86 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • MAY 2021
MAIN DISH
THE LEMONGRASS NEGRONI
FAMILIAR AND FOREIGN
BY CJ ARLOTTA
A fresh take on a classic cocktail is a
lot harder than it looks. When you’re
trying to connect the present with the
past, a lot can go awry.
Bakuto, a Japanese Izakaya restaurant
in Lindenhurst, decided to make
this process even more challenging
by attempting to also bridge the gap
between familiar and foreign. The
finished product? The lemongrass
Negroni.
“As a Japanese Izakaya, I wanted
the cocktail menus to use products
that would pair well with the food,”
says Patrick Capellini, bar manager
at Bakuto. “The dishes have a lot of
depth to them with rich umami flavor.
Bitter and bright just happens to be
the perfect pairing. Also, with every
menu, I do try my best to have one
element of each drink be Japanese,
whether it’s a spirit, a fruit, a syrup,
etc. Here, by using Shochu, it checks
all the marks.”
His inspiration for the lemongrass
Negroni was — not really a surprise —
the Negroni, a popular Italian cocktail
composed of three readily available
ingredients: gin, sweet vermouth, and
Campari.
“It’s a classic cocktail that has been my
favorite drink for as long as I can remember,”
he says. “I wanted to do a riff
on the Negroni using Japan’s national
spirit, which is Shochu. I thought if I
could make a classic using a foreign
spirit I could bridge the gap between
familiar and foreign.”
Doing a fresh take on a classic, especially
one that’s perfectly balanced, is
always tricky. To keep things simple,
he broke down the Negroni into the following
framework: the spirit, the bitter
element, and the sweetness component.
By doing this, he was able to easily
swap in and out what he wanted.
“The final cocktail comes to life with
Mizu, a Japanese Shochu distilled spirit
made from lemongrass,” Capellini says.
“Next, we needed our bitter element.
I found Luxardo Bitter Bianco had
exactly the flavor I was looking for,
but it also packs a punch, so to balance
it I added two elements of sweetness.
Finally, for the sweetness, this cocktail
gets both crème de poire (pear liqueur)
and Dolin blanc, which is a clear sweet
vermouth.”
When customers ask about what the
lemongrass Negroni tastes like, he
replies with, “bright and citrusy, with
a touch of booze and bitter on the back
end.”
“The feedback has been phenomenal,”
he says. “I have definitely gained some
diehard fans with this one. Our cocktail
menu has changed a few times, but
this has become a staple and isn’t going
anywhere.”
Bakuto is located at 121 N. Wellwood
Ave. in Lindenhurst. It can be reached
at 631-225-1760 or bakutobar.com
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