What to Drink With Nothing

The aperitivo is not a meal. This is important. It is the thing before the meal, or instead of the meal, or after work, or before the guests arrive — a category of eating and drinking that refuses to be pinned down and is better for it. In Italy, this looks like a small glass of something bitter and a handful of chips and an olive. In Spain, it is a glass of manzanilla and a single anchovy on a slice of bread. In both cases, the principle is the same: a little, not too much, and not too long. We have imported the form without the discipline. The aperitivo hour has become the aperitivo two hours, and the snacks have become a meal, and the bitterness has been sweetened into something approachable. I am not against this. But I miss the original promise: that you could drink something good, eat something small, and leave still hungry.