As GB News have started trending again — them, have a queasy take on an alleged sex offender? Who’da thunk? — yesterday I was scrabbling to recall if they’d ever done a single decent thing. They have. It was in July, when greying, anthropomorphised Lego man Mark Dolan spat at the “Negroni-swilling, establishment media elite”. And I thought: Great! Negronis are cool again!
The Negroni had long been fading. The problem is not the drink, it’s the bars: there has been too much f*****y. Negronis are not infinitely adjustable, or especially personal. They are not a martini. The original, masterful instructions of equal parts gin, sweet vermouth and Campari should be left well alone, just as the Mona Lisa doesn’t need a moustache (though I could get behind — behave — Michelangelo’s David with a Prince Albert).
