The Angelo Azzurro was created in 1980 by bartender Giovanni “Mammina” Pepè for the opening of one Rome’s most popular LGBTQ + clubs, L’Angelo Azzurro in Trastevere with the cocktail mimicking the color of the walls in the club. The cocktail made with gin, triple sec and blue Curaçao is basically a modernized version of the Blue Logoon from the fifties and sixties. The Angelo Azzurro was made a big hit in bars all over the world when Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) ordered it in Miami Vice. It is hard to believe that Giovanni “Mammina” Pepè could ever imagine how big of a success the Angelo Azzurro would become.
The glass called Memphis was designed by Richard Holloway in 1982.