St. Cupid's Arrow

Given that right now I'm wrapping up work on my Valentine's menu (and given that the holiday is just around the corner), I'm sticking with cocktails I've been working on for that.  One of the things I love to do is introduce people to liquors they think they don't like through drinks that I'm pretty certain they'll like.  The Lady Godiva's Stand from my last entry is one great example of that (it features Cognac, and people seem to be scared of Cognac, for some reason), and this is another (tequila is another that too many people seem to shy away from).

St. Cupid's Arrow
Glass:  Champagne flute
Method: Shake and Strain
Garnish: No garnish, though if you have elderflowers that aren't riddled with pesticides or other chemicals, one floating would be lovely, as they are edible.

.75 oz Sauza Hornitos Plata tequila
.5 oz St. Germain elderflower liqueur
 Dash of simple syrup


Shake the above ingredients with ice, and strain into a champagne flute.  Fill with a dry prosecco.

On naming:  This is a drink where the name came before the cocktail.  I rarely attempt this because I'm generally terrible at pairing what would taste like the name sounds.  This started as "Cupid's Arrow" for a suitably Valentine's-y drink, and I added the "St." when I decided to use the St. Germain.

On my Valentine's menu in general:   You'll probably notice that my Valentine's cocktails are actually fairly simple to execute.  Valentine's weekend is notoriously busy in the restaurant industry, and I wanted to make it as painless as possible for my bartenders.  While our normal drink menu (which will also be available that weekend as usual) contains a lot of fresh-squeezed juices and other things that take some time and patience to execute, I wanted to give them a bit of a break on one of the busiest weekends of the industry.  I love craft cocktails, and cocktails that take love and time and effort, but learning to balance that with a restaurant space that used to be corporate and so seats over 200 once the patios are open this summer (yet only has a 12-seat bar) has definitely been a learning curve.