Ratios for the best margaritas

If there’s anybody who knows a good cocktail, it’s Brian Flavin. Before he became an IT officer for the PB&J Restaurant Group he was a bartender at the Grand St. Cafe. He still bar-tends there on Wednesday nights because, as two regulars told me, “We won’t let him leave.”

While the restaurant is known for its classic American pork chops, Grand St. also features an extensive list of margaritas which Flavin has been shaking for 15 years. “That’s the thing — a margarita should always been shaken,” he said while making one of his specialties: a suave agave, which is a mixture of Herradura respasdo tequilia, Grand Marnier and lime juice.

Agave nectar is Flavin’s secret ingredient. He buys it as the Brookside Market and uses it in one of his favorite tequila recipes, which he says he lifted from the Bellagio in Las Vegas.