How To Make a Negroni (Correctly)

Hi! It’s me! You might know me as a co-host of The Big Picture podcast, or Jam Session, or as a long-suffering 41-year-old on Youtube Netflix. My friend and Big Pic co-host Sean Fennessey suggested this title, Hobbies, as a nod to a bit from the show in which I encourage people to log off, go outside, read a book, get a hobby, and report back. So here I am, reporting back with what I am buying, reading, drinking and doing outside or at least not on a podcast. Don’t worry, I still hate writing too much to do this regularly!

Let us begin with the essentials: Negronis. I get asked about my preferred recipe often and am happy to share in great detail — welcome to Hobbies, where I share useless opinions in great detail — but first, a cri de coeur directed primarily at the east side Los Angeles restaurant and aperitivo community1: please stop making your own red bitters. Please stop importing artisan bitters you found at the Amaro Convention. (Please do not try to lecture me on the differences between bitters and Amaros.) Please, and most important, stop using Cappelletti. This is not (yet) a sponsored post, but it is the Campari that makes a Negroni. If you are using something else, congratulations, you have a delicious drink that is not a Negroni. Also, and confidential to the Hillstone Restaurant Group, please don’t put vodka in your Negroni??? To the recipe:

Amanda’s Perfect Negroni
1 part Campari and Campari only
1 part gin — I like Tanqueray at home, just make sure your gin is not too floral
7/8 part (just the teeniest, tiniest bit less) sweet/red Vermouth — we use Carpano Antica. Keep it in the fridge!
Orange twist
1 extra large ice cube — this is not traditional, but I prefer it. If you are looking for a gift (for me), get a custom ice stamp like they have at Le Veau D’Or, where they also use Campari.

Serve with potato chips in a fancy bowl.

p.s. It can be batched for parties.

Been thinking a lot about Office Romance in terms of “romcom jobs,” or, more academically, the portrayal of white collar professional women in popular cinema over my lifetime. The Holy Trinity of 80s Yuppies — Baby Boom, Broadcast News, and Working Girl — are centered in news and finance (at least until Diane Keaton becomes the original TradWife CEO, but to/with Sam Shepard so it’s okay.) Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction: also a book editor! The Nora Ephron 90s are firmly in the editorial space (newspapers, books, write what you know) which leads us into the false advertising of the Magazine 2000s (How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, 13 Going on 30, The Devil Wears Prada, 27 Dresses even though he’s the journalist. Doesn’t Sandra Bullock run a publishing house in The Proposal? I love books so much and: haha.) By 2015 Nancy Meyers has Anne Hathaway girl-bossing her way through a Net-A-Porter-like startup, but sacrificing at home by a) marrying that guy and b) letting him cheat. Does Sydney Sweeney even have a job in Anyone But You? Anne Hathaway (again) loses hers in the first five minutes of DWP2 and then has to choose between the symbolic ghost of Miranda Priestly and a contractor who reads about the Federal Reserve. (And, I guess, Laurene Powell Jobs.) You can’t have it all, unless you are having it all in between board meetings at a hand-me-down airline with late-stage Capitalism’s seal of approval. I am available to program this festival.

My husband — Zach Baron, author of Last of My Kind, out Spring 2027!!!!!!! — got shoulder surgery last week. I have supported him by texting Carine Roitfeld sling inspo (no response) and having a lovely lunch at Tartine Santa Monica while he was under the knife. Santa Monica: a different country! My scene report: Red scrubs, tiny European sneakers (mostly Nikes), boomers in tie dye t-shirts, teens in matching Rainbows, sweater vest and white flats, a pink polo button down with a bob and an eagle forearm tattoo, UCLA Campus Human Resources nylon briefcase from a man who wouldn’t stop talking to other people, “I was on a yacht with Tom Hanks in the South of France.”

We did an unhinged (speaking for myself only) twenty minutes about The Real Real on Jam Session this week. Instagram won’t let me post Reels — I guess they know how old I am, fair enough — and is also fairly bot-army lately so I am posting my saved searches here. This is akin to sharing my diary with you so please remember that intimacy takes many forms.

Amanda’s The Real Real Saved Searches, June 2026
Cocktail, Sleeveless (filters applied to the Dress Category)
Bode women
Evening Jacket
Prada, Shoes
Phoebe Philo
Khaite
Mules for Women
Le Monde Beryl Shoes
Editor’s Picks
Clip-On (filter applied to Earrings Category)
Prada, Sweaters
Marni Women
Silk blouse
Suede jacket (I should delete this)
Polo Ralph Lauren (so you get Ralph Lauren AND polo)
Rachel Comey Shoes

Note that we are applying the correct My Size filters (cast a wide range) and then checking twice daily for the latest drops. And expect mixed results: so far my June TRR order is 2/4, though of course the most expensive thing (a Dolce & Gabbana dress? Who am I or more to the point, who CAN I be?!) is a keeper. Mere hours after we recorded, the Le Monde Beryl wedges mentioned appeared in my size, but they are only Good condition and Juliet set very clear boundaries about re-orders. I’m instead posting all TRR items I can’t buy this month here. (The Isla products too!)

Finally, I would like to brag about the galleys I have received. Thank you to Cardinal Books for sending a copy of Min Jin Lee’s American Hagwon, out September 29, and to Doubleday for my beloved Kate Atkinson’s upcoming Our Noble Selves, out September 15. These books are going directly into my summer vacation pile, along with Anna Pitoniak’s The Swiss Agent, a sequel to her delightful (in a moody, international intrigue sort of way) novel The Helsinki Affair. (Just learned while hyperlinking that Anna has a third book, Our American Friend, which I am ordering immediately.) I read The Helsinki Affair because Anna cold-emailed me, knowing I like spy novels, and asked if I would be interested. I try to live Beyond Email these days but Anna makes a great case for occasionally hitting send. If you have a spy novel coming out soon, please email me!