NYC’s iconic West Village Italian spot serves up more than Instagrammable lasagna and chicken scarpariello. The bar menu boasts an exhaustive amaro lineup, wines from Italy and beyond, and creative cocktails like its Italian-style Toddy, made with two types of aperitivos, blood orange and lemon juices, and Angostura bitters.
Ingredients
1 ounce Contratto Aperitif
¾ ounce Cappelletti Aperitivo
½ ounce blood orange juice
½ ounce lemon juice
½ ounce simple syrup
1 dash Angostura bitters
4 ounces boiling water
Garnish: cinnamon stick and blood orange slice
Directions
Combine and stir all ingredients.
Serve in a mug with a cinnamon stick and blood orange garnish.
Pineapple Jungle Bird Recipe:
I only recently started experimenting with the Jungle Bird cocktail and it is so delicious and there are so many possibilities.
The Hot Buttered Amaro Recipe:
In this spin on hot buttered rum, Pittsburgh bartender Nicole Battle swaps in Italian amaro to create a rich, indulgent winter warmer.
Boulevardi’eigh:
The Boulevardi’eigh is a coffee-laced, Guinness-spiked take on the Paris-born Boulevardier. Check out the recipe here!
Le Toucan Recipe:
A playful spin on the Jungle Bird cocktail, this colorful drink replaces rum and Campari with Armagnac and Suze, an herbaceous French aperitif.
The Honeysuckle Negroni Recipe:
For this cocktail recipe, Natalie Migliarini riffs on a classic Negroni by incorporating dry vermouth and homemade honeysuckle simple syrup with Campari and gin. Learn how to make it here!
The Amaro di Cocco Recipe:
This mashup of two very different cocktails from Boston's Shore Leave proves that tiki doesn’t have to be synonymous with overly sweet.