Buffalo | Bloody Queen City

Archive of ‘Buffalo’ category

04
Jan
2017

Happy New Year!!

categories: Buffalo

Happy New Year!! And happy anniversary to Bloody Queen City! I bought the domain a year ago today, so it’s time for a new review.

I wanted to have a bloody on Christmas morning, but I woke up too late and didn’t have time to enjoy one before going to the parents to celebrate, and then work (boo!). Then I wanted to have a bloody on New Years Day, but again, I woke up too late, and didn’t have time to enjoy one before work (boo again!). But given that we were up until 9am celebrating, I was allowed to sleep until 4! (Hey, we work til 4am, our Champagne toast happens closer to 6am.)

I have yet to have one in 2017, so we’re going to have to settle for one of the drinks I have in the archive. Deep South Taco‘s Mexican Bloody.

Deep South Taco is a fairly new Mexican restaurant in Buffalo, a little more than a year old I believe. They just opened their 2nd location on Hertel Ave, the first being on Ellicott St downtown. We’ve gone there quite a bit, as they have a nice big patio in the summer, and of course, delicious food and drinks. It took me a long time to finally try one of their 4 Bloody Mary offerings, as I always get margaritas with Mexican food, and we haven’t yet been there for brunch.

Another terrible, terrible photo, but there was just no way to capture this one.

The Mexican Bloody features El Jimador Blanco tequila, Mexican spiced bloody mix, and a chicharron for $7.50. Served with a spiced rim, lemon, and lime, along with the chicharron it was very tomato-y with a touch of a burned taste, like ghost pepper or habanero, but in the end was not very spicy. There was visible pepper and a hint of celery salt. There wasn’t much of a taste from the tequila, which is good for me, since it’s not my booze of choice unless it’s in a margarita. It is a decent offering, but much like other drinks I’ve had at Mexican restaurants, for me I’m sticking with the margaritas. (And being my first chicharron, I’ve decided I’m not quite a fan of them.)

12
Dec
2016

810 Meadworks

categories: Buffalo

I’ve been slacking. While we were at dinner a few weeks ago, J pointed out that I hadn’t blogged any drinks in a while. So that night I had a bloody mary but I got lazy posting about it. Now I’m 3 drinks behind, but that ends today! I’m going to start with the most recent one though, 810 Meadworks, and work backwards.

J had found a blog entry about local cocktails, and it featured 810 Meadworks as having WNY’s best bloody mary, which meant I had to try it. Somewhat unfortunately, we live about an hour away from 810, which is located in Medina, NY so it was a bit of a drive, but there is also a fantastic Mexican restaurant in Medina, so we made a night of it.

If you are not familiar with mead, it is an alcohol made from fermented honey, and it may have been history’s first fermented liquid! Since it’s made with honey, mead typically tends to be sweet, with even “dry” meads being sweeter than what you’d expect if you are used to dry wines.

My first, and previously only, mead experience was from a meadery on the west side of Seneca Lake, Earle Estates Meadery. While in the area with my parents, and aunt and uncle, we stopped in and did a tasting. I don’t remember my other family members being a fan, since they typically go for very dry wines, but I thought it was different and some were very tasty (in particular, their Cruisin’ Cranberry.)

810 Meadworks opened in 2014, with 8 different meads on tap. That number has grown to over 20, and we tried them all! Flights cost $5, for 3 – 2oz mead samples, which you can pair with some very creative handcrafted chocolates, or other small plates (there is no kitchen in the tasting bar so you’re looking at cheese and crackers, breads and spreads, to go along with your mead.) After your flight(s), if you’re still looking for more, they sell mead by the glass, and mead cocktails – which is where the bloody mary comes into play.

The Ghost of Mary

Presenting The Ghost of Mary! For $4, owner and brewmaster Bryan DeGraw, put together this little drink with his Royal Squeeze mead infused with ghost peppers, V8 bloody mary mix, and 2 spears of pickled asparagus for garnish. He asked if I wanted it very spicy, or just regular spicy, so of course I said “Very!”, which meant 2 oz of the ghost pepper mead. (Regular spicy would be made with just 1 oz, and mild would be made with a serrano and thai pepper infused mead instead.) The drink was different than your usual bloody mary, as the mead gives it a sweetness that vodka or other liquors do not. And the ghost peppers definitely made it spicy, probably too spicy for some people, but not for me! It was a simple drink, with a big taste, and I definitely recommend giving it a try if you are in the area.

As I said earlier, we tried all the meads currently on offer and I would say I enjoyed almost all of them. I didn’t try Fresh Territory, a pineapple cucumber mix, because cucumbers = evil, and strangely neither of us cared for their most popular mead – Sweet Devotion. But they had a special release Maple Tap, aged in a bourbon barrel, that was right up J’s alley and came home with us, along with a ghost pepper Royal Squeeze for me, and a bottle of Cheeky Keen for a gift. Check them out if you’re in the area, or as we did, make a special trip. (And if you want some great Mexican, give Mariacha De Oro a try!)

***
In related news, The Buffalo Bloody Mary Fest is returning in 2017, this time being held at Riverworks, which allows for a larger crowd. Tickets for the fest sold out in less than 4 days, again! Glad I got mine on the first day. Can’t wait!

11
Oct
2016

Brunch at CRāVing

categories: Buffalo

Sunday morning, we woke up fairly early (for night shift workers) after attending an Oktoberfest the afternoon before and going to bed early. Up early means brunch! It was a cool fall day, but nice enough to take a walk and get some food. I suggested we try Lloyd’s Taco Factory. We had their brunch before, when they were just serving out of their truck in partnership with Buffalo Proper, but now with a brick and mortar location they’ve started offering their own brunch. We made it to the restaurant only to find it closed! Now what? Time to cross the street and check out what CRāVing had to offer.

On their brunch cocktail menu, CRāVing was featuring a Traditional bloody mary for $8.50, but also offered Adam’s Bloody – Tomato, fennel, beets, horseradish root, celery, sriracha, worcestershire, lemon, lime and vodka for $10.50.

Adam’s Bloody at CRāVing

Garnished with an olive and lemon slice, it didn’t look particularly fancy (especially after last weekend‘s bloody!) It was very watery, with a touch of horseradish tang. It had a good spice level, but none of the flavors were particularly strong. It didn’t have a strong tomato taste, and I couldn’t detect any fennel or celery flavor. It wasn’t mind blowing, but it was drinkable, and for whatever reason, it felt healthy!

J commented that I’m supposed to be making him taste my drinks, to palate train him, so he finally had his first taste of a bloody mary…and his last. LOL

03
Sep
2016

William Ks

categories: Buffalo

I don’t feel that I have that much going on in life, but somehow I found myself too busy to be able to write up this bloody mary review from last week at William K’s in the Erie Basin Marina. Perhaps it’s the need to pick and do something with the bushels and bushels of peppers and tomatoes I’ve got growing in the garden. I’m drowning!

Last weekend was the Buffalo Maritime Festival at Canalside and the adjacent Naval Park, which was visited by the World’s Largest Rubber Duck! While it created a perfect storm of traffic in the area, I thought it was a good time to multi task and see the duck, and get some brunch and a bloody (and J could play pokemon).

The World’s Largest Rubber Duck in Buffalo NY!

William K’s seems to be a recent addition to the Buffalo restaurant scene, and I had seen a posting from a brunch there on instagram a few months ago. Located in the Erie Basin Marina, it’s a bit farther down the point than we usually go, so we didn’t exactly know where it was when we first heard of it. The restaurant is right on the water, past Templeton Landing, at the point where the river meets the lake, with a perfect view of the newly re-lit light house.

The view!

William K’s offered a house bloody and a spicy bloody, which was my choice. Served in a pint glass for $8, it definitely had a good deal of spice. You could detect the addition of Frank’s hot sauce, but I don’t believe it was the only thing contributing to the spiciness. It was fairly thick, with visible pepper in the mix. Garnished with a lemon, lime and olive it was a very drinkable offering, though not particularly unique.

William K’s bloody

J ordered his standard choice, of eggs, bacon and potato, while I went on a limb and tried the blueberry french toast (with ice cream on top!). If you were going for brunch at the harbor, looking at William K’s versus Templeton Landing, I’d definitely go with William K’s.

Your standard olive, lime and lemon garnish.

We’re going on vacation soon, spending a few days in Boston and a few in the Adirondacks. Hopefully I can find some good drinks to try!

25
Aug
2016

Barrel and Brine Mix Release Party

categories: Buffalo

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, Lockhouse Distillery was having a mix release party, and while I thought it was for a mix that they were creating, it turns out it was a party for Barrel and Brine‘s mix. If you recall, they were the ones making the mix for the Black Sheep which I reviewed a few months ago, but now they are bottling it for public sale. So while I was a little bit less excited, since I’ve had the mix before, I was still excited that there was any kind of Bloody Mary party to go to.

Lockhouse was offering 3 different Bloody Mary concoctions: The Pizza Lovers, the Barreled Bloody, and Mary’s Garden. I thought I was being smart by ordering all 3 at once, so I could taste test them all together, but I was wrong. Not only because they warmed up and the ice melted, but because I’m pretty sure my drinks were made by the bar back, and they were all made incorrectly. *sigh* Just my luck.

Top = Barreled Bloody, Left = Pizza Lovers, Right = Mary’s Garden

So let’s start with the Pizza Lovers. It was supposed to have mozzarella, pepperoni and basil, and feature Lockhouse vodka. As you can see in the photo (the drink on the left) it did have a skewer with cheese and pepperoni, but it lacks the basil that was stuck in everyone else’s drink. Ok, no big deal. This bloody was made with a different mix than the other two, which I’m assuming was still made by Barrel and Brine, but I’m not sure. It was poured out of an unlabeled wine bottle, and was a completely different texture and flavor. Honestly, it didn’t really taste like much, and of the 3, it was the least exciting. There was a lot of debris floating in it, even though it was still quite liquidy, with mild spice and pickle flavor. Beyond that, it didn’t taste like much.

Next, the Barreled Bloody. The drink was supposed to be made with barrel aged gin, molasses bacon rim, pepperocini, celery and chives, but as you can see in the photo (the top drink), all I got was a pepperocini, and I suspect it was made with vodka. Assuming that it was indeed made with vodka, this was pretty much your basic normal bloody, with the Barrel and Brine mix, poured out of one of the jars they were selling. Surprisingly, it had a very different flavor from the Bloody using their mix at Black Sheep (which is a good thing!). It was definitely not as overwhelmingly pickle flavored and salty, with a mild spice level, that was very good. It had a good strong tomato flavor, and was definitely drinkable. The lack of a bacon rim = highly disappointing.

Bloody triple feature!

Lastly, Mary’s Garden, which was being offered with Lockhouse vodka or gin, though he didn’t ask me what I wanted. I suspect it was gin, as it had a completely different flavor than the other 2, and I thought it might be a rosemary flavor but then…maybe not, since everything that was supposed to be in my drink was missing. It was supposed to be garnished with rosemary, cucumber, dilly bean, sweet pepper and pearl onion – hence the “garden” part of the drink. As you can see in the first photo (the drink on the right) all I ended up with was pearl onion and olives (not listed!). Made with the jars of mix again, as a whole, it was the best of the 3, either from the gin or rosemary flavor, which made it more interesting than your usual bloody mary. I just wish it had come as described because while I hate cucumber and didn’t miss it, I looooove dilly beans. I would definitely order this one again, just not from the bar back!

Luckily for me Barrel and Brine also had a garnish table set up, where they were letting you try their various pickled items in your drink, plus selling all their wares. I spoke to them a bit, asking about the mix, and why the Black Sheep’s drink might have been so salty and overwhelming (they said they didn’t know, but that they had heard that before. They did say they leave some things, like Worcestershire sauce, out of the jarred mix in case people want to keep it vegan.) I added some of their green beans, horseradish dill pickles, cajun pickles, pearl onion and this super delicious jalapeno hot sauce to my Mary’s Garden, which put it just over the top into an excellent drink. The hot sauce was very good, and not at all full of vinegar flavor like my arch nemesis Frank’s, so the drink got a nice added punch without altering the flavor profile (and I also bought a bottle for $4, score!)

Mary’s Garden, with various Barrel and Brine garnishes added in

All the drinks were $9, and mine were served in pint glasses, but that did not seem to be standard. Maybe it was the lack of clean glasses, maybe he messed mine up, but everyone seemed to be getting different styles of glass, from pint, to other beer glasses, to smaller rocks type glasses. If they keep a bloody on offering at Lockhouse, I’m not sure what you’ll end up getting for your $9 in the future. While I was disappointed by the way my drinks were made, especially since we know the bar manager, and their bar tenders are usually excellent when making all their crafty drinks, in the end I was impressed with Barrel and Brine’s mix offering. I would have picked a jar up to enjoy at home if I wasn’t drowning in at least 20 unopened bottles of various mixes I bought to review here. Someday!!

And the best part of all was that the $15 Lockhouse gift card I won at trivia night a few months ago turned out to be for $30!

19
Aug
2016

Belsito Buffalo

categories: Buffalo

Browsing through Facebook the other day, I saw mention of a wine bar in J’s neighborhood that we never noticed before – Belsito. After some investigation, it looked good, so I suggested we stop there between our tour of the SS Columbia and heading to the Erie County Fair for the rest of the night. We must have walked and driven by this restaurant 1000 times, and never noticed it was there, but I’m glad we finally found it.

I wasn’t expecting to have a bloody mary when we decided to go there, and J suggested a bottle of Proseco before I noticed the cocktail menu. It had been a while since I had a good bloody (no thanks to Templeton Landing!), so I gave it a shot.

Belsito Bloody

I forget how much the drink was, $8 or $9, the bloody comes with 3 mozzarella stuffed olives, and a few basil leaves. I loved the fancy ice, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen that kind of ice in a drink, and it’s fun! Their bloody featured local Lockhouse vodka, and a house made mix. It was quite liquidy, but it was nice, since it’s summer and I didn’t really want a heavy drink. It was really mild on the spice scale (once again I didn’t ask for it spicy, I wonder what they would have added), and it had a good tomato flavor. It was quite refreshing, which you can’t always say about bloody maries.

Mozzarella stuffed olives

I felt obligated to eat an olive, since it was a key part of the drink. Unfortunately I still don’t like olives.

It was a really nice day out, and the patio along the street was comfortable until our pizzas arrived, along with the bees and forced us indoors. Belsito is a nice spot, worth another visit for sure.

**
Speaking of Lockhouse Distillery, they are debuting their bloody mary mix with a party tomorrow. I’m excited! Review to come!

18
Jul
2016

Templeton Landing fails again

categories: Buffalo

In case you missed it, or live under a rock, last week this little game based on a very obscure Japanese cartoon called Pokemon came out. And the internet exploded. LOL

I know nothing about Pokemon, as I was a bit older than the intended audience at the time it hit big in the United States. But I couldn’t help but get sucked into the game. It’s such a great concept!! You’re getting people out and about, including people that might not normally be super active. It’s active, it’s social, it leads you to discover things about your city that you’ve never noticed before. I love it. It’s made me get out of bed and walk 7 miles the last 3 days, where normally I sit on my phone in bed playing random games for hours, before moving the lazy party to the couch for the rest of the afternoon until I have to go to work. So kudos to Pokemon Go.

J couldn’t help but get sucked in as well, getting to level 12 in a little more than a day, so when I suggested brunch and a Pokemon date on Sunday, he was all for it. Plus, trying Templeton Landing again would take us to the Erie Basin Marina and Canalside, which is a Pokemon orgy.

Unlike last time, it was actually brunch at Templeton Landing this time, and we were able to order breakfast foods, with the advertised bottomless mimosa and colossal bloody mary.

I don’t even care how terrible this photo is, I was just so mad this was all I got.

Someone please tell me what is colossal about that drink? What happened to the drinks full of fantastic fun garnishes from last year?? That is what I want! THAT is “colossal”! Instead I got a $10 bloody in a pint glass, with a few olives and citrus garnish. Ugh. Basically it was the same drink I got the first time we were there, full of thick tomato juice and Frank’s hot sauce. As soon as our waitress put the drink in front of me, I was epically let down. Ugh. It really ruined my time for a while. I definitely never need to go back.

At least the koi pond in front of Templeton was a Pokestop we could hit up every 5 minutes.

06
Jun
2016

Landing at the Black Sheep

categories: Buffalo

Vacation time again, and due to work issues coming up, it was another staycation. We managed to avoid the rain that usually plagues our vacations, and packed in a whole ton of events into 5 days off, including 2 brunches…well almost. It was fun but I am wiped out and I vowed not to leave the house today so I could have time to recover from having to be social for so many days in a row haha!

Saturday was the most event packed day, as tons of things were going on in Buffalo, and we were forced to narrow it down to just a few. But it was also the only weekend day that had some time in it for brunch, in between Art Alive at the Albright Knox Art Gallery, and the grand opening party for 12 Gates Brewery, so I made reservations at Templeton Landing.

They advertised Toasty Saturdays from 11am to 3pm on their facebook page, with bottomless mimosas, and brunch specials, plus this, from last year:

“Templeton Landing’s Colossal Blood Mary’s! As the cart rolled up, we chose between regular or spicy flavor and proceeded to add additional ingredients of our choosing. Being a Bloody Mary novice, I deferred to their best judgment and opted for the standard celery stick, a piece of shrimp, some peppers for color, a stick of savory bacon before finally topping it off with a slider. That’s right. There was a full-on hamburger in my drink and it was fantastic! Hands down of the best Bloody Mary’s we’ve ever had.”

Buffalo Dandy’s Templeton Landing bloody mary, off a create your own cart….

https://buffalodandy.com/2015/07/27/sunday-brunch-at-templeton-landing/

You can find a whole bunch of other photos of Templeton bloodys on google, plus a recent shout out about their Bloody from Step Out Buffalo, so needless to say, I’ve been excited to finally get one for myself (Templeton is seasonal, so this is really the first chance I’ve had to go).

Well we get there, and are seated on the patio. The restaurant is right on the waterfront, with a great view of the marina and it was the perfect day for being outside. But we get the menu, and it’s not brunch. It was not even 2pm yet, what happened to Toasty Saturday?? I ordered a bloody anyway, and J ordered a mimosa even though neither one was on their cocktail menu, and the mimosa was definitely not bottomless.

Not exactly what I was looking for

Served in a pint glass for $8.50, this wasn’t exactly what I was looking for when I picked Templeton Landing for brunch. It was basically pure tomato juice with some hot sauce in it. Boring old lemon, lime and olive garnish brought nothing special to the drink. No other visible additives, and very thick, it was also very salty, maybe from some kind of brine. It was an epic disappointment to say the least, but with that said, it also wasn’t the worst Bloody I’ve ever had. It wasn’t the thickest, and it wasn’t the least flavorful, it was just so plain, and so not what I wanted, it ruined the whole experience.

I ordered the turkey club, and it was fine but…not what I wanted!! I don’t know what the deal was with it not being brunch, and about the bloody being un-epic, but I’m willing to try again when I know FOR SURE that it’s brunch.

Sunday came around and we were supposed to get up and go to the Pride Parade, but we slept too late, which opened up a whole new possibility for brunch. Since Saturday’s was so disappointing I wanted to make sure I got to a good one, so I picked The Black Sheep.

The Black Sheep had recently been mentioned in another Step Out Buffalo article, about brunch cocktails, for their special off-menu Kimchi Bloody Mary so it was fresh in my mind. Luckily for me, they have since added it to their regular menu and I didn’t have to beg!

Kimchi Bloody Mary at The Black Sheep

Served in a fairly small glass for $10 the Kimchi bloody is made from mix created by Buffalo Barrel + Brine, a new local pickle maker. Garnished with lime and a pickle slice, with a spiced rim, the mix was definitely pickle-y, but not overwhelmingly so. There was a lot of floating debris of some type (kimchi?), but it wasn’t super spicy – just a tickle. It was very fresh tasting, and very good, and as it turned out, there was a full pickle spear hiding in the drink!

J ordered a beer which ended up coming in a gigantic bottle, so I had to order another drink for myself, and I went with their regular bloody mary, also made with mix from Barrel + Brine (no photo because basically it looked the same). The regular bloody mary was $9, garnished with lime, the pickle slice, and this time celery. There was a TON of visible debris in the drink (it was clogging up my little straw), and it was much, much spicier than the Kimchi Mary. However there was also way WAY more pickle flavor – too much so. It was like drinking the brine right out of a pickle jar.

Some advice to pickle companies making Bloody Mary mix – turn it down a notch. Some pickle flavor in a bloody is a welcome addition, but that shouldn’t be the only flavor.

Both drinks were good, but I’d go with the Kimchi Mary all day long, perhaps with a bit more spice added to it. I do wish they were a bit larger though, for the price.

I ordered the breakfast pierogies, which was delicious, so Sunday’s brunch redeemed Saturday’s, but be prepared, The Black Sheep is a bit expensive (our brunch bill was more expensive than our fancy tapas at Aro de Tapas the night before, and that’s without the Game of Scones we ordered because the waitress forgot it, which just seems wrong.) (Also, Aro de Tapas = really really delicious.)

****
I let a friend of a friend in Toronto use my address to have a package shipped more cheaply, and to thank me when they picked it up, they brought me a 4 pack of these:

Bottled Caesars!?!?

I’m a little scared, and a little intrigued.

08
Mar
2016

BBMF Photos!

categories: Buffalo

Here we are! The non blurry “official” photo from the fest.

Me, J and Jeff at the first Buffalo Bloody Mary Fest

Jeff looks a bit sleepy, but it WAS taken right before we left.

More photos from the fest can be found on Step Out Buffalo’s facebook page, and Buffalo.com (Although they didn’t post the one they took of us, jerks!)

06
Mar
2016

Buffalo Bloody Mary Fest!!

categories: Best Of Buffalo, Buffalo

The day finally came, the Buffalo Bloody Mary Fest! If you recall, I was bummed because the event sold out before Christmas and none of my friends bought tickets in time. In the weeks before I had friend after friend begging me to find them tickets, with no such luck. I did have one friend manage to buy one from someone through facebook, so J (our DD since he doesn’t like Bloodies), Jeff and I headed to Shea’s to enjoy a nice Buffalo Sunday.

The Beautiful Shea’s Theatre

A gorgeous Buffalo winter day, good for standing in line.

10 bars/restaurants participated in the Fest, offering up their best take on the Bloody Mary and the most creative garnishes. I sampled them all, even the ones I’ve had before at the actual restaurants, but my reviews here are going to be pretty quick. All the drinks featured vodka from local distillery Tommyrotter.

1. CRaVing
Ingredients: Tomato, fennel, beets, horseradish, celery, sriracha, and house vegan worcestershire.
The drink was fairly watery, but was very peppery with a good spice level, though I didn’t detect any horseradish flavor at all. I thought it was pretty good, but unfortunately they lose points for not having any garnish whatsoever.

Hydraulic Hearth bartenders frantically mixing drinks

2. Hydraulic Hearth
Ingredients: Fresh made tomato juice, fresh squeezed lemon juice, Old Bay seasoning, smoked paprika, dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, bacon, basil, garlic, pepper, salt, celery seed, red and green tabasco.
A thick, sweet, lemony drink with a smoky almost chipotle taste. It had a very fresh tomato-y taste, and I’m impressed they found such good tomatoes to use in the winter. Garnished with lemon, pickled green bean and bacon, it wasn’t very spicy despite the tabascos listed on the ingredient sign. It was pretty good, if a tad different due to the sweetness level.

Hydraulic Hearth garnish pile

3. Bar Bill
Ingredients: Bar Bill Bloody mix, pepper, celery, salt, Worcestershire sauce, lemon, lime, horseradish, Bar Bill hot sauce.
This drink, potentially, had the best garnish – some kind of chicken wing dip fried wonton. I say “potentially” because had it been freshly fried, it would have been excellent. Given that they had to make hundreds of them for a festival, they weren’t as crispy as I imagine they normally would be. The drink itself was suuuuuper salty. I couldn’t drink mine, Jeff liked it though.

Oshun restocked their shrimp!

4. Oshun
Ingredients: Lemon and lime juice, fresh horseradish, tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, onion, olive brine, celery salt, fresh garlic and hotsauce.
If you remember from my previous review a few weeks ago, I had issues with the fact that they advertise a shrimp garnish on their Bloody, but did not deliver. Well this time, they did! The drink was still as tasty as it was at the restaurant.

5. Trattoria Aroma on Bryant
Ingredients: Tomato juice, lemon juice, orange juice, garlic, celery, salt, pepper, horseradish, onion, Worcestershire, beef reduction, hot sauce, barbecue sauce, jerky, ranch aioli, fried onions.
Another Bloody that I’ve had before, but unlike last time which was a midweek night, this seemed to be more like what I expected from them – a fresh made drink, not from a bottle. Garnished with fried onions, it had a very smoky taste, and the pickled jalapeno garnish, which I thought was just a regular pepper before I ate it, provided a giant hit of spice. J and I have been there a few times for dinner, but they are still on my brunch hit list. At this point I became a bit overwhelmed by drinks, as J was making the rounds and picking more and more up for me, so I didn’t end up finishing this one 🙁

Getting overwhelmed

Cole’s line up of Bloodies

6. Cole’s
Ingredients: Fresh cucumber, kale, celery, tomatoes, Cole’s Bloody Mary spices, tabasco, Grey Poupon mustard, cilantro, pepper, celery salt, sour mix.
Each restaurant had a sign on their station with their ingredients list, and I must say I did NOT look at this sign before grabbing this bloody from Cole’s, or I would have passed. So many things about this drink that I hate. Cilantro tastes like shampoo to me, and cucumbers are the devil. Blleeeeecccch. Needless to say this one went into the garbage. It did have a nice garnish of celery, shrimp, olive and cheese (and they gave me a free garnish later on when I was walking around taking photos) I’ve had their Bloody late night when I used to get out of work in time on Tuesdays, which were just ok, but I hear good things about Cole’s Bloodies at brunch, so it’s still on my list to visit some weekend.

7. Buffalo Proper
Ingredients: Fresh pressed tomato juice, roasted tomato puree, charred jalapeno, caper berry, horseradish, Worcestershire, tabasco, lemon.
Another bloody I had before, when we went there last year for Lloyd’s brunch. I didn’t mind it, but I’m not sure this offering was the same. It was very different from the others on offer at the Fest. It was very tomato-y and clearly very fresh with lots of pulp. It wasn’t very spicy this time, but perhaps they were going mild for the crowd. Garnished with olive, cucumber (evil!) and a grape, now that they offer their own brunch, it may be time to go back.

The A’ole Pilikia from Ballyhoo

8. Ballyhoo
Ingredients: Ballyhoo Bloody mix, pineapple, horseradish, habenero, mango hot sauce, Korean BBQ, lime, coco lopez
Called the A’ole pilikia, this is Ballyhoo’s Hawaiian Bloody, and it was the most unusual one of the day. Garnished with pineapple and grilled spam with a spiced rim the drink was very very sweet and pineapple-y. There was a mild amount of spice, even though there was habenero in it. It wasn’t bad, but it was too sweet for me. The reason I started drinking Bloody Marys was because I was tired of having sweet drinks all the time.

9. The Lodge
Ingredients: Tomato juice, lemon and lime juice, olive juice, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, celery salt, pepper, horseradish.
Another restaurant we visited for brunch last year, I don’t feel like what they offered today was an accurate representation of the several Bloodies they offer on their menu. Jeff couldn’t stand this one at all, and I didn’t think it was bad, but it had an overwhelming pickle flavor despite pickle juice not being listed as an ingredient (perhaps it was too much olive juice?). It had a “breakfast salt” rim (whatever that is), and a LOT of it. It did, however, feature candied bacon and I took the drink with the largest piece of bacon in it 🙂

Bloodies from Providence Social

10. Providence Social
Ingredients: I don’t know because I must have been nudged when I took a photo of their sign because it is one giant unreadable blurred mess.
Last but not least, Providence Social, which we had visited before and quite liked. Garnished with pickled carrot, onion and cucumber (again!) it had a smoky yet pickle-y tasted to it and good spice level.

Isn’t Shea’s gorgeous??

The first year for any festival is always kind of up in the air – it could be great, it could be a bit of a disaster, especially for an event that ended up more popular than anyone expected. Plus, food and drink events in Buffalo can get a bit overwhelming (see also: Buffalo Soup Fest, which I love, but is always too crowded.) I don’t know how many tickets they sold, or what the capacity of the Shea’s lobby area is, but I was impressed that for the most part, it wasn’t a giant crowded clusterf***. There was such an outpouring of disappointment over the event selling out, but I hope if they have it again next year they don’t go too big with it. It was a nice size, in a gorgeous location (as opposed to the hideous convention center), and it seemed to go off without a hitch. Step Out Buffalo did an excellent job, and we had a great time, although next year I should be a judge!!

(I’m not posting the terrible blurry “photo booth” picture of us haha. Maybe when they post the “official” photo.)

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Archive of ‘Buffalo’ category

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