Naked and Famous

Mezcal, Aperol, yellow Chartreuse, and lime in equal parts — Simó's 2011 Death & Co creation, IBA-recognized, four contrasting components in equilibrium.

Naked and Famous was created by Joaquín Simó at Death & Co. on East 6th Street in New York City's East Village in 2011, applying the Last Word's equal-parts structural philosophy to mezcal in a formula that became one of the most recognized contemporary cocktails in the world. The Death & Co. bar, which opened in January 2007 and won the James Beard Foundation Outstanding Bar Program award in 2012, was the most creative and commercially influential cocktail bar of the craft cocktail movement's mature phase. Simó — who subsequently opened Pouring Ribbons on Avenue B in Manhattan in 2012 — built Naked and Famous from four equal-parts components: mezcal, Aperol, yellow Chartreuse, and fresh lime juice. Each ingredient contributes a different flavor register: mezcal's smoke and agave earthiness, Aperol's sweet-bitter orange, yellow Chartreuse's honeyed 40-botanical herbal warmth, and lime's citric brightness. The combination produces perfect balance through structural opposition rather than agreement — no two elements are similar in character, yet all four find equilibrium in identical proportions. The IBA recognized Naked and Famous in its New Era Drinks category, one of the fastest additions to the official list for a contemporary creation, acknowledging Simó's cocktail as a modern standard.