Drunken Bunny

1 oz.   Bacardi orange rum
1 oz.   Blue Curacao liqueur
1 oz.   Midori melon liqueur
1/2 oz.    whipped cream 

Mix the first three ingredients together in a cocktail glass. The color should turn bright turquoise. Top with whipped cream, and serve.

How coincidental that today’s shot recipe is named Drunken Bunny. Because that’s exactly what I was most of this weekend. A few friends and I took a little road trip out to St. Louis, MO just on a whim. We used to pass thru there frequently in our younger days heading to one good time or another. Unfortunately, not so much the past few years. But there are two stops that we make every time we go to St. Louis.

The first is a sweet Italian restaurant called Rigazzi’s in the section of town known as “the Hill”. It may be the oldest restaurant on the Hill. But I was first introduced to it in the late ’80s by my cousin. It’s been a popular place for the local NHL team, the Blues. When I first went there, they had pictures of Paul and Gino Cavallini on the wall—who were arch enemies of my beloved Blackhawks back then. Today they have more of the recent/current stars of the team. The bar is known for the great food and the fishbowl size beers they serve. That’s right—fishbowl sized beers.

On this trip, we had dinner and a few bowls of beer at Rigazzi’s and then went to our usual second stop. A friend of ours bartends at a little sports pub in town called Offsides. We always try and stop in to see him when we go to St. Louis whether we know he’s working or not. Turns out, he was.

And upon hearing we just had a nice dinner at Rigazzi’s, he said he had a little dessert shot for us to try.

He whipped up this concoction exactly per the recipe posted. We can’t recommend substituting for any of the ingredients. When we offer up a recipe that a person who works directly in the spirits industry suggests, we strongly encourage you to stick with the original recipe. And in this case, there aren’t all that many viable alternatives for the actual ingredients.

Plus, the color of this shooter is important too. It is part of the aesthetic appeal of the shot—intending to be almost as key as the taste of it. Substituting different brands or liqueurs may alter the desired color. When our bartender friend Randy Palmieri mixed up a batch of these, they were indeed a sharp turquoise hue. When you mix blue (the Curacao) and green (the melon liqueur), you usually get turquoise if I remember 8th grade art class correctly.

The taste is quite pleasant. I’m not much for whipped cream on a shot. On top of some ice cream or on my woman’s belly button—sure. But I don’t top off my shots with whipped cream too often. Bartender Randy did say from the get-go that it was a dessert shot. The taste is actually hard to describe; not exactly tropical fruity….not harsh at all…..sweet, but not sickening sweet……..just smooth and pleasant.

ShareMyShot .com gives this St. Louis suggestion a 3 on a scale of 5. It’s creative and the color is eye-catching. The taste is enjoyable. But it is a dessert shot and doesn’t pack much of a punch. I could do without the whip cream myself, but we didn’t subtract any points for it. We almost gave this recipe a 4, but later agreed it was probably because of the fun we were having hanging out with our pal Randy and the fine meal we had at Rigazzi’s. Another great night in the cool city of St. Louis.

 A Midwest must-go.

Cheers !!!