Drink of the Week: Rockaway Beach by Paula Lukas

By Chilled Magazine

Rockaway Beach

Rockaway Beach

Rockaway Beach

By Paula Lukas

My cocktail Rockaway Beach brings back memories of summers spent there growing up. My grandparents had a bungalow in Rockaway Beach, and we would go down for a few weeks every summer. After a day sunning and swimming when the ice cream truck came around, I’d often get a strawberry shake and dunk my grandmother’s cookies in it. I would add chocolate syrup to it, too. This cocktail is an adult version of that shake and cookies duo. I am glad I have those wonderful memories. It’s also a great song by The Ramones!

Ingredients:

  • 2 oz. Mozart White Chocolate Cream Strawberry Liqueur
  • 3/4 oz Campari
  • 1 1/2 oz. coconut milk
  • 3 dashes Bittermen’s Spiced Chocolate Bitters
  • 1/2 tsp. Snowy River Red Cocktail Glitter (garnish)
  • 1 Shortbread Cookie (garnish)

Preparation:  Combine all ingredients except garnish in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a martini glass. Sprinkle with cocktail glitter and swirl to make a design on top. Cut a small piece out of the cookie and place on the glass.


Meet Paula Lukas

CHILLED Member, New York

New Yorker Paula Lukas moved to New Jersey when she was a kid, but her heart remained in The Big Apple, so she moved back in the 80s (the decade of excess!). She began performing in musical theater and knows that her love of performing and creativity have been assets in her restaurant positions. The bar has been her stage.

The hospitality business has changed quite a lot since Paula was mixing cocktails like Sex on the Beach and the Woo Woo. After an impressive tenure all over town as bartender, head bartender and bar manager, she was able to use her creativity to curate successful cocktail menus. Armed with a motherlode of experience, she took the giant step into competing then judging, namely the Marie Brizard finals in her hometown and the Bartender Spirits Awards in San Francisco. They also named her one of the leading bartenders to look out for in 2020. Her cocktails have been featured in the New York PostHuffington PostFood and Wine and Chilled Magazine.

Most recently Paula was head bartender and bar manager at Nur, a critically-acclaimed modern Middle Eastern restaurant and is now excited to be a Brand Ambassador for Arbikie Distillery, a sustainable distillery and farm in Scotland.

Paula Lukas - Chilled 100 Member, NY

Paula Lukas – Chilled 100 Member, NY

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