Picture-perfect and pink, Madonna Inn’s signature cocktail matches the famous San Luis Obispo hotel in every regard. The Pink Cloud is the most ordered drink at the inn’s Silver Bar, where patrons sit on swiveling wood and pink-leather stools or colorful high-backed chairs to sip this strawberries-and-cream concoction topped with pink sugar (available in the baking aisle of many grocery stores) and a neon-red cherry.
At the cocktail’s originator, legendary tiki chain Trader Vic’s, the Pink Cloud is considered an after-dinner drink and — at least initially — called for only four ingredients: ice, crème de cacao, crème de noyaux and evaporated milk, all shaken together. At the Madonna Inn the drink can be ordered as early as 10 a.m., and it involves a bit of extra flair.
The bar team amps up the pink hue with strawberry purée, and the fruity sweetness via flavored vodka, then blends it to a frosty, thick consistency. But the Madonna Inn also can make this “adult milkshake” nonalcoholic, and so can home mixologists: Just swap the strawberry vodka for white chocolate syrup, and powdered cocoa mix for the crème de cacao.
