Rosemary Nembhard has worked at the Lone Star Boutique Hotel and Restaurant since it opened 20 years ago.

Since then, the prime location on the Platinum Coast has seen a steady stream of well-heeled clients – and the reason is clear when you step through its doors to the beachside open-air restaurant and patio and stare into the endless baby blue water, which sparkles as it flows over the pristine white sand. Plenty of sundowners come for the view, she says, which is something she still appreciates after all her time here.

Nembhard says a lot has changed in 20 years (though regulars still know to come for the weekly Sunday roast and apple pie), including the recent addition of a wood-fire stone pizza oven. But behind the bar, the biggest change is the shift to using more fresh fruits and new flavour combinations. She says: “I’m actually pretty shy, but I love mixing drinks and I enjoy when people say to me: ‘wow, it’s good.’”

This cocktail, a combination of fruit and chocolate, is a collaboration with budding mixologist Anderson Browne, who also works at the Lone Star Restaurant and with whom Nembhard often comes up with new drink ideas. “I like the chocolate and the strawberries”, she says, smiling and making a popping sound to describe the sweet-and-fruity flavour. “It’d be a lovely drink for Valentine’s Day or something of the sort”, she says. “We ladies like a little sweet.”

The drink is also adjustable to your preferred level of chocolate, from just a little to death-by-chocolate; sip from the middle of the cocktail with a straw and it’s a chocolate tease, but suck up the chocolate syrup deposited at the bottom of the martini glass and it’s a true guilty pleasure.

Guilty Pleasure
Makes 1 cocktail

Instructions

1. Pour a little chocolate syrup into the bottom of a martini glass and pull a couple of streaks up the sides.

2. Combine the remaining ingredients in a shaker with ice.

3. Shake, then strain into the martini glass. Garnish with a chocolate-coated strawberry.

To make the strawberry purée, combine a handful of strawberries with a few teaspoons of sugar in a blender. Blend and adjust sugar to taste. The amount you’ll need will depend on the sweetness of the berries.

Choose Your Chocolate

Nembhard uses a squeeze bottle of Hershey’s chocolate syrup for the bottom and sides of the martini glass, but any chocolate syrup will work. She gets the Lone Star’s kitchen to make the chocolate-coated strawberries for her. For those of us without a kitchen staff, here’s how to make them yourself:
 

1. Gently melt 3 oz. (about ½ cup) of dark chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate in a double boiler, saucepan or microwave.

2. Wash and dry the strawberries and dip into the chocolate one by one.

3. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and refrigerate or freeze until hardened.