Mike's Mix: Ruby Martini

Every Friday, Mike Augustyniak picks up a new cocktail recipe from a local mixologist. Throughout April, Mike's picking up some elegant recipes from the Loring neighborhood's esteemed Café & Bar Lurcat. This week's selection is a uses a citrus fruit that's generally underused in cocktails.

Ingredients
1 1/2 oz. Absolut Ruby Red vodka
1/2 oz. Orangecello
1 oz. grapefruit juice (freshly squeezed)

Directions
Rim martini glass with sugar; pour all ingredients into shaker and shake! Strain into martini glass and garnish with an orange.

Taste Test
Citrus-forward cocktails (a class of cocktail known, collectively, as a "daisy") starring lemon, lime, or orange can be found on every bar menu. If you're a fan of grapefruit — like I am — your menu options are much more limited. That changes right now. According to bartender Aaron Spading of Café Lurcat in Minneapolis, this is also a "wife-gettin' drink." It's the first cocktail he ever bought for his future wife. Your mileage may vary but, as grapefruit drinks go, this one is easy and enjoyable to make. The tartness of the grapefruit can vary from season to season, and fruit to fruit, and the sugar rim helps balance that out. But you can always skip the sugar.

About Café & Bar Lurcat
Café & Bar Lurcat has been called one of the best summer patios in the cities as well as the best wine bar by City Pages. It also earned wine honors from Food and Wine as well as Wine Enthusiast.

To find more recipes from Mike's Mix, click here.