Gin, Campari and Carpano Antica vermouth, with proceeds from each drink benefiting No Kid Hungry.
NoMad
The NoMad’s two Negroni Week drinks aren’t one-week-only items, but they are two of the finest spins in the game. The weather is set to be sunny, some days dipping into the 80s, so start at the top and work your way down. At the rooftop bar, opt for the Mynah Bird, a negroni that veers into tiki territory thanks to its base of El Dorado 12-year rum, and then in the lobby’s Giannini Bar, find a mezcal negroni riff—here called the Macaw—made with Sombra Mezcal, Campari, sweet vermouth, rum, mole bitters and crème de cacao. Both benefit Inspire Artistic Minds, which provides opportunities and scholarships within arts, food and beverage industries.
Ocean Prime
This sleek Beverly Hills spot is bringing back the OP Negroni, a classic-leaning take that includes Botanist Gin, Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth and Campari—and donating $1 from each to Inspire Artistic Minds. Pro tip: The dining room here features a giant painting of Unofficial Patron Saint of Italy Sophia Loren, and if that’s not a photo opp for your Negroni Week, we don’t know what is.
Seven Grand
Seven Grand is a whiskey bar, after all, so it should come as no shock that this team's participating with more of a boulevardier, a whiskey-based sibling to the negroni. Look for the Ambitionz as a RYE-dah special, made with Wild Turkey 101 Rye, Strawberry Campari and Dolin Blanc Vermouth, with $2 of each cocktail donated to the Helen David Relief Fund, an organization that helps women working who are battling cancer while working in the food and beverage industry.
The Stalking Horse Brewery & Freehouse
Lovers of puns and untraditional negronis, rejoice: The Stalking Horse has the drink for you. Stop by for their special, Cassis & Desist, replete with the refreshing, small-batch and Hemmingway-inspired Bimini Gin, plus Campari—and then things take a turn. You’ll find no vermouth here, but instead, Lejay-Lagoute’s crème de cassis, a traditional sweet blackcurrant liqueur. Team Stalking Horse’s cocktail benefits Little Free Library, the global nonprofit responsible for many of those darling “take a book, leave a book” mini libraries resembling bird houses.
Woodley Proper
Always up for a challenge, Phillip Frankland Lee and co. are offering not one but six concoctions for the week; show those overachievers your gratitude by sampling your way through all of them. Start with their classic—made with Citadelle Gin, Campari and La Quintinye Rouge vermouth—then make your way to the White Negroni (which swaps French apéritif Suze for Campari, and La Quintinye’s rouge for its bianco), and the tiki-leaning Island Storm, made with Doctor Bird Jamaica Rum, Campari, La Quintinye Rouge and Peychaud’s bitters. Whew, and now you’re only halfway through. Grab some friends and order at least one of all six—there’s even a fizz-inspired option—because a portion of proceeds benefit the Surfrider Foundation.
Negroni Week 2018 runs June 4–10; find a full list of participating venues here.