There’s a new flavor on the cocktail menu at Andre’s Restaurant & Lounge at Monte Carlo. It’s a bittersweet creation, a strawberry-and-rhubarb libation tinged with tequila that beverage director Patrick Trundle introduced just a few weeks ago. “We’ve started developing our bar program more so it matches our menu. We try to use a lot of hard-to-find ingredients, organic and fresh items.”
The Summer Fresca ($15) was inspired by Andre’s Bec Fin menu, a five-course dinner that the restaurant will host later this summer. “We first built the menu around rhubarb and then the follow-up to that was making the beverages match it,” Trundle explains. “Rhubarb is tricky, it’s very bitter. You have to use something that sweetens it, but too much and it starts to taste like cough syrup. It can go wacky pretty quickly.”
Summer Fresca
Ingredients:
1½ oz. Don Julio Blanco Tequila
1 oz. rhubarb simple syrup
½ oz. rhubarb juice
1 strawberry, muddled
juice from half a lime
4 dashes rhubarb bitters
sugar (for rim)
lime (for garnish)
Method: To make the rhubarb simple syrup, thinly slice a rhubarb stalk and place it in pan with 32 oz. water and 32 oz. sugar. Cook over medium heat, until sugar is dissolved and liquid takes on pink coloring. Strain.
To make the cocktail: In a large shaker, muddle strawberry with tequila. Add the rest of the liquid ingredients and ice. Shake vigorously for 30 seconds. Strain over fresh ice in a sugar-rimmed glass. Garnish and serve.
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