Posts Tagged ‘bacon’

Sophia’s and a bonus drink

Remember that 14 day Corona-cation I mentioned in my last post? Well, as I’m sure everyone on the planet knows, that went a bit longer than 14 days. First it turned into 21 days, and then it turned into 3 and a half months. And it was the best 3 and a half months of my life. No responsibilities, no obligations, no forced socialization! This introvert loved it. I went to bed when I was tired, I got up whenever I happened to wake up, I did whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. I read a bunch of books and did a bunch of crafts. I played a lot of online pub trivia. It was awesome. I wanted to retire at 50, now I want to retire at 41.

Then it all came to a crashing end with the call to return to work. Booooo! I worked a week before I was put in REAL-not allowed to leave the house-quarantine for 2 weeks when J tested positive for Covid. He’s fine, don’t worry, and I apparently did not catch it. Was I just asymptomatic? Am I super human? We may never know.

But there was one thing that I didn’t do with my time off, and that was drink Bloodies. So I don’t feel totally bad for not updating this blog. I had nothing to say!

I do feel a little bad, because it took 2 weeks to review this Bloody from Sophia’s Restaurant in Buffalo. Sophia’s has long been on various lists of Bloodies to try in Buffalo, but I had only had a taste once before at the Buffalo Bloody Mary Fest. Sophia’s is a morning and early afternoon place, and we simply just don’t wake up in time to go. However we did find ourselves up early one day and J got the idea to get some breakfast there.

Famous Sophia’s Bloody

Garnished with celery, crispy bacon, lemon, lime, olives and pepperocini Sophia’s offers a nice, classic Bloody Mary. Topped with cracked pepper, the high spice level comes from Frank’s, which we all know is not my fav, but it was a well balanced cocktail with a good thickness. If you are a classic Bloody fan, who doesn’t want all the craziness you’ll find in some offerings, head to Sophia’s. Their breakfast was great as well, so you won’t leave disappointed.

While the Covid era is not the best time to be opening a new restaurant and bar, that is exactly what the owners of Graylynn did. Graylynn is a new gin bar and market located on Main St in Downtown Buffalo. I was excited to hear about this place, because I discovered a love of gin cocktails when we were in Ireland. Plenty of fancy cocktail bars, with good gin drinks, have popped up around Buffalo, but no one has quite created what I really wanted in a gin drink. Graylynn’s cocktail menu was immediately appealing, with house made tonic flavors, and a list of their own cocktails on top of your classic gin drinks. We drank most of their current menu during dinner, but I wanted to quickly mention one of them here – the A La Tomate.

Graylynn’s A La Tomate

This is not a Bloody Mary, not even really comparable, but it’s a delicious drink made with Mediterranean gin, fresh tomato, balsamic syrup, lemon and basil. It has a hint of tomato and citrus with the gin, and was super refreshing. As the pick says, it was well done (har har!) Highly recommended when you want something similar to a Bloody, but not full of heavy tomato juice.

Update: Cask and Cow

When we first visited Cask and Cow in Lewiston NY, they were still only “soft opened” and their menu hadn’t quite been set yet. I still had an excellent bloody mary though. Now, almost exactly a year later, J wanted to check out the food menu so we took a trip to see them, and see their new bloody mary.

Updated Cask and Cow bloody

Now featuring a cheeseburger slider, and bacon with citrus slices and olives, it’s still a great drink. Check them out!

Smoke on the Water

Staycation brought us to the yummy bbq joint near by, Smoke on the Water, located in Tonawanda right on the Erie Canal. We met up with a few friends for drinks on the patio, and I had heard they offer a bacon Bloody Mary, so it went on to the “must try” list.

smokeotw

Served in a soda class for $7.50, it seemed like a pretty standard mix. I asked for it spicy, of course, and seemed mainly spiced from pepper. It looked like it had horseradish in it but I couldn’t taste it, and it didn’t have an overwhelming Frank’s Hot Sauce taste either, which was good. Garnished with lemon and lime wedge, with a strip of bacon, it was decent enough, but not mind blowing.

They’ve got a great menu, and smoke all their own meat. We didn’t eat there this time, but in the past, it’s been delicious.

Back to The Breakfast Club

May 2014 brought us back to the Adirondacks for Memorial Day, this time hoping for better weather than 2013. It was slightly better. We still got rained on but really only for a day and a half instead of 3, and the temperatures were better. No snow, and we didn’t have to venture into Lake Placid to buy pants and gloves.

But we did still have to venture in to go back to the Breakfast Club for a Bloody Mary again. I had to see if it lived up to the memory of “best ever”

tbcmenu

They had the same menu of Bloody Marys as last year and I ordered the Fire Mary with bacon vodka again – “house made recipe spiced up with red Tabasco, sriracha and green Tabasco”.

tbc1

Still served in the mason jar for $7, this time the bacon garnish was not served in a crisped up slice, but folded up and speared between olives. Not my ideal piece of bacon, as I prefer them to be super crispy well done but it’s still bacon. The Bloody was also garnished with celery, lemon and lime, the 2 olives and had a salt rim.

tbc2

It’s still the best Bloody ever. It has a smoky flavor, a great spice level from the tabasco and sriracha, and a nice liquidity. You’re not drinking ketchup, and it’s not tomato water. A+

We visited 2 other places this trip, which also had Bloody Marys so of course I had to try them.

Delta Blue was a New Orleans/Mardi Gras themed place on the main street through town.

deltablue

It was a pretty standard Bloody. Served in a pint glass for $8, it had an olive and lime garnish. Spiced with horseradish and pepper, it was a tad chewy from the spices, but it had a good liquidity and was drinkable.

A bit outside of town, we met up with some of Jason’s friends for an art opening at Pan Dolce. Bartender Ashley perfected her own Bloody Mary mix using Absolute Peppar and a touch of Mama Walker’s Maple Bacon Liquor.

pandolce

It was a good spicy mix and the maple liquor added a bit of sweetness which made it different than the usual. It had lemon garnish and a celery salt rim. And she posed for me!

Black Swan

Day 2 in New York City we went to Brooklyn to meet someone, and they took us to lunch at the Black Swan after it was mentioned that I enjoy a good Bloody Mary. Called the Bloody Swan, this is what I want from a Bloody Mary!

blackswan1

Look at that wonderfulness! $10 for a pint of Bloody Mary with a beer chaser. None of that $25 wine glass nonsense from the night before. Ok so there were no wasabi peas, but check out the garnish!

blackswan2

Cheese, onion, olive, pickle, shrimp, lemon and bacon! A chili powder spiced rim! Delicious! The Bloody was very spicy and had a good tomato flavor with a nice citrus hint. Clearly not just tomato juice from a can. Dear lord this was one good Bloody Mary. The taste alone easily put it in my top ten, add the garnishes for extra points.

And my jalapeno mac and cheese was to die for too!

First discovery of Bacon!

A big group of us rented a house in the High Peaks of the Adirondacks for Memorial Day in 2013, planning to do some hiking, cookouts, fires, etc. Being May and all. Only it rained for the first 3 days…I mean, r.a.i.n.e.d. Monsoon. The Ausable River, which the house was on, flooded and part of the street was impassable. It was also cold (it snowed 4 feet on Whiteface Mountain!). So we were generally unprepared for the weather, including pants and jackets for some of us. I tagged along with Jenn one day as she went in to Lake Placid to buy pants and we discovered The Breakfast Club, and more importantly their menu of Bloody Marys in the window. We detoured in and I discovered the #1 Bloody Mary on my list to this day.

breakfast club menu

I really wanted the Fire Mary since I like mine spicy but how could I resist my first opportunity to get a Bacon Mary?? The bartender overheard my dilemma and suggested a marriage. The Fire Mary with bacon vodka and the bacon garnish. Heaven!

Breakfast Club

I may be a weird Bloody Mary lover as I can’t stand celery or olives, they are wasted garnish on me, but give me that bacon! It was a nice crispy well cooked slice sticking out of the mason jar, with a great spice level. Oh my god, it was good.

We went back to the house for the night, but the next day brought another trip to the Breakfast Club with the group, because we (I) had to try more of the menu. Between the group we ended up trying the Mexican and Asian (and maybe the Smokey too) as well but nothing compared to the Bacon+Fire. Top ten! Top 5! #1!

Breakfast Club