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!)
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.)
It’s my last weekend off, and it’s the Superbowl. Football is not my thing but I’ve got a really terrible feed playing through my Roku as I rest up before going back to my normal job. I spent most of the week recovering from a 24-ish hour bug. I haven’t really been sick as an adult, and wow-ee, it’s terrible. I couldn’t really enjoy last week’s Buffalo Soup Fest, then felt just tired and dehydrated for another 3 days.
But I feel back to normal now, so it was time for brunch! This weekend we tried 31 Club on Elmwood. J had been there many many years ago, and didn’t care for it, but we figured we’d give it a shot for brunch.
We had a hard time deciding what to order, as there were several very enticing options, but he settled with the Lobster Scramble and I ordered the Huevos Rancheros.
And of course, a bloody mary.
The offering from 31 Club
Served in a pint glass for $8 this is a very standard, straightforward bloody. Garnished with a celery stalk, lemon, lime and olive I ordered it spicy and it came with a ton of cracked pepper in it. The heat level was purely from a vinegar based hot sauce like Frank’s. The drink was pretty liquidy, and that hot sauce flavor was the only thing you could taste. Mediocre at best, I wouldn’t ever go out of my way to have another.
But my breakfast, on the other hand, was probably the best breakfast I’ve ever had.
Oh my Yum!
Over easy eggs, on top of andouille sausage in the little tortilla cups, with tomato and corn relish, and spiced potatoes. Holy crap, it was seriously delicious and over easy eggs aren’t my favorite usually. So even though their bloody mary was meh, I’d most definitely return since the food was so good.
It was brunch time on Sunday, this time trying out Oshun, a place I never thought I’d ever go. I’ve mentioned how I don’t get along well with seafood, so a restaurant who’s known mainly for their seafood menu wasn’t high up on my list of places to go. Enter Groupon. Oshun had a $25 brunch Groupon which included 2 entrees, 2 alcoholic drinks, and 2 non-alcoholic drinks. I double checked their brunch menu to make sure it wasn’t all seafood, and picked it up. Seemed like a good deal to me!
So we checked it out today, because it was snowing, and we always go out to brunch in the best weather.
“Gold Dome” Buffalo Savings Bank building, right across the street
My weather app said “light snow”, a glance out the window showed it was indeed snowing, but we had no idea how much until we left the house. We easily had 4 inches, and it was coming down fast and heavy. Visibility while driving was poor, everything was just white. I guess we weren’t going to need those reservations we made!
The gorgeous Electric Tower
When I was working downtown I always admired the empty storefront that turned into Oshun, and it’s pretty and art deco inside to match. Their brunch menu is small, and it does feature a lot of seafood, but they had a few options with land dwelling meats and J and I both chose the cinnamon french toast entrees, with eggs and bacon. It was tasty, and huge!
But what about the Bloody?
The menu listed the drink at $8 with a shrimp garnish. It arrived in a high ball glass with a lime wedge…no shrimp. Initially I had forgotten what the menu said, and just generally thought they could improve their garnish game quite a bit. Once I realized there was supposed to be a shrimp, I felt cheated, and I don’t even like shrimp! No one else seemed to be getting any shrimp with their drinks either, so it didn’t seem to be a cheat move since we were using a groupon, but maybe they just don’t do it for brunch. *Shrug*
Oshun brunch
The mix had a good flavor, with a strong umami taste, and I thought it might have been made with Clamato or had some sort of seafood taste added (Asian fish sauce maybe?) even though it wasn’t advertised as a Caesar. There was visible pepper and horseradish in the drink, but there was no overwhelming horseradish flavor to it. It was definitely very spicy though, with no vinegar flavor, so it’s not clear what kind of hot sauce was used.
Overall it was a very good drink, despite the lack of shrimp or other garnishes. It could definitely be improved with some tasty edibles on top, and maybe even make it into the Best of category. Step up your garnish game Oshun!
I finally got a new phone! Hooray. I had been using a Motorola Mini, and I upgraded to an HTC One M9. I was looking forward to a new phone with a new camera, that hopefully would take better low light images, such as inside bars, while drinking Bloody Marys…
I finally got to try a new place and had my first official Bloody Mary of the year. I went out with my parents to Dick and Jenny’s restaurant on Grand Island, NY. Moving to Grand Island after Hurricane Katrina, they opened a New Orleans themed restaurant based on their previous restaurant in Louisiana. Mom and I decided to both try their Bloody Mary.
Served in a pint glass with a Cajun spiced rim, their Bloody Mary was garnished with a pickled green bean, pickled okra, lime wedge and a skewer of an olive, onion and…pickled grape? I just thought it was another olive until Mom pointed out it was a grape. What?? It definitely looked like a grape on second glance, the thought of it pickled grossed me out but she assured me they were good. It was not good. And when she ate hers, she said maybe it wasn’t a grape. It definitely did not have the texture of a grape, nor the taste. So we have no idea what it really was, but whatever it was, I did not enjoy it.
I set it up to photograph, and took several terrible photos with my new phone. ARRRGG. I’ve had it for about 2 months now, it seems to work decently, but I could not get a decent photo so I had to use my Dad’s iphone.
New Orleans Bloody!
A bit watery, the drink had plenty of visible spice. The heat mostly came from horseradish, but it had a tad of some sort of hot sauce flavor to it. It wasn’t overwhelmingly spicy though, and there was no after burn. It had a good taste and was drinkable but not mind blowing.
Brunch tomorrow!
I don’t know if I should be excited or bummed.
The first Buffalo Bloody Mary Festival sold out last week.
I’m excited because that’s totally awesome. That means there are lots and lots of Bloody Mary enthusiasts in Buffalo, and hopefully this festival will continue and grow in the coming years.
I’m bummed though because it’s almost a guarantee that none of my friends who were going to attend with me bought tickets in time.
I’m super glad I bought mine right away though. I was going to wait and see. Thank god I didn’t! I’d be so mad if I was going to miss it.
In other news, I was given a few new Bloody Mary things to try for Christmas, including some special vodka direct from Berlin, Germany. My collection of mixes continues to grow, I really should get on top of that…
When I started this blog I started fantasizing of starting an annual Bloody Mary fest in Buffalo, modeled off of the ones occurring in other parts of the country. I am usually unable to make it to one of the other cities because my job requires me to book my vacation time in November for the next year, and the festivals usually don’t have solid dates at that time. It makes me sad. And jealous. Very jealous.
So I’d lay in bed and think about how to start a festival of my own. I’d day dream about sending letters to various restaurants asking them to participate…how to find a panel of “experts” to judge the drinks…publicity…booking a venue…what time of year to do it…everything.
But I’m lazy. So it just stayed a day dream.
Then I see a friend post on my facebook wall that the first annual Buffalo Bloody Mary festival is coming up. My first thought, “Hey that’s what I wanted to start!” My second thought, “Now I have way less work to do, and more time to enjoy it!” Hooray Step Out Buffalo for…um…stepping up and stealing my brain waves and turning them into reality, without me having to do any actual work. I’m down with it!
Save the date! March 6, 2016 at the wonderful Shea’s Performing Arts Theatre on Main St in Buffalo. For $30 (early bird price until January 31st) you get admission, brunch bites from local restaurants, and bloody mary taste testing from 10 local restaurants known for their bloodies. And if you hate bloody mary’s (gtfo!) or are the designated driver, there is a $10 admission ticket, which covers admission only but no bloodies (there is a cash bar though).
Since I have nothing to do with this festival I can’t fault their restaurant choices, however my personal favourite (so far) has been left off the list. Poor Merge. Ah well, perhaps they will get unseated at the top of my list by some of these other restaurants I have not tried yet.
I’m so excited!!
I’ve been working at my job forever, and to reward me for my unending loyalty (LOL) I get 4 weeks of vacation. It sounds like a fantastic thing, 4 whole weeks off! I love traveling but I find it hard to use all my time because 1. none of my friends have that much time off 2. it’s very hard to coordinate schedules to travel with my friends 3. it’s so expensive! So J and I try to take 2 weeks off together, I take my 3rd week at random usually in the spring, and that 4th week I have a hard time using. Add to that, I keep going on special assignment at work for 10-12 weeks at a time, which means I can’t really use my vacation at that time, I end up running out of year to use up my days. So I’ve started taking single days off, to extend my “weekend”, but again, all my friends are at work and I end up with nothing to do! So I went to dinner with my parents.
They wanted to go somewhere “new” that they hadn’t been to before, and my dad is a beer fan, so I suggested Big Ditch Brewing Company. (“Big Ditch” was the working name of the Erie Canal when it was being built in the early 1800s.) Their beer is pretty good, and their food was tasty the previous 2 times I’d been there.
Big Ditch!
My mom ordered the Dark Fall seasonal black German style beer, and my dad ordered a flight of 5, but I’ve tasted most of their beers before (except the Jalapeno Cream Ale that was a small batch special which was already sold out by the time we made it there on our last trip!) so I didn’t feel required to order beer. I never noticed that they offered a Bloody Mary made with their IPA before, so this time I had to get it.
The Hayburner Bloody
The Hayburner Bloody is served in a pint glass for $9 and is made with their Hayburner IPA. Garnished with an olive, pepperoncini, pickled carrot, celery, and pickled something else…cauliflower maybe? It was just the stem of something, and bit tough so my mom and I couldn’t really figure it out. Pepper and horseradish was clearly visible in the house made mix, and it had a definite horseradish flavor to it but it was not overly spicy. Given that it was made with an IPA I expected a beer taste and some citrus-y bitterness to the drink, but there really wasn’t any, you might not realize it was made with beer at all. It was nice and drinkable without being overwhelming.
We ordered the flight of dips which is really good, and I had the ridiculously huge bacon mac and cheese. It’s delicious, but it could serve 4 people, so be prepared to take home leftovers. Not that that’s a bad thing!
I’m nerdy. I admit it. I embrace it. Nerds are the best. One of my nerdy interests is the Cold War and all things atomic – weapons, energy, accidents, Civil Defense. When I saw that The Art Gallery of Ontario had a special photography exhibit called Camera Atomica, I had to go. So J and I made the drive up north to Toronto for the afternoon. We grabbed some food in China Town before heading to the AGO on their free Wednesday night open hours before moving on to one of my other nerdy interests. Harry Potter.
I solemnly swear I am up to no good….
I fully admit I was late to the Harry Potter parade, not reading the books or seeing any movies until the last book was already released. I was in a reading slump, where I had nothing to read, so I finally picked it up. After years of making fun of my friends for going to midnight book releases, and loving the series, I had to apologize to them. IT WAS FANTASTIC! There’s nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said, it’s just a great series, and I went all out, attending the last 3 movies at midnight, visiting Universal Studios theme park, buying t-shirts etc.
Bathroom chalkboard grafitti at The Lockhart
I had seen an article on the interwebs about a Harry Potter bar in Toronto. Whaaaattt!? I had to go. Besides just the name of the bar, The Lockhart, the article advertised visual Potter clues around the bar, and special Potter themed drinks – including one drink named for a reference so obscure, the owners have promised a free one if you figure it out (I’m sad, I didn’t figure it out…UNTIL RIGHT NOW!). And if Harry Potter isn’t for you, there are also other nerdy drinks like the Captain Picard and Dr Manhattan.
The Lockhart
To be honest I was a little underwhelmed by the bar. The Harry Potter references are pretty subtle, and if you weren’t looking, or didn’t know Harry Potter, you would just see another hipster-y bar. Most of the Potter references came in the bathroom chalk board graffiti, not upstairs. And the nerd in me is super bothered by the stag patronus being associated with lame Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Lockhart. But let us get to the drink.
The Lockhart Caesar
The Lockhart Caesar. For $10CAD the caesar featured vodka, “death potion”, angostura bitters, Worcester sauce, hot sauce (the menu said Frank’s, but he used sriracha), Clamato, horseradish, lime and spice. Garnished with an olive, pickle, and green bean the drink was pretty liquidy but it was good and drinkable. It was garlicky and spicy from the sriracha, with a bit of tang from pickle juice and citrus, but no noticeable horseradish flavor so I’m not sure there actually is any in the drink. I’m not sure what “death potion” is but the drink was tasty and I recommend it regardless.
I also tried the Shacklebolt, their take on a Dark and Stormy, which was tasty. One menu item that intrigued me was the Jalapeno Death Shot – jalapeno infused tequila not fit for human consumption. I thought, how bad could it be? It’s just jalapenos, I love jalapenos. And it’s a shot, it goes down quick. I didn’t want to try it because I was driving, but I was curious. In walk an Indian couple who sat next to us and gave it a try. So how bad can it be? The girl went downstairs to the bathroom, where J found her throwing up in the sink and pouring sweat, and the guy immediately went outside not to return for a good 20 minutes. It’s that bad. And they were Indian, Indian food is killer spicy (and delicious)! So drink it if you dare. (Maybe they should put a bit in the caesar!)
Awww
It was vacation time again! This time it was our “big” trip out west to Tucson and Phoenix. The primary impetus for the trip was the Arizona Taco Fest in Scottsdale. I was supposed to go a few years ago with a friend, but it didn’t work out, so it remained on my list of things to do. Also on my things to do – see inside a missile silo – and Tucson generously provides that opportunity!
Now if you’ve followed along with my vacation history, you’d know that every time I take a vacation it rains. Well this time we were going to the desert, no worries about getting rained on. WRONG. *sigh* We flew into Phoenix and drove to Tucson that night. The following day there was rain predicted, so it was cloudy and we got sprinkled on while visiting Biosphere 2, but it wasn’t bad. Actually, to me, it was quite nice because I don’t mix well with hot weather and sun, so with temperatures in the 80s but no sun beating down on me, I found it to be pretty great. However after the missile silo tour, on our drive back to Phoenix, our plans of going to an Ostrich farm and seeing something called a “goat penthouse” (!!!) were destroyed by big storms, and wind, and dust. Ugh. We also had to skip seeing the weird Domes of Casa Grande. The storms continued on our drive to Scottsdale, but cleared up in the evening for a while. Saturday we toured the beautiful Taliesin West, then visited the Goldfield mining tour tourist trap, where it rained on the drive. Sunday was Taco Fest where it stormed towards the end with a ton of lightning (and it actually made national news for the property destruction). Monday we visited Papago Park and the zoo, where we DID NOT GET RAINED ON, however it rained that night, as well as the next day before we left for home. UGH!
We’re doomed. If anyone wants to pay for us to visit California to help out their drought situation, email me!
Anywho…
BLOODY MARYS!
I had done my typical googling of “Best Bloody Marys in _______” before leaving, but there wasn’t that much on the intertubes, and what I found all tended to be brunch drinks, so I wasn’t expecting to have any while we were there. But while walking around the 4th street area of Tucson we passed a bar with a bloody mary advertised on their chalk board. Score!
Man I can’t wait to get my new cell phone, maybe then photos will look better.
Che’s Lounge in Tucson had this on offer. A pint glass Bloody Mary, garnished with a lemon, lime, celery stalk, olives, a sweet pickle and jalapeno slices. I asked for it spicy, and the bartender went to town. Wow. Very very spicy with definite pickle juice added. It kept a good tomato flavor in all that spice and pickle. I missed watching it being made, but there was both sriracha and Tabasco on the bar, so my guess is he used both, plus maybe more because my tongue was ON FIRE. All in all a good outing.
One place I had made note of to visit was the Cup Cafe in The Congress Hotel in Tucson, so we caught breakfast there before going to the Biosphere. It only sprinkled on us while we ate outside…
The Cup Cafe, where it only sprinkled on us
Served in a pint glass with 2 olives and 2 slices of cucumber…Cucumber…one of my arch-nemesis foods. I haaaate cucumbers. Thankfully the drink didn’t end up tasting like cucumbers. I believe it was a house made mix, and you could see seeds and hot pepper flakes inside the glass. Even with the flakes, however, it wasn’t very spicy. There was some bite from a bit of pickle juice but it was very slight. It was tomato-y and drinkable but not spectacular. I’d take Che’s over Cup’s any day.
I also had 2 drinks in Phoenix, the first one from The Vig, which was also my first make your own Bloody Mary bar!!
Our bartender the previous night let us know about The Vig’s brunch, which featured the make your own bar, so after realizing we could still make brunch after visiting Taliesin we headed out to the Arcadia neighborhood.
Before and After
For $4 you got your pint glass of vodka and access to their Bloody bar which included 2 mixes, 18 bottles of hot sauces, and various spices like smoked paprika and chipotle powder. Garnishes included your typical lemons, limes, and celery, plus pickled beans and asparagus, pickles, and bacon. One of the mixes looked fairly plain, whereas the other had seeds and bits of pepper so I used that one.
See those white streaks? Yeah, that’s rain. It poured!!
I added some chipotle powder, and a green jalapeno based hot sauce to the mix. Threw in some lemon and lime, a few pickled beans, and a strip of bacon. I wouldn’t necessarily say that my concoction was fantastic, but it was fun.
The last drink I had was at The Duce. I had found this multi-media bar on a list of things to do in Phoenix, and it turns out it was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network. The Duce is a bar, restaurant, boxing gym, and clothing store with shuffle board, corn hole, ping pong, a dj, sports on tv, a soda fountain and chess. Yeah. Multi-media. It was a very fun looking place with a lot of things to do, from just sitting at the bar and having a drink, to playing games, and it was family friendly with a lot of different aged children running around. They served food from an old silver trailer, and I had their famous “mac n cheese muffins” which were fun and tasty. I wasn’t expecting to have a Bloody here, as we really just went to see what it was about, but they had a fancy drink menu that featured the Bloody I had and also the Bloody Schlamm Hamms – a bloody made with Schlitz and Hamms beers.
The Duce!
$12 and served in a mason jar, the drink was made with a local homemade mix and featured organic vodka, organic lemons and limes, olives, a pickle and a mint leaf. The mix was pretty liquidy while still having chunks of pepper in it. There was a hint of garlic, and a bit of pickle juice flavor and mint, and it was spicy without having asked for it. It was quite good, but it was $12…
Now I have been known to spend a bit of money on a Bloody Mary but The Duce was a bit too much for me. I’m fine with craft cocktails being $9 or $10, but when I have to break a $20 every single time I order a drink, that’s too expensive. Add to that the fact that in Arizona, tax isn’t included in the price, so it was even more than the price listed on the menu. I just wasn’t used to that. In NY an $8 drink is an $8 drink. Then the clothing store featured army surplus items turned fashion for ridiculous prices. A white thermal shirt with black dye on the bottom for $137? No. Just no. At least the games were free.
The Duce was very fun, I kicked J’s ass in corn hole – my best corn hole game in years, but if I lived in Phoenix I just couldn’t afford to hang out there.
I wasn’t able to catch a green Bloody Mary like the one offered at Windsor before heading for home but that’s ok. Have to leave something for next time right?
We headed home after 6 days away, and came home to…*drum roll*….rain.