Pretty in pink: Rosé cocktails making a splash on restaurants' summer menus

Bright pink glasses of rosé wine have become a staple of summer sipping, not just served by the bottle but mixed into a variety of refreshing cocktails.

Old Town Pour House, which has locations in Oak Brook and Naperville, launched a special Rosé All Day menu that will be available through Labor Day.

“We're always trying to brainstorm and we also pay attention to local and national trends,” said Angela Zoiss, vice president of marketing for Old Town Pour House's parent company Bottleneck Management. “Rosé was an emerging trend over the past couple of years. Knowing that the summer season was coming up, we wanted to offer something fun and different that you couldn't get everywhere and put our twist on typical rosé wine.”

Along with serving the wine on draft by the glass, half-beaker or beaker, the bar also offers a trio of $12 rosé cocktails. The rosé spritzer blends rosé vodka, Sprite, aperol and lemon, while the Elderflower Smash mixes rosé vodka with grapefruit juice, St. Germain elderflower liqueur, lemon juice and mint.

“Rosé, I think more so than other wines, pairs well with liquors and fruits because of its light, fruity nature,” Zoiss said.

The most popular offering has been the Strawberry Frosé, a frozen drink made with strawberry puree, rosé wine, lemon juice and simple syrup.

“The Frosé has been the rock star on the menu,” Zoiss said. “People really like that. It's refreshing for summer. Sales out of the gate have been really strong.”

For the past two summers Topgolf, which has locations in Naperville and Wood Dale, has been serving a Cubed Frosé for $8.

“We had such success with it last year we couldn't resist bringing it back for an encore performance,” said Topgolf national beverage manager Dan Timm. “It's been a smash for us.”

The driving range and sports bar makes ice cubes from a rosé sangria with pureed raspberries and strawberries and then tops it with prosecco.

“We knew we wanted to do something with the frosé trend, but we only have one frozen drink machine, which is dedicated to the frozen margarita, which has been on the menu since day one,” Timm said. “Any time you try to freeze alcohol it's tricky. We had to get the mix just right. As soon as you pull it out of the freezer, get it into the glass and pour the prosecco over it, it turns into a slush pretty quick.”

Susi Zivanovic, corporate sommelier and beverage director for Perry's Steakhouse & Grille, which has a location in Oak Brook, said that there are plenty of reasons why rosé is such a popular summer drink.

“You get a little bit of that red wine characteristic, but it's served cold,” she said. “(In a cocktail) it adds really nice color to a drink. We're seeing during the summer a call for lower ABV cocktails, and adding wine instead of another spirit does that.”

Perry's menu of wine-based cocktails includes a $15 Rosé Collins made with The Botanist gin, lemon juice, simple syrup and a Tempranillo-based rosé.

“It's a really pretty presentation,” Zivanovic said. “We're garnishing it with an edible flower called a fire stick. As soon as guests see it, they want to know what it is. It's just really refreshing, and the gin in it doesn't have a really strong juniper flavor.”

Le Meridien Chicago - Oakbrook Center has a focus on sparkling wine for its beverage program, so its El Tapeo Modern Spanish Kitchen added a $12 cocktail made with sparkling rosé, blood orange liqueur, muddled strawberries and lime juice to the menu for summer.

“Rosé is very versatile with a lot of minerality and citrus, which contributes acidity to the cocktail,” said Le Meridien director of food and beverage Elmer Stunkel. “Also, it makes for very colorful and attractive drinks.”

Next month, Texas de Brazil in Schaumburg will be adding an $11 rosé caipirinha to its menu, blending Croft rosé port with lime juice, sugar and cachaça to make a sweeter, fruitier version of the classic Brazilian cocktail.

“I went to Portugal a few years ago and had the opportunity to try a pink port, which I had never seen before,” said Texas de Brazil director of wine and spirits Rodrigo Davila. “It was light. It was refreshing. It was something different. A lot of times people think of port as an after-dinner drink, something a little bit heavier. It could be an aperitif before dinner. I figured we'd play with a couple of recipes and we decided to incorporate it into our caipirinha menu.”

Davila said he thinks rosé has become popular because it appeals to so many types of drinkers.

“It looks pretty,” he said. “It's very versatile. For people who are used to drinking white wines and want to get into red wine it serves as a perfect gateway wine.”