Financial District & Jackson Square 94104 / 94111
The Negroni's downtown heartland: a fifty-deep programme at Bar Sprezzatura, an 1867 classic at Sam's Grill, and the last Barbary Coast saloon where Columbus meets the old waterfront.
An edited guide for the curious thirst
San Francisco, in three measures — gin, vermouth, Campari.
Nine addresses — from a Financial District Negroni laboratory to a North Beach landmark of 1919, and out past the bridges to Burlingame and Sausalito — where the bittersweet ritual is served with the reverence it deserves.
San Francisco, a city of thirst
Fog, Campari, and a hundred years of practice.
San Francisco has been making serious drinks since before the Negroni existed. In the 1860s, Jerry Thomas — "the Professor," father of the American cocktail — tended bar in this city, and the lawless saloons of the Barbary Coast turned mixing drinks into a trade. When the Negroni reached Florence in 1919, San Francisco already had the bar craft waiting for it.
And it had the Italians. North Beach became the city's Little Italy, and with the immigrants came the aperitivo — the bittersweet hour before dinner, Campari and vermouth and a twist of citrus. A century on, the fog still rolls in over Twin Peaks at six o'clock, and the city answers it with a red drink. Nine addresses follow. All verified. None by accident.
A geography of thirst
Where to drink, and why.
The Negroni clusters downtown — but the two finest reasons to leave it sit twenty minutes south and one bridge north.
North Beach 94133
The city's Little Italy, where the aperitivo first came ashore. Red booths, opera on the jukebox, and Tosca's neon burning since 1919.
Union Square & the Marina 94102 / 94123
Where the modern craft scene lives — PCH and its world-travelled Leeward, Valley Club's velvet hideaway, and Frankie's whole page of Negronis in the Marina.
Beyond the city 94010 / 94965
We bent the rule twice: south to Barrelhouse in Burlingame for the Maverick, and north across the Golden Gate to Poggio in Sausalito for a barrel-aged Negroni by the bay.
A map of the bay
A downtown core, two outriders.
Seven addresses sit within a short walk between the Financial District, North Beach and Union Square. The other two are a Caltrain ride south and a drive across the bridge north — both worth it.
Three readings of the same glass
The Negroni, the San Francisco way.
San Francisco did not invent the Negroni — but it gave the drink one of its most copied modern variations, and it bottles and barrels it like nowhere else. Three readings of the glass.
San Francisco's own
The Leeward Negroni
Created by Kevin Diedrich · Pacific Cocktail Haven, 550 Sutter St
- 30 ml High-proof gin
- 30 ml Campari washed with coconut oil (for a velvet texture)
- 30 ml Pandan cordial — in place of vermouth
- · stirred, no citrus; served up or over one large rock
Built by Kevin Diedrich for Negroni Week 2016, the Leeward keeps the drink spirit-forward and bitter but sends it across the Pacific: coconut-oil-washed Campari softens the edge and adds a luscious texture, pandan cordial stands in for the sweet vermouth. It has been copied onto cocktail menus around the world. The clearest answer to the question of what a San Francisco Negroni even is.
The Classic
Any address on this list, asked for politely.
- 30 ml London Dry gin
- 30 ml sweet (red) vermouth
- 30 ml Campari
- · stirred, big rock, orange peel
Equal parts. Always. The 1:1:1 ratio is the contract; Sam's and Comstock pour it with a straight face and a steady hand, exactly as a hundred years of bartenders intended.
The Barrel-Aged Negroni
Poggio Trattoria, Sausalito · and a Bay Area tradition
- · gin, Campari, sweet vermouth — built and rested in oak
- · weeks to months in cask
- · rounder, softer, the edges sanded off
The Bay Area took to barrel-ageing the Negroni early and hard — Presidio Social Club bottled one, Blackbird aged whole cocktails for years, and Poggio pours a cask-mellowed Boodles build by the Sausalito waterfront. Time in oak marries the three spirits and softens the bitterness into something rounder. Order it where you find it.
From the Barbary Coast to the bay
A brief, biased history.
1860s
Jerry Thomas, the father of American bartending, works in San Francisco — and the saloons of the Barbary Coast make a craft of mixing drinks. The city has its bar trade decades before the Negroni is born. Italian immigrants begin turning North Beach into Little Italy.
1919
Florence, Caffè Casoni. Count Camillo Negroni, back from cowboy adventures in the American West, asks barman Fosco Scarselli to stiffen his Americano — gin in place of soda. The drink takes the count's name. The same year, Tosca Cafe opens on Columbus Avenue.
Today
For years Campari's American headquarters sat in San Francisco. The city's craft renaissance turned out a generation of serious bars; in 2016 PCH's Leeward Negroni travelled the world. From a $50 vintage pour downtown to a barrel-aged one across the bridge, the bittersweet hour is in good hands here.