Bloody Mary variations are the perfect Halloween-season cocktails
Death, guts, and gore are synonymous with Halloween, but although black-and-orange-hued martinis with eyeball garnishes do embody that special All Hallows kitsch, they’re unlikely to become menu mainstays (or even taste any good). The Bloody Mary, on the other hand, is one of those cocktail classics that can please any crowd, any time of the year. And a cocktail that shares its name with the gruesome heroine of a ghost story and a British queen who got her kicks by executing her subjects is a no-brainer drink of choice around October 31.
The etymology of the Bloody Mary, that beverage of brunching champions, is somewhat uncertain. Some folks attribute the invention of the original version of the cocktail to vaudevillian comedian George Jessel; others, like Christopher B. O’Hara in his book The Bloody Mary (Lyons Press, 1999), give credit to bartender Fernand Petiot, who worked at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris in the 1920s. While the origins of the name “Bloody Mary” are also unclear, it reminds British history buffs of Queen Mary I, who persecuted countless Protestants in her fervent quest to convert her kingdom to Catholicism, and reminds pre-teen girls of Bloody Mary, a gloriously terrifying ghost who’ll appear in the mirror if you say her name three times while you’re in the bathroom at a sleepover.
Typically, a Bloody Mary is made with some combination of tomato juice, vodka, horseradish, lime or lemon juice, black pepper, Worcestershire sauce, maybe some Tabasco, and a celery stick for garnish. On Sunday mornings, people go nuts for Bloody Mary bars, where a buffet of edible sundries allows them to customize their Bloodies. But no matter what you can do to your Bloody Mary, a bartender can probably do it better. And many of them are taking this liquid mainstay in new directions.
Of course, spicing up a Bloody isn’t a new concept, but capsaicin is catapulted to uncharted heights at Masa (439 Tremont Street, Boston, 617.338.8884), where chef Philip Aviles’s signature Bloody Mary mix includes, among standard ingredients, chipotle and habañero peppers, the latter of which is akin to lighting your tongue on fire and then extinguishing it with brandy. The Chef Phil’s Bloody Mary ($7.95) combines this firewater with Stoli vodka and pickled jalapeño, just in case you’re feeling borderline sadistic. The mix also contains cumin, a spice used often in Mexican cuisine, making it a fantastic balancing agent in the Bloody Masa ($7.95), which features Sauza Blanco tequila instead of vodka.
Over at Dante (40 Edwin H. Land Boulevard, Cambridge, 617.497.4200), Damian’s Bloody Tequila ($9) also makes great use of the South-of-the-border spirit, but adds cilantro and cardamom, which help cool down your mouth after the initial spicy sweetness of the drink. Though the recipe for the Bloody Mary mix here is a well-kept secret, the drink is inspired by sangrita, a traditional Mexican aperitif made from a blend of tomato, lime, and orange juices, chili peppers, and onions; it’s usually served chilled as a tequila chaser.
Still tongue-tingling put more subtle is the Ghost of Mary ($10) served at Great Bay (500 Comm Ave, Boston, 617.532.5300). House-made tomato water is a more delicate base than traditional tomato juice, and Ketel Citroen vodka adds, naturally, a lemony kick. Garnished with two tomolives (pickled green tomatoes) and a Sweet
100 tomato, it may help you scare up the courage to conjure the ghost of Mary herself. The newly renovated Great Bay, which employs mixology guru Jonathan Henson, is the perfect haven for Kenmore Square drinkers who want to avoid the Red Sox mob mentality.
Church (69 Kilmarnock Street, Boston, 617.236.7600) is also playing around with tomato water. The Van Helsing ($8), with housemade tomato water and housemade vegetable vodka, is, according to bar manager Adam Grushey, “for people who aren’t in the mood for the heaviness and savoriness of a Bloody Mary.” The Van Helsing
(named for Bram Stoker’s notorious vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing) is light and refreshing, rounded out by a smoked-pepper rim. It’s just one of several “demonslayer” cocktails on Church’s brunch menu that are designed to vanquish anything that’s still haunting you from your weekend debauchery. The Angel Michael ($8) pairs the vegetable vodka — with its infusion of bell peppers, shallots, Thai chili peppers, carrots, and crushed garlic — with Bloody mix that’s thickened with A1 Steak Sauce and garnished with a spicy pickled green bean (a new obsession for this magazine’s editor) and a celery leaf.
The Angel Gabriel ($8) picks up on a Boston booze trend we told you about in our last issue: bacon-infused spirits. Grushey steeps bacon, bay leaves, thyme, and Mexican smoked salt in vodka for several weeks; to make the Gabriel, he adds Bloody Mary mix and tops it all off with a bacon-wrapped flash-fried baby tomato. Heavenly.
Speaking of bacon (mmm — bacon), the Bloody Pig ($6) at Jake’s Dixie Roadhouse (220 Moody Street, Waltham, 781.894.4227) will probably offend your vegetarian friends, but it may in fact be God’s gift to barbecue hounds all over the Greater Boston area. Owner Don Yovicsin, a veteran bartender whose signature Bloody Mary mix contains around 20 ingredients, preaches to the carnivorous choir when he says that “bacon should be its own food group. It’s at the top of the food pyramid as far as I’m concerned.”
This love of bacon spawned Yovicsin’s bacon vodka and, of course, the Bloody Pig, a combination of said vodka and Bloody mix, garnished with a Slim Jim and rimmed with barbecue rub. Let the squeals of joy begin.
Bacon is one thing, but shrimp? LTK Bar and Kitchen (225 Northern Avenue, Boston, 617.330.7430) makes it work, and then some. Their Red Snapper ($9.50) — which is the name of an early version of the Bloody Mary — features dill-infused vodka topped with Bloody mix and tomato juice and crowned by a single, gorgeous shrimp. The vodka on its own is gentle and earthy; in the Red Snapper, it adds an herbal tinge that’s the perfect mate for tomato and shrimp. The drink tastes a little like a boozy cocktail sauce, complete with a very mild, very pleasant buzz of horseradish. And, bonus, it doubles as a marinade; let the shrimp hang out for awhile, then sink your teeth in and enjoy a post-cocktail snack.
