Recipe: Ken McCulloch’s favourite – the Dakota Negroni 

George Darrosa, bar manager at Dakota Newcastle, is behind the Dakota Negroni, a take on the classic cocktail created to honour the memory of one of the group’s founders, Ken McCulloch, who died in 2024. 

The negroni – McCulloch’s favourite tipple – is a simple cocktail of three ingredients said to have originated in Florence in 1919, when Count Camillo Negroni replaced the soda water from his beloved Americano cocktail with gin to add strength.

Small-batch gin Tanqueray 10 is the star of the show, with its bright citrus flavours of fresh grapefruit and orange and notes of juniper, coriander and angelica root. This is balanced by Antica Formula sweet vermouth and enhanced by the complex herbal and bittersweet tang of classic Italian bitter apéritif Campari.

Ingredients

• 25ml Tanqueray 10
• 25ml Campari
• 25ml Antica Formula vermouth

Method

Pour all ingredients into a mixing glass and stir for 30 rotations.

Pour into a crystal lowball glass. Express orange zest over the rim to finish.