Warm summer nights call for refreshing summer cocktails. Want to whip up some of your own but not sure where to start? Fortunately, Café and Bar Lurcat and Parma 8200 have each shared their most coveted summer cocktail recipe so you can enjoy a bar quality cocktail in the comfort of your own home.
Lurcat, the hip downtown eatery and my personal favorite spot in the city for some seriously delicious cauliflower and sea bass, presents us with their spin on the Old Fashioned. Their version is an ideal warm-weather drink thanks to the citrus element brought out by the orange bitters.
Lurcat’s Old Fashioned
2 ounces bourbon
1 Luxardo Maraschino cherry
¼ ounce simple syrup
2 dashes Fee Brothers orange bitters
1 dash Angostura bitters
Orange swath garnish
In a mixing glass with a heavy bottom, muddle Maraschino cherry with simple syrup, store bought or homemade, with equal parts white sugar and water. Add bourbon, orange and Angostra bitters. Stir 30 times, double strain into a rocks glass with ice. Garnish with an orange swath.
Parma 8200, a stylish Italian bistro in Bloomington offering hearty meals and live music on the weekends, shares their recipe for a cucumber-infused Limoncello cocktail. Because what could possibly more refreshing on a sticky summer evening than cucumber?
Parma 8200’s Cucumber-Cello
1 ounce vodka
½ ounce Limoncello
2 ounces lemonade
Cucumber slices
Pour vodka and limoncello into a heavy bottomed class. Add a few cucumber slices, thinly sliced with the skin removed, and muddle them with the vodka and Limoncello to release the juices. Strain using a fine mesh strainer to remove any pump and seeds, then pour over ice. Top with lemonade and garnish with a cucumber slice.
If you’d rather skip the work and have these drinks poured for you (no shame in that), head out to either D’Amico & Partners restaurant and enjoy these locally sourced fresh drinks while chowing down on some good eats.
