I found the maraschino to be quite dominant at the listed proportions and ended up adding more of everything else to balance it out. The salt is a nice touch although 1 pinch was enough for me. 

I can't find any information about this cocktail or the Smokey Bravo at the link (which may well have been updated) or anywhere else on the web. Am I missing something?

Using the Wayback Machine to see the recipe when this was posted, it appears that Smokey Bravo is similar, with mezcal instead of gin 3/4 oz lime, only 1 pn of salt, and is garnished with a lime wheel. It is credited to Andy McClellan of Seattle.

What style of amaro do you feel works best here? Fruity, honeyed, herbal? Thanks,  Zachary

I used Averna (for some reason the site thinks of that as an ingredient instead of a brand), but I would think any amaro with a similar balance of bitter and sweet would be good, including Cynar, Nonino, etc.

So I had to do some cleanup here - The was a drink published a few years ago by user Squonk1977 called the "Queen Alexandra" which was this drink but Plymouth gin and 2 dashes of Regans' orange bitters. It was pointed out that this drink appeared in a Hendrick's cocktail book that was published before 2011 as the "Unusual Negroni"... so the Queen Alexandra was merged into the "Cheeky Negroni" which was renamed "Unusual Negroni" which hopefully isn't too confusing for people.  Thanks,  Zachary

Also good with Genever in place of the gin.

The recipe and attribution for this aren't quite correct.  The original calls for Banks 5 Island, so a light rum, not dark.  And Chasity came up with this while working at the Atwood Restaurant in the Hotel Burnham in Chicago, not NYC.

It would be helpful to include a recipe for the five spice syrup in the Notes section. 

Craig, noted and added.