Originally made with tequila, lime, Curaçao and orgeat, the Pinky Gonzales is essentially a Mai Tai made with tequila or a Margarita made with orgeat. No matter how you spin it, the 1960s Trader Vic drink is perfectly suited to Chicago’s Culebra, one of Punch’s Best New Bars of 2026. The Puerto Rican bar fully caters to both the city’s Latinx community and its cocktail nerds.
Trader Vic, aka Vic Bergeron, opened Señor Pico in San Francisco’s Ghirardelli Square in 1964 as an attempt to bring a milder, Americanized version of Mexican food to the United States. The drink program focused on tequila and rum, which are also the spirits centered at Culebra. Trader Vic’s menu descriptions were typically vague—Tonga Punch was “a famous happy mixture that is always a favorite;” the Rum Boogie is “a real blues chaser”—and the Pinky Gonzalez follows suit: “too much of this and too much of that,” its description read.
At Culebra, the staff are classically trained in American mixology while also centering Latino culture in everything they do. Lead bartender Elias Soto started as a busser at Three Dots and a Dash in 2019 and eventually trained as a bartender. That’s where he first encountered the Pinky Gonzales, served at Three Dots with a float of mezcal. It became a favorite “back pocket” recipe when guests requested a tropical tequila drink. “It isn’t too sweet and isn’t too fruity,” he says. Culebra owner Diego Garcia-Gonzalez (no relation to Pinky) adds that it’s a “well-balanced banger for your tequila lovers.”
To appeal to a wider base of tequila drinkers, Culebra omits the float. Though some recipes call for a blend of blanco and reposado, Soto’s spec leans on the latter—a nod to the aged rum used in Trader Vic’s famous Mai Tai, on which the Pinky Gonzales is clearly based. At Culebra, bartenders reach for Cazadores, which features a citrusy, slightly vanilla-scented profile.
In another subtle reference to the Mai Tai, Culebra’s Pinky Gonzales utilizes Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao, which has long been the industry standard in the tiki classic. It effectively delivers both bitter orange peel flavors as well as notes of vanilla, nuts and spice, all of which converse beautifully with the drink’s other elements. Culebra prides itself on its homemade orgeat and, like the orgeat at Three Dots, theirs omits the traditional orange flower water, focusing on pure almond flavor.
The Culebra spec calls for two ounces of reposado, a half-ounce of Curaçao and a full ounce of orgeat, along with an ounce of lime; Soto purposefully leans sweeter with crushed ice drinks, aiming for balance as the dilution increases. “I think Mai Tais in general tend to get better as you drink them,” he says. “They open up because of the crushed ice.” A mint bouquet is the sole garnish, but its abundance is striking. “We like to get slutty with the mint,” says Garcia-Gonzalez.
The Pinky Gonzales is something of an accidental mascot for Culebra, as it appeals to guests who come to see the staff flex their cocktail muscles as well as guests who come for the culture and stay for the great drinks. “It’s really wholesome to see Latinos that don’t care at all about cocktail history and have 100 percent never had a Pinky Gonzalez in their life in here going, ‘Oooh, that’s good,’” says Garcia-Gonzalez.