“You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” This quote has zero relevance to this post, I just wanted to say it.

Mez is in, rum is out. With Don Ciccio e Figli’s Luna Aperitivo being discontinued (undistributed to the West Coast? No idea.) we’re going another route and answering the call. The Mezgroni is a thing now. It’s inescapable. People order it almost as often as regular Negronis now. Great, but my big problem with it is…It’s just not as good as the real McCoy. I’m one of the few that drinks a Negroni in a 1:1:1 ratio. To the punters who don’t know what I’m talking about, that means equal parts gin, sweet vermouth, and Campari. Huh? (sigh) One ounce of gin, one ounce of sweet vermouth, and one ounce of Campari. Yes, I know it’s cool to come up with your own thing where you put a quarter ounce more gin, a quarter ounce less sweet vermouth, an ounce and a half of gin, yada yada. Do it, no one is stopping you. I find it annoying.

By swapping mezcal for gin in the classic combination you create a weird imbalance. For whatever reason the duos are tasty (mez with Campari, mez with sweet vermouth) but work crappy as a trio. I’m not versed enough to tell you why. I just trust my own palate. Maybe it’s the smokey quality. Maybe I just like tradition.

We’ve been tinkering it up over at the Canyon. There’s a little something called the Culver City Handshake. That’s mez and pretty much any amaro in equal parts. There’s a little something called the mezcalleti. Same thing. Meletti and mez in equal parts. A weird variation of the Martinez if I really had to push. We’ve done a riff on it in the past. Something called The Brothers Martinez. Mez, Meletti, a touch of the old maraschino and some house tangerine bitters.

So why not just sprinkle in a bit of Salers and call it a day? That’s what we did. I still need to dick around with the ratios a tad…Maybe. Here’s the final specs for the moment:

El Negroni (2.0)

1 oz. Mezcal

1 oz. Meletti

1 oz. Salers

1 Dash RC Mole Bitters

Stir lightly. Serve on BFR with an expressed orange peel.

I don’t know. I miss the old El Negroni with rum…It was one of my first drinks on the menu in 2018 that didn’t suck. It was a collab between me and two of the other bartenders at the time. It’s historic and fucking delicious. Maybe I’ll bring it back. I’m usually not so goddam wishy washy about this stuff.