A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I started a blog. The blog still exists here: https://tonynegroni.wordpress.com/ But as you can tell from a quick click, I never did much with it.

August 2008 was a wild time. I had just finished a summer as an RA in my NYU dorm. I was lucky that my boss gave me the gig since, you know, they don’t allow people who aren’t enrolled as students to work in student jobs. Somehow I was an exception. All I needed was a reason to stay in the city that summer before medical school. Anything was better than working at a telemarketing call-center back home again.

That summer interned at DRAFTFCB in their healthcare division as a copywriter I assume that I was paid, but I honestly can’t remember. At least rent was free in exchange for patrolling the halls 1 week a month. I wonder where all the people that I met that summer are now: my co-interns, bosses, the strange guy that I shared an office with…

So at the end of college I thought I was so cool because I discovered this drink that I really loved called the Negroni. It fit the bill as far as something I could put my personal stamp on: it was high in alcohol and bitter, so it wasn’t broadly likeable – at least at that time with early aught’s palates (well-crafted cocktails were nearly impossible to find – Death and Co only opened a year earlier if I recall); it was Italian, it rhymed with my name, and I liked it. BOOM. The spec is equal parts of gin, campari, and sweet vermouth usually combined and stirred with ice, strained, and served up. I think it is a dramatically improved cocktail when served “on the rocks,” as it were. In 2023, I doubt anyone has ever accidentally received a negroni served up. I’m sure this is part of the recent popularity.

If you clicked the link, then you already realize that I did nothing with the blog or the name Tony Negroni. Both were, and are, mistakes that I think about every few months to this day. My plan was to just post descriptions of anywhere I drank a negroni as a way of 1) finding where they make them well (back then it was about a 30% chance that the bartender would even know the spec) and 2) reviewing the nuances of that locale’s version. I didn’t even consider posting photos because I didn’t have a dedicated camera (my flip-phone camera was atrocious).

The site would have been a great undertaking. Now, knowing how blogs and social media changed things, it might have been a hit and opened up opportunities. Alas, I knew not what I knew not. I was buried in a mountain of memorization that first year of medical school and the rest is history. I’ve even changed my infamous twitter handle the mundane, but professional @thetonyvullo. That link is all that remains.

Now, 15 years later, my tastes have changed. I more often prefer the more refreshing, drier, less alcoholic Americano. But when I want to go FULL SEND, reviving the emotion and memory of city summers in the early aughts, I still ask for a “negroni on the rocks.”

P.S.

I remember I went to d.b.a. bar on 1st Avenue during the summer of 2007 maybe. I was just onto the negroni obsession. I still had campari behind the ears, as they say. I made the mistake of ordering a negroni from the bartender at a whiskey and beer bar. I got the very common, “what’s that?” “how do you make that?” etc. I was more than happy back then to educate and espouse the various healing qualities of the cocktail. A few minutes later I received the saddest version that I had ever seen: I paid $9 for a double shot glass full of dark red liquid. It was awful. I returned to my group in the back patio area and eyed everyone relaxed and sipping their frosty brews. They could see the dejection on my face. “I thought you said that drink is so easy to make?” I took the whole thing down in one gulp, “yeah, it should be.”