Negroni Week returns to Old City this year, with Sassafras and its upstairs sister bar 48 Record Bar each putting their own spin on the classic three-ingredient cocktail from Monday, September 21 through Sunday, September 27. Every pour sold at both bars this week comes with a $1 donation to Slow Food, turning a week of drinking well into something that actually funds a broader mission.
Three separate builds across two bars means regulars have a real reason to try something new rather than default to whatever they usually order.
Negroni Week’s Global Reach Started Small
Imbibe Magazine and Campari launched Negroni Week in 2013 with a small group of participating bars, and the initiative has since raised more than $5 million for charitable organizations worldwide. That growth from a handful of bars to a genuinely global fundraiser happened almost entirely through word of mouth and bartenders who wanted an excuse to get creative with a drink most people already know by heart.
This year’s proceeds specifically support Slow Food’s push toward a more sustainable food and beverage industry, funded a dollar at a time by every Negroni sold at participating bars nationwide.
48 Record Bar’s Industry Negroni Returns
48 Record Bar, the hi-fi listening room tucked above Sassafras, is bringing back its Industry Negroni ($17), a cocktail that’s earned a following well beyond Old City. The build leans herbal and bitter: Green Chartreuse, Fernet Branca, Campari, and orange bitters, finished with a flamed orange twist. It’s built for regulars who already know their way around an amaro list, and for anyone curious enough to find out what that crowd actually drinks.
Sassafras Pours Two Distinct Takes
Downstairs, Sassafras is offering two separate Negronis rather than a single house variation. The Green Drop ($17) builds on the classic structure with Botanist Gin, cacao-nib-infused Campari, Cocchi Vermouth di Torino, and Élixir Végétal de la Grande-Chartreuse, served up so the aromatics open with the warmth of the glass in hand.
The Red Ember ($17) takes the smokier route, built on Catedral Espadín Mezcal, Campari, Antica sweet vermouth, and Ancho Reyes Verde. Between the two, Sassafras is covering both ends of the Negroni’s range in a single week, herbal and floral on one side, warm and smoke-forward on the other.
Imbibe and Campari’s Negroni Week initiative is now well into its second decade of turning a single cocktail into a genuinely global fundraiser, with participating bars stretching from Old City to well beyond the tri-state area.
A $1 donation attached to a $17 cocktail doesn’t sound like much on its own. Multiplied across a week, two bars, and three distinct builds of the same three-ingredient drink, it adds up to the kind of fundraiser that works precisely because nobody has to change their order to take part.
Images: Katherine Burns
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