Fit for a Princess

It was with great pleasure that I accepted an invitation to attend the relaunch of Amaro Montenegro – WOW – what a fun night!

Firstly, the invitation stated that the event was ‘black tie’, this is pretty rare these days and I absolutely adore events where people dress up for the occasion. I have often been disappointed at how people dress for more formal occasions, but this time the majority of people really stepped up and made the most of the opportunity to glam it up a bit.

Secondly, the venue – OMG – FALL OVER – JAW DROP OPEN – WONDERFUL – does that give you any idea? Where have I been? I had never even heard of Fall from Grace, but it is the most amazing function space downstairs from State of Grace at 477 Collins Street, Melbourne, and you can only find the entrance to this amazing space via a secret doorway – hint – behind a very secret bookshelf and if you find the ‘right’ book you can make that bookshelf slide away leading to a stairway that takes you to a 1920s inspired room with marble balustrading, mirrors, velvet couches, walls of wine and incredible glistening chandeliers.

It was the perfect venue for this super swish event where we were celebrating the relaunch of a luxurious, sleek and classy 130 year old liqueur. We were treated to elegant food, handcrafted Amaro Montenegro cocktails made by extremely talented bartenders, live entertainment and wonderful music.

Amaro Montenegro, named after Princess Elena of Montenegro, is a traditional amaro distilled in Bologna, Italy. It is made using over 40 herbs, including vanilla and orange peels and was first produced by Stanislao Cobianchi in the late 19^th century.

This delicious liqueur is perfect to drink ‘on the rocks’ or pair it with grapefruit, mint, ginger beer or pineapple to delight your taste buds.

Below you will find recipes for a couple of the delicious cocktails we were treated to on the evening. They were so delicious I couldn’t wait to break into my bottle of Amaro Montenegro and mix up my favourite – Monte Mule.

Enjoy!

Monte Mule

45 ml Amaro Montenegro

30ml Lime juice

15ml Vodka

Splash of Peach Liqueur

90ml Ginger Beer

Mint sprig to garnish

Monte Negroni

30L Amaro Montenegro

30ml sweet Vermouth

30ml Gin

Orange Bitters

Orange peel to garnish