[little camillo]

1 1/4 oz Pimm's #1
1 oz La Garracha Fino Sherry
3/4 oz Campari

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass with fresh ice. Garnish with a grapefruit twist, add a pinch of salt over the ice, and add straws.

After West Bridge, I headed across the 1 Kendall Square complex to Belly where Ryan Connelly was tending bar. Ryan mentioned that the cocktail part of the menu had not change much since the last time I was there, but he had a bunch of new ideas that he wanted to showcase. The one that sounded the best was a sherry-fied Negroni variation that utilized Pimm's. The inspiration for Pimm's was how well it matched Campari given its bitter orange notes; moreover, Pimm's #1 is a gin-based liqueur that would symbolize the regular gin in the Negroni. I dubbed the drink the Little Camillo (although I was thinking the Little Count) after Count Camillo Negroni with a nod to the Little Giuseppe given the salt over the ice aspect.
The grapefruit twist provided much of the drink's aroma. A fruit sip shared much of the sherry's white grape notes. The Pimm's berry flavors bled into the swallow where it balanced the Campari rather well. Indeed, as the salt slowly worked its way into the drink, Campari's bitterness level dropped.