Smoothies are a fine way to start out a weekday morning, but when it comes to weekend brunch, the drink of choice has long been the Bloody Mary. The cocktail, thought to have been popularized by Harry’s New York Bar in Paris in the 1920s, mixes vodka, tomato juice and spices for a boozy, vitamin-packed drink.
TASTE Restaurant, located adjacent to the Seattle Art Museum, offers a trio of Bloody Mary variations on their brunch menu. The Tasty Mary is their standard house version, the Fiery Mary uses a house-infused pepper vodka, and the Green Fairy Mary includes a dash of absinthe from Pacific Distillery in Woodinville, Washington. Taste’s longtime head barman Duncan Chase says many people are skeptical of the Green Fairy variation, but says “those flavors of tomato and fennel are used together in the kitchen, and come together really nicely in the drink.”
TASTE uses a base blend of onions, shallots, garlic, jalapenos, horseradish, citrus juices, Worcestershire and spices for all its Marys. Bartender Tiffany Friday created the mixture, which Chase believes is the secret to the popular Bloody Marys at the restaurant.
A Bloody Mary by any other name usually is a drink with the same tomato and spice base, but instead of vodka, employs a different spirit. Try out Friday’s base below, and mix it up to suit your own taste. Add aquavit for a Bloody Frida. Use tequila and make it into a Bloody Maria, and so on.
One particularly flavorful variation worth trying out—either at TASTE or at home—is the Red Snapper. The variation uses gin instead of vodka, adding a rich, savory flavor to the drink. It’s thought that this variation of the classic Bloody Mary was created in the late 1930’s, when vodka was scarce in the U.S. following the repeal of Prohibition. Why it was called the Red Snapper, is another debatable piece of cocktail lore. According to one story, owners of the St. Regis Hotel in New York City found the name Bloody Mary to be too crude, and changed the name to the Red Snapper. Whatever you call it, Chase recommends an herbaceous gin, such as the one produced by Copperworks Distilling in Seattle, located just down the hill from Taste restaurant.
TASTE Bloody Mary Starter, courtesy of Tiffany Friday
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 tablespoon Montreal steak seasoning
1 cup pickled jalapeños in brine
2 shallots
4 cloves garlic
4 cocktail onions
1 tablespoon creamed horseradish
1 tablespoon Tabasco
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 cups Worcestershire sauce
Grind celery seed and Montreal steak seasoning in a coffee grinder. Combine spice mixture and remaining ingredients in a blender or food processor, and blend until mix is pureed and smooth.
Use 1/2 ounce Bloody Mary Starter per drink.
