Negroni Week – What’s It Mean For Venue Owners?
Jul 10, 2024
We may only be in July, but there are already rumblings about this year's Negroni Week. But what is it? And what does it mean for you and your bar in New Zealand?
Negroni Week saw its inaugural week in 2013. Following on from the groundwork laid out by Douglas Derrick and his “Negroni of the Month” promo in 2010, a group of bartenders in the US decided they could use their position in the community to make a positive difference. Backed by the famous Imbibe Magazine, the month-long celebration of the loved cocktail is now entering its twelfth year.
What started as a small charitable endeavour within about 120 bars in the US has grown significantly over the last 12 years. With the support of Campari, Imbibe has seen Negroni Week grow to thousands of venues spread across the globe together raising over $5 million for charitable causes.
For the third year, Negroni Week has partnered with the charity Slow Food. Slow Food, Imbibe, and Campari joined forces to multiply their collective impact, outreach, and perspective through the power of food, beverages, and hospitality. Slow Food has been chosen as the official Negroni Week giving partner because the organisation addresses so many of the needs participating Negroni Week venues have been most interested in supporting over the past 10 years. This includes sustainability, education, equity, and diversity, with hospitality, food, and drink woven throughout.
Slow Food also has a global footprint, with chapters and initiatives in countries and cities all over the world, and most fittingly, it is an organisation with roots in Italy, the birthplace of the Negroni. Slow Food represents the ethos of Negroni Week to cultivate community, foster equity and justice, and seek a better world for all through food and beverage.
The organisation defends cultural and biological diversity, promotes food education and the transfer of traditional knowledge and skills, and advocates for more just and equitable food policies. Among Slow Food’s many programs are the Slow Food Cooks’ Alliance, Coffee Coalition, Wine Coalition, and Snail of Approval—active networks that are passionate about creating food and beverage spaces that are good, clean, and fair for all.
In 2023, Slow Food also launched the Negroni Week Fund to support projects that advance cultural and biological diversity and that focus on community-based food and beverage education and knowledge exchange.
Every Bar or Restaurant that signs up for Negroni Week gets their venue listed on the global website, along with thousands of others around the world – a fantastic way to drive tourism and awareness into your venue. There is also an option for select venues to receive an activation kit to better help them promote the incentive.
Given the money Negroni Week has raised for charitable causes, the amazing work Slow Food does, including right here in Aotearoa, and the fact that for the third year running the Negroni was voted the world's best-selling cocktail*, it seems if you’re not part of Negroni Week this year you’re missing out.
To find out more about Negroni Week or Slow Food visit the websites below. To learn how to be a part of Negroni Week this year, contact your local Thirsty Camel Territory Manager, or email customerservice@thirstycamel.co.nz
https://www.negroniweek.com/
Slow Food - Good, Clean and Fair Food for All
*Drinks International Best-selling Drinks Report 2024