On the first page of the drinks menu at Ama, an Italian restaurant and bar in Washington, DC, guests come across a “Negroni tree,” which is the centerpiece of the restaurant’s cocktail program. The tree’s roots are the Campari Seltz (also known as Campari Soda) and the Milan-Turinthe first drink to combine Campari and Italian vermouth. If you go a little further up the tree, you will find a combination of these two “roots” in the American.
The Americano is often thought of as a lengthened Milano-Torino, but this assumption ignores its history as a drink in its own right. It originally arose from the tradition of combining sweet vermouth with bitter liqueurs—a variation of the American cocktail (now better known as the Old-Fashioned), with vermouth as the base—and then lengthening the drink with soda. In the early 20th century, Americano recipes were combined with two parts sweet vermouth and one part bitter liqueur, often Fernet-Branca. Over the next 20 years, the recipe became equal parts sweet vermouth and Campari, making the resulting drink similar to a Mi-To topped up with soda.
At Ama, co-owner and beverage director Micah Wilder has built the bar’s actual infrastructure around the roots of the Negroni tree, including his ideal Milano-Torino on nitro and a Camparino-like “Pistola Seltz,“a device that dispenses perfectly carbonated, carbon-filtered water. When the powers of the two are combined, Wilder believes he can create the ideal Americano – the result of years of experimentation.
When he developed his recipe in 2011, Wilder started where any other bartender would have done at the time – with a basic recipe of Campari and sweet vermouth over ice, topped with club soda. As he became more familiar with the various red bitters and vermouths available in the U.S. (both categories have expanded over the years), he felt he was getting better at finding products that appealed to his palate – and that of his guests – while adding layers of botanical flavor. As a result, Wilder’s Americano does not contain Campari.
Aside from the Campari Seltz and the Vintage Negroni (a take on the 1980s classic made with Campari, dry gin and Barolo Chinato), the drinks on the menu’s Negroni Tree are made with other red bitters that Wilder says honor the apothecary nature of these once-patented medicines. For the Americano (and the Mi-To), he goes with a blend of two aperitivo liqueurs in equal parts: Caffo Red Bitter and Cappelletti Vino Aperitivo.
Caffo, made in Italy’s Friuli region, is one of the lesser-used red bitters in American bars. Wilder characterizes it as a bittersweet, shining example of its category, adding, “For the price, it’s pretty spectacular.”
Cappelletti’s wine-based aperitivo liqueur, a favorite of the American cocktail scene, is rounder and more subtle than the Caffo. “Cappelletti has a whole bouquet of nuances of spice, bitterness and almost little hints of vanilla or a mallow root finish,” he says.
For the vermouth, Wilder uses two varieties from the Alpine Bordiga distillery. The first, Mulassano Rosso, is rounder and smoother and, Wilder says, more accessible to the American palate. The second, Mulassano Vermouth di Torino, gives the drink a stronger base and offers the complexity of pronounced bitterness and wormwood notes.
Although red bitters and vermouths form the basis of Ama’s signature Americano, Wilder pays close attention to the fundamentals of the perfect version of the drink: He uses a chilled glass and high-quality ice and, of course, sparkling water from the bar’s Pistola Seltz. He had seen an improvised version of the device at Bar Pisellino in New York and subsequently marveled at the device at Camparino in Galleria in Milan. As he prepared to open Ama, he ordered two of them from the same company that makes the Camparino Pistola. It dispenses carbon-filtered water with an ideal fizz level of 80 PSI, which he calls the “magic number” for fizz.
This emphasis on seltz isn’t just an attempt to mimic the Camparino Americano – it’s also an important way to bring out the drink’s complex flavors, demonstrating Wilder’s careful selection of the red bitters and vermouth elements. “When you make a long drink, those compressed flavors are exposed and you can enjoy those nuances,” he says.
For the home bartender – or anyone who doesn’t have their own perfectly pressurized mineral water – Wilder recommends Italian Fiuggi mineral water, praised for its minerality and terroir from the Ernici Mountains; it can be ordered online. The Americano is often garnished with lemon slices or a lemon wedge, but Wilder prefers an orange slice, alluding to the Mi-To and Negroni’s association with orange rather than lemon.
As with all of Negroni’s other drinks, Wilder hopes his meticulous process and careful selection of ingredients that go into his Americano will please guests while introducing them deeper into aperitivo culture. “Hopefully it will not only open your palate,” he says, “but your awareness to the beauty and limitlessness of the bittersweet aperitivo.”
