This Monday is the official start of Negroni Week, the annual nationwide event started by Portland, Oregon’s Imbibe magazine in 2013, as a vehicle to not only celebrate the wonderful three-ingredient classic cocktail, but also to help support different charitable causes worth your dollars (and raising a glass to!).
This year, thousands of bars and venues (including several on the East End) are participating in the annual fundraiser, which this year benefits Slow Food, because if any industry knows a thing or two about waste and trying to find ways to cull it (we’re looking at you, plastic straws!), it’s the bar world.
Now, what does this have to do with a Boulevardier? It’s Negroni pretending to be a whiskey drink. We loved Lulu Bar & Kitchen’s fruity, tropical riff on the drink, which seems oh-so appropriate to this wonderful little moment of the season, when the vibes are still kinda summery and warm but that nighttime briskness is making you think, “Mmmmm… whiskey!”
We’re big fans of Michter’s, and highly recommend grabbing a bottle of that Kentucky-based distillery’s excellent rye (sold at Park Place Wines, Hamptons Wine Shoppe and Race Lane Wines, among other wonderful local sippy stores) for this drink. Or, get on the Slow Food train and go hyper local with Sapaponack Farm Distillery‘s delicious, delicious rye instead. Either way, you’ll be clinking to both good deeds and good drinks.
Lulu’s Tropical Boulevardier
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 oz rye whiskey
- 1/2 oz mango and strawberry-infused Campari
- 1/2 oz sweet vermouth
- 1/4 oz Giffard peach liqueur
- club soda
- 1 orange peel or strawberry
For the mango/strawberry-infused Campari
- 1 750ml bottle Campari
- 2 mangoes, peeled and roughly chopped
- 6 strawberries, hulled and cut in half
Directions
- In a double-rocks glass, add in the rye, Campari, vermouth and peach liqueur. Give it a little stir.
- Add ice and top with club soda.
- Garnish with the orange peel or fresh strawberry. Cin-cin!
For the mango/strawberry Campari
- In a large pitcher or sealable glass jar, drop in the chopped fruit.
- Pour in the Campari. Seal with plastic wrap or lid. Refrigerate for 24 hours.
- Strain the fruit from the liquid, and discard the fruit pieces. Funnel the liquid back into the Campari bottle. Store in a cool, dry place and use for up to two months.
