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.
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.
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.