The 2nd part of our vacation brought us back to the Adirondacks, and this time we stayed in Saranac Lake. It’s still near Lake Placid and the High Peaks, but I had not stayed there before. We wanted to hike another High Peak, but I was nervous about my stamina (rightfully!) and we decided to do our first of the Saranac 6 peaks instead – Ampersand. Not a High Peak, but it was more difficult than the one we did last time, Cascade Mountain, and boy am I sore, still, 4 days later. It probably didn’t help my legs that we also did a 7+ mile rail bike ride the next day, which was super cool.

The peak of Ampersand Mountain

I was not expecting to have any bloody marys on this leg of the trip either, even if my favorite Bloody Bar is in Lake Placid, but I was wrong.

On our last trip, we thought there was a definite lack of places to sit outside and have some drinks with a nice lake view. The main street in Lake Placid goes right along Mirror Lake, with plenty of restaurants lining both sides, but while many/most of them have large windows to look at the lake, few seemed to have patios. Well that has changed now, with the Top of the Park, exactly what we were looking for.

Look at that view!

Or look at that view!

Top of the Park had a great cocktail menu, a nice bourbon list (according to J) and a good mix of small plates. A few drinks options had captured my interest before seeing the bloody mary, and having to go for that (well at least, go for that one first!)

How pretty is that drink??

Definitely the prettiest bloody mary I’ve had in a long time, just looking at it made me excited to try it. Clearly it was made with care, garnished with a dilly bean, sun dried tomato, lemon, olive, and a bacon straw (that you can’t see). The garnishes were nicely placed and not just plopped into the drink, plus they were creative! Bacon and beans aren’t entirely unusual, but make the bacon into a crispy straw, and it’s a nice touch. The mix had a lot of visible pepper, and had a nice tomato flavor. It was pretty mild, but I didn’t ask for it spicy, and I wonder what they would have added if I had. It might have wrecked it, if it was a vinegary hot sauce. It was a good drink in a fantastic location. We proceeded to try a number of cocktails off their menu, and a few plates, and would definitely return there again in the future.

I thought that night in Lake Placid would be our only time in town, but we wanted to buy a few sweatshirts, so we drove back the next day. Enter my favorite Bloody Bar, The Breakfast Club. I’ve reviewed them twice before, so I didn’t think I needed to go back, but alas we needed breakfast, and there they were, drawing me in with their menu of bloodies…The struggle is real.

The Asian Mary

This time I went with the Asian Mary. I couldn’t remember if I had tried it on our very first trip there, I think I may have, but nothing wrong with revisiting it! Made with their house mix, the drink is made “Asian” with the addition of soy sauce, sriracha, and wasabi. Garnished with lemon, lime, celery, olive and pickled ginger with a salt rim, look how pretty this one was too! Again, the drink wasn’t just some booze and tomato juice poured into a glass with some citrus. It was very spicy and a tad sweet, with a hint of nose burn and from the wasabi. Delicious. Another great offering from The Breakfast Club.

Lake Placid, the reigning Queen of vacation bloodys!