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Soft serves, hard liquor: how one Carlton venue is beating the summer heat

Plus: how to support Victorian producers affected by the fires.

Summer drinks at Leonardo's Pizza Palace in Carlton. Photo: Supplied
Summer drinks at Leonardo's Pizza Palace in Carlton. Photo: Supplied
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We’ve had a brutal few days of 40 degree-plus weather in Melbourne over the last week. Thankfully, this week is shaping up to be much milder, but for when the mercury spikes, or your blood sugar dips, the bar at Leonardo’s Pizza Palace has you covered. This week, one of Melbourne’s best pizza-joint cocktail programs is launching a limited-run summertime cocktail series making use of one of my personal favourite cocktail ingredients; ice cream. 

Leonardo’s Ice Cream Cocktail Series has been dreamed up and crafted by bartender/flavour wizard Kaiko Tulloch, with a new flavour unveiled each fortnight and available only at Leonardo’s during its two-week run. Each flavour will also feature collaborations with local booze brands including Marionette Liqueurs, The Gospel Rye, Red Mill Rum and Melbourne Gin Company.

Leonardo’s GM Johnny Linstead says they just wanted to have a bit of fun in the sun this year, and considering they already had a soft serve machine, it felt like summertime serendipity.