In theory, Rob Hoover, the man behind the bar at Erbaluce in Bay Village, operates at a disadvantage. The restaurant doesn’t have a full liquor license. This means they can only serve beer, wine and cordials.

Sometimes, however, such a limitation is the mother of invention — and the cocktails at Erbaluce have invention in spades.

Erbaluce’s current winter bar menu includes a Matsutaki Flip (house-made mushroom tincture, marsala wine, honey and a duck egg), a Squash Bellini (mace-infused squash puree and prosecco), and a Sleighride Smash (Luxardo cherry liqueur, the whey from burrata cheese (!), basil and lots of ice). They’re all imaginative and really lovely to drink,   and the lower alcohol is a nice plus in what has become a sometimes spirit-heavy cocktail scene here in Boston. (You can find the recipes for all three drinks at the end of this post.)

The cocktail menu at Erbaluce is borne out of close collaboration between the bar and the kitchen. Chef and owner, Charles Draghi, is very much involved in the creation of new drinks, making use of some of the ingredients from the kitchen that aren’t standard issue behind the bar, such as mushrooms, squash and cheese. “He’s pretty much the idea man and I just execute,” says Hoover, modestly. “This is his home.”

Before coming to Erbaluce, Hoover tended bar at Upstairs at the Square, at first taking extra shifts at Erbaluce and then taking over as lead bartender last year. He came to Boston after going to school for finance at Tulane Loyola in New Orleans and working in restaurants as a cook and waiter.

“I’ve always had my eye on bartending,” he admits, “because it combines the best aspects of working front of house — you get to interact with people and talk — but also there’s the almost immediate gratification that you get when you’re building or making something. You[can] produce something and get a little creative, and you still get to interact with people.”

While Hoover loves making the carefully constructed cocktails at Erbaluce, where he has time to mix what he describes as “well-articulated” drinks,” he tries not to get too hung up about technique.

“In the end,” he says with a laugh, “nothing that we do back here really matters. People geek out about all this stuff — I know, I geek out about cocktails, too! — but, at the end of day, you need to ask yourself, ‘Are people happy? Are they going to come back?’ and that’s it. If they don’t, then you’re doing something wrong.”

As for his favorite drinks, Rob generously shared three recipes from Erbaluce’s current drink menu. Getting the ingredients together for the Matsutaki Flip, which calls for a mushroom tincture that takes two months to mature, might be a stretch for most. But the other two drinks are not difficult to make and are festive (and pretty) as all get-out.

Sleighride Smash 

(Think of this one as an ultra-elegant snow-cone.)

1 oz. Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
1 oz. Burrata Whey (the liquid from a container of burrata cheese)
1 Luxardo Cherry
Fresh Basil

Fill a pint glass 3/4 of the way with ice; crush ice by hand (Rob used a muddler for this); add Luxardo cherry, and top with ice, and continue crushing. Move the crushed ice/cherry mixutre into a lowball glass, add the Liqueur and Whey, and garnish with a generous portion of basil (for smelling and eating; goes great with the sweet, salty flavors).

Squash Bellini

(Rob says it’s better than the normal Peach Bellini, and I have to agree)

1 oz. Squash Puree (rough chop a squash, cook with honey and mace, then run through a food milll)
4 0z. dry Prosecco

Add the puree, which is rather dense, into the bottom of a flute glass, and pour 1 oz. of the Prosecco; stir vigorously to incorporate the puree into solution, and then top with the remaining Prosecco.

Matsutaki Flip

(Much lighter than you’d expect, with surprising floral notes)

The yolk of one organic duck egg
2 oz. Dry Marsala Wine
.75 oz. Honey Simple Syrup (1:1 Honey to Water)
.25-.5 oz. Matsutaki Tincture (made from macerating the peeled skins of Masutaki mushrooms in bourbon for 2-3 months)

Dry shake all ingredients without ice, add ice and shake vigorously, strain, and top with freshly grated nutmeg